
Finances of a Bare Bones Developer - Impossible
http://gamasutra.com/blogs/KevinMaxon/20140818/223653/Finances_of_a_Bare_Bones_Developer.php
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csbrooks
"This means that it’s very possible none of us are making anywhere near
minimum wage on this project, but regardless we’re all making about the same
hourly wage, a wage determined by the relative commercial success of the
game."

Game industry, I do not miss you.

~~~
angersock
The saddest thing is that so many are so passionate about it. :(

~~~
exelius
Try to think of being a game developer as similar to being a musician or a
painter. You can be plenty passionate about it, but it's a hard business and
there are only so many dollars up for grabs. For every musician who is able to
make a living off of music, there are probably 10 equally talented and
passionate musicians who didn't. I think game development is turning out to be
a similar business.

~~~
tr0picana
I completely agree. For every successful indie game developer there are at
least 10 who have either quit part-way or failed to make any money.

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socialist_coder
These guys are making the classic indie game dev mistake- making a funky indie
game that doesnt monetize well, has no virality, isn't freemium, etc.

Game developers like these aren't professionals, they're hobbyists. They're
making games like its a hobby, not a professional job. They do no market
research, experiments, etc. If you run a normal business or a normal startup
like that, you will have similarly terrible results.

Be a professional. Look at the market. What monetizes well? What works? Hint:
it's not the linked game.

Go look at the top grossing charts in the various app stores for an idea of
what type of game you should be making.

I co-founded a small game company 2 years ago. We took 10 months to make our
first game and have been releasing updates for it ever since. We're all
working remotely. And, we're making enough money to pay ourselves a Bay Area
salary.

I love video games. I love the game industry. I started as a QA tester and
worked my way up from there. I will never do anything different. You can make
money making games, but you can't be an indie game developer / hobbyist. Be a
professional.

~~~
zeckalpha
Very capitalist for a socialist_coder.

~~~
socialist_coder
I want to pay taxes and receive good benefits =)

For me, living in Germany instead of the US while founding my startup was a
dream come true. I got very affordable health care, health insurance, and
child care when we weren't making any money. I never had to stress out about
how to pay for those things while we worked for a year without getting paid.

Now that we are making money, I'm happy to pay more for those things.

And, it's nice to know that if we went bankrupt tomorrow, I could continue to
get those social services at a price I can always afford.

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gavanwoolery
"I estimate that my living expenses over the 20 months of development were
around $13k"

$650 a month? My utilities, insurance, and food budget easily exceed that,
nevermind rent. My first job paid $35k/year, which was comfortable enough (in
San Diego), but I was living paycheck to paycheck.

The problem with budgets like this is that they work for some people, not
everybody, and set up artificial expectations (i.e. in terms of crowd funding
or other capital). I am definitely an advocate of frugal budgets, but there is
a line. I don't see $650 month working when you have a wife, kid(s), dog(s),
mortgages, and/or car payments - but then again many independent developers
are wise enough to not take on those things. I have all but the mortgage, and
I consider my burn rate of $3k/month pretty frugal.

~~~
josephschmoe
Honestly, I don't think I've ever had expenses under 1200$/month (also San
Diego) even when I lived with my parents.

Rent here is 400$/month minimum - and that's sharing a room or splitting a
house with 4 friends. Not counting utilities.

Food budget alone should be at least 400$/month as well if you're eating a
meager 13$ of food a day.

You'd be amazing if you had less than 400$/month of car expenses including
payment/repairs.

Then there's everything else. Health bills, insurance, internet, Netflix, etc.

~~~
jisaacstone
You've never been poor.

$2-3 / day for food is doable (Cali groceries are a bit more expensive so
maybe $4 here). Cut out all but the cheap meats. bread and veggies are super
cheap (corn can be 5/$1 when it is in season)

no insurance. no internet (libraries are great). no car.

I never had expenses above $1000/month (not counting the month I paid $1000 to
buy my first car) until I moved to the bay area and started making six
figures.

~~~
Domenic_S
Fairly sure we're not talking about the theoretical bottom limit here.

~~~
SolarNet
But I think the original commenter was commenting on the feasibility of the
original article, which goes down to the minimum limit.

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josephschmoe
I don't really understand why programmers go into game development?

Is it predominately the ultra low-end of programmers or something? It seems
crazy to me that someone would take something like half the pay and way worse
treatment/hours just to be in a specific industry.

~~~
Macsenour
Having made games for 30 years, I can tell you that a big part of it is a love
of making something fun. I get to make something, and then play. Joy comes
from playing and I am very joyful.

~~~
oafitupa
Can't you do the same without programming it though? I don't think I could
have fun playing a game I programmed for someone else.

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cdnsteve
Good to have transparency for others interested in doing something similar. It
would be interesting to see a total number of hours invested to release v 1.0

And any learnings that might have sped up the process?

~~~
dognotdog
As nice it is to see some hard figures, the numbers are disheartening. They
say it's possible to make some side money during college, but don't even think
about trying 10 years later :/

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