Still a little confused
by Romall H. Smth II · in Torque Game Engine · 04/11/2001 (5:26 am) · 9 replies
Ok so we spend 2 years making ths game. Heres the math
20 poeple x 10 hours a day = 200 hours
200 hours x 6 days = 1200 hours a week
1200 x 104 weeks = 124,800 hours
even at 5$ an hour thats alot of money
Now the pupose of making a game is to make money. If you sale the game on the site and you have launch sales of 10,000 people then thats 500,000$. 250 of which goes to GG.Lets say you can out sale the sims last year.(just an example) That would mean that you would make 90 mil+
so if its not put into a box because GG didn't thnk it was good enough. Alot of money is gone.
My questions are: What are the crietera for making it to a publiser? Do ou have to use sierra? How much revenue do you have to generate to get your royalties back from GG? meaning how much do we have to make GG before we start making full profit? Lastly are ther an other license agreements besides the 50/50 and 20/80 ones?
20 poeple x 10 hours a day = 200 hours
200 hours x 6 days = 1200 hours a week
1200 x 104 weeks = 124,800 hours
even at 5$ an hour thats alot of money
Now the pupose of making a game is to make money. If you sale the game on the site and you have launch sales of 10,000 people then thats 500,000$. 250 of which goes to GG.Lets say you can out sale the sims last year.(just an example) That would mean that you would make 90 mil+
so if its not put into a box because GG didn't thnk it was good enough. Alot of money is gone.
My questions are: What are the crietera for making it to a publiser? Do ou have to use sierra? How much revenue do you have to generate to get your royalties back from GG? meaning how much do we have to make GG before we start making full profit? Lastly are ther an other license agreements besides the 50/50 and 20/80 ones?
About the author
#2
These are the kind of trade offs you need to be willing to accept if you want to make games. Your math is a little flawed in that you simply can't have 20 people working 10 hours a day for two years. You need to think of it more like a rock band than a symphony. Get three guys that can work day jobs, but are really good. Work nights and weekends for a year and create a kick butt demo, post it on the site and show your stuff. If it is good, it can open a lot of doors that may get you the contract that allows you to do the 20 person, two year project.
There are no promises of getting your game in the box. Only the best, most promising games will even get a shot at the box.
I don't understand your question about full profit. The split is always 50/50, unless we have worked out a different deal because you are contributing to the community.
Jeff Tunnell GG
04/11/2001 (8:29 am)
Ron quote:Quote:
Ok so we spend 2 years making ths game. Heres the math
20 poeple x 10 hours a day = 200 hours
200 hours x 6 days = 1200 hours a week
1200 x 104 weeks = 124,800 hours
even at 5$ an hour thats alot of money
Now the pupose of making a game is to make money. If you sale the game on the site and you have launch sales of 10,000 people then thats 500,000$. 250 of which goes to GG.Lets say you can out sale the sims last year.(just an example) That would mean that you would make 90 mil+
so if its not put into a box because GG didn't thnk it was good enough. Alot of money is gone.
My questions are: What are the crietera for making it to a publiser? Do ou have to use sierra? How much revenue do you have to generate to get your royalties back from GG? meaning how much do we have to make GG before we start making full profit? Lastly are ther an other license agreements besides the 50/50 and 20/80 ones?
These are the kind of trade offs you need to be willing to accept if you want to make games. Your math is a little flawed in that you simply can't have 20 people working 10 hours a day for two years. You need to think of it more like a rock band than a symphony. Get three guys that can work day jobs, but are really good. Work nights and weekends for a year and create a kick butt demo, post it on the site and show your stuff. If it is good, it can open a lot of doors that may get you the contract that allows you to do the 20 person, two year project.
There are no promises of getting your game in the box. Only the best, most promising games will even get a shot at the box.
I don't understand your question about full profit. The split is always 50/50, unless we have worked out a different deal because you are contributing to the community.
Jeff Tunnell GG
#3
04/11/2001 (6:17 pm)
Um i would just like to say taht not neccessarily is the point of making games to make money. A lot of people make games for free because it's fun! look how many games are free out there, and i would love to make my MMORPG free, but because of bandwidth and server maintence we won't be able to keep it free for long :( but we will keep it free for however long it takes!
#4
04/11/2001 (7:12 pm)
Yeah, but then there are some of us that have grown accustomed to putting food in our mouths... You see eating has turned into sort of a habit for us and we need money to buy food. :-)
#5
Jeff Tunnell GG
04/11/2001 (8:12 pm)
We want people to be able to make money from the GarageGames model. I just want manage expectations. Pushing the business model with 20 people working hard for two years probably won't work.Jeff Tunnell GG
#6
I have a decent size team. This isn't just some project that we are doing for fun. I was just wondering i there was a way to get more the 50%
Sorry guys at GG didn't mean to offend you or seem to be attacking. GG is doing a great job and i respect what they have done. I just wanted know how it would work money wise. The few poeple in the business that i have talked to say GG is my best bet.
04/12/2001 (2:22 am)
OK :) i was just wondering. A few poeple on my team were wondering if it would be more worth it to just make our own engine.Half of them attending fullsailnext year we hope to have a better working knowledge of the idustry. I have a decent size team. This isn't just some project that we are doing for fun. I was just wondering i there was a way to get more the 50%
Sorry guys at GG didn't mean to offend you or seem to be attacking. GG is doing a great job and i respect what they have done. I just wanted know how it would work money wise. The few poeple in the business that i have talked to say GG is my best bet.
#7
Jeff Tunnell GG
04/12/2001 (6:53 am)
You can lower your royalties as we state in the FAQ. If you have a good enough team and can contribute to the V12, we can negotiate your royalties upward. However, we are reserving this kind of deal for people with outstanding credentials and experience.Jeff Tunnell GG
#8
So you grab too many people? There are many real-world companies that have several shipped titles under their belt with fewer than 20 people. I've seen many that have ten or less.
You're asking for a world of hurt, IMO.
Personally, I don't see why all these net-based teams think they need a dozen programmers. It's a bit ludicrous if you ask me. IMSHO, all you need is one or two GOOD programmers. :-)
You shouldn't grab too many artists either. As nice as it would be, it's just too hard to find a dozen GOOD ones (well, for a net team anyways). In addition, large disparities in skill and style can create a really incongruous feel in a game. This is another case where you need only a small but skilled team.
04/12/2001 (8:03 am)
This isn't just some project that we are doing for fun.So you grab too many people? There are many real-world companies that have several shipped titles under their belt with fewer than 20 people. I've seen many that have ten or less.
You're asking for a world of hurt, IMO.
Personally, I don't see why all these net-based teams think they need a dozen programmers. It's a bit ludicrous if you ask me. IMSHO, all you need is one or two GOOD programmers. :-)
You shouldn't grab too many artists either. As nice as it would be, it's just too hard to find a dozen GOOD ones (well, for a net team anyways). In addition, large disparities in skill and style can create a really incongruous feel in a game. This is another case where you need only a small but skilled team.
#9
04/12/2001 (3:33 pm)
Small and skilled is always good in any startup business plan. That way you get to keep more of the profits for yourself or the company when starting out as well... 
Torque 3D Owner Jim Rowley
If it were to ever happen to me this could change :)
If you want full profit, then you shouldn't follow
the new GG model. License the V12 engine or another
engine ... Unreal?? (Looks like the new stuff is gonna be hot) ... and then make your game. If you can't afford that then start up by making a pretty good game with V12 and GG, then move on to a larger project. Just my opinion. I really have a lot of respect for these guys trying to bring low-cost development back to a somewhat feasible venture. Indy games rule!