Don't Quit Your Day Job!! After Your First Game, What's Next?

#1 Once you have your first game signed, you are on the treadmill. In order to get your project, the publisher will have backed you into a corner, and you will be committed to an aggressive date, a huge feature set, and a budget that is lower than you want it to be. But, you are in business, working extreme hours, and having more fun than ever.

The honeymoon period lasts through the first couple of deliverables (milestones), where it is still fairly easy. You get some money when you sign the contract (this is exciting!), deliver the design and development plan, and a couple of bi-monthly technology milestones.

Then, all of a sudden, the Alpha milestone is due, and you realize that you have been scaffolding code, and slipping features. This is where you come to the true conclusion that you over committed, and your budget isn't big enough to really do the project that you promised. It is also about this time that you realize that you have to "feed the alligator", i.e. you have committed ongoing wages to real people that have real mortgages, family expenses, and car payments that need to be paid every month. Hopefully, you saved some of the "easy" money from the honeymoon period to get you through this tough time.

Since you are being backed by a publisher, you no longer get people working for free, and all of a sudden, your labor costs go way up, and you need to plan on paying market wages for your area. Progammers are the most expensive, and most in demand. If you are smart, you will try to keep every other labor expense as a sub-contract, variable expense.

If you do finally, get your project to Beta and into test, now it is time to panic about how you will continue to pay your bills after the project ships. This means you need to get another project signed before the first one ships. Good luck.

I could write a book about this subject, but don't have time to do so right now. I hope this isn't too negative, but this is reality. Getting your product onto the shelf makes it all worth while, but that is another story about how you get to complain about the treatment your product is getting from the publisher.

Jeff Tunnell GG

#2 Thanks for the info!

It was my main concern about the period between projects and salaries...it almost feels like working for commission. I guess its a good idea to have a strong financial plan for your team when you come out the gate. I didn't need the Ferrari anyway :)

Its our intention to get our game as close to the final stage before we go for a publisher, to avoid as much of the deadline problems as possible.

I can deal with the hours, personally, because I'm doing it now! I'm concerned about our "second" project (which doesn't exist!) as much as the first. It sounds like you havbe to have the next one redy to mobilze before you are done with the one one before. Its amazing that you can have so much fun and panic at the same time.

:D

#3 Oh, I did have another question, regarding your location...

Are you in Oregon because of the cost of living? I assume its cheaper to set up shop there than in California or a major city. We were thinking of setting up base in Virginia or some place that's a little less expensive than NYC ( at least for me :).

I have noticed that quite a few game developers are "in the boondocks", I was just curious if that was the case with GG :D

Thanks!

#4 We live here for the quality of life, not the cost. We are close to the ocean, mountains, lots of motorcycle riding, etc.

Jeff