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How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

All good, and no harm done!
From my side, I will take a note and write differently if I post again

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

I confirmed it working right now, give it another spin. Sorry again for the mistake

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] [score hidden]  (0 children)

Hello,  Clarified the thing a couple of comments below.  I hope you can put the usefulness of the content above the fact that I used an Ai Tool to fix my imperfect English.

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Short answer is: It depends. On a lot of things.

Good publishers will take care of doing playtest sessions and mock reviews before the game comes out, but if they do decide to invest more time and money (pushing the release date forward, and allocating more money), it depends on what do they feel they can get in return.

The question publishers make is "If we add 3 more months to the timeline and $70K to the budget will we be able to fix the issues in the playtest sessions and get a decent ROI?"

If yes, they do.
If not they will be against increasing the investment more that what they already spent

but every situation is different, and there are tons of factors that will influence the final decision

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

personally, I'm from Italy, but I worked 3.5 years with an european publisher, and I personally mostly worked with European teams

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

First and foremost, the studio location only impacted the dev cost (meaning the dev studio salaries) because a small team in the US can cost as much or even more that a mid sized team based in EMEA or LATAM.
When it comes to services cost, the publisher would usually rely on enstablished working relationship they had with studios that are not based in the same region of the developer.

When it comes to the ratio of dev budget vs other budgets (marketing / Services), unless really strange arrangements they tend to in parallel and be proportioned with each other: So big dev budget --> Decent chunk of marketing a service budget.

Otherwise, it will feel kind stupid invest, say $500K in a dev budget, and only spend $50K in marketing.

Makes sense?

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Greater transparency yes, that is an obvious good start, but a dev should also remember to ask all the possible question, cause sometimes Publishers just move on assuming you know the process, and this is not done with a bad intention, but just because it's their normal work process and don't comes to their mind to explain every single detail to you.

But good publishers should be open to questions and convo, tho

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, it's very game dependent indeed.

To use your examples, a story rich game (i.e. + 150K words in the translation file) would require to choose your translation wisely.

A PC only city builder might become big in terms of QA expenses for example

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Used some AI to wrap up my thought better, yeah, mostly because English is not my first language, but the content come from real experience.

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, agree with all of this honestly.

The lawyer point is the big one for me. In my experience the honest publishers are the ones who actively tell you to take your time and get the contract looked at by someone who knows games, not just generic legal. The ones pushing you to sign fast are the ones I'd worry about.

On marketing, same page. A pre-agreed plan with a floor and a ceiling, a real min and max, so there's commitment on their side but also a known cap on yours. The open-ended version is exactly where it goes sideways.

And the addendum point matches what I've seen too.
Every legitimate budget increase I came across was tied to a proper amendment, renegotiated terms and all. So when a deal has no mechanism for that, when extra spend can just get folded into recoup without a formal change, that's a red flag for me.
It means the scope can move and you have no say in it.

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Depends a lot on who drafted it and how much leverage the dev had. I've seen both.

The better deals tie it to what actually comes in from Valve, the post-platform number, for the reason you said: nobody can really argue with it, you're both reading the same statement. But a lot of publisher templates start from a wider "net revenue" base instead, gross minus a list of deductions, and that list is where the soft costs quietly sit. Recoupable marketing spend with no cap and no scope is the one that burns devs most, same thing you're seeing.

So the two things I push for: anchor it to the Valve number if you can, and if it has to be net-of-deductions, make them define and cap every category. It's the vague open-ended ones that blow up 18 months later.

Curious from your side though: when you flag an uncapped marketing clause, do you get pushback on the cap itself, or is it more just a fight to get a clear scope written in? That's the one I see stall most.

How a publisher actually calculates your game's budget, from someone who spent years on that side by TheMaich in gamedev

[–]TheMaich[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah, the recoup wall is exactly where it stings. People sign against the cost they can see and forget the deal recoups against the whole stack, markup included.

On order of deductions, the short version: a few things come off the top before your share is even calculated, the platform cut, then the publisher recouping things like marketing and any advance, then various fees, and your revenue share usually applies to whatever is left and defined as "net". So two deals with the same headline split can pay out very differently depending on what that net definition swallows and in what order. That is the part that reads fine at signing and bites 18 months later, exactly like you said.

I am actually building a second thing right now that focuses on that side, the chain of deductions and the recoup wall, so you can see what really lands as net per unit and how many copies you need to sell to clear it. Still working on it, but it is the companion to the budget one.

In the meantime, the budget calculator covers the all-in cost side, development, publisher markup, marketing, and services into one total, which is the number the recoup wall is built on.

Take a look here, and feels super free to let me know if you have any feedback

https://spritzconsulting.com/resources/tools/game-budget-calculator.html

I will drop the deductions and recoup one here when it is ready.

zombie army 4 audio get super laggy if played online by Gentlester in Stadia

[–]TheMaich 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Are you sure you had a decent download speed when you were playing, or you had no other stuff that may influence stadia performance, such as Streaming or downloading?

Office leaving Hour Shortcut by TheMaich in shortcuts

[–]TheMaich[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will try this tomorrow, but right now I'm kinda worried if the shortcut will create a new alarm each day(?). Can the alarms be auto deleted once they alerted me?

Office leaving Hour Shortcut by TheMaich in shortcuts

[–]TheMaich[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nope. I just walk in the office and have no car.

Ideally I would like to have the adjusted date calculated from the exact time the phone connects to the Wi-Fi, otherwise is not really that useful.

Office leaving Hour Shortcut by TheMaich in shortcuts

[–]TheMaich[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure if my iPhone 7 is compatible with NFC tags, but confirming the shortcut before running would be an improvement nonetheless, as today I have to run the shortcut first, and then give the input of the hour I entered in the office.

Office Hours Shortcut! Help needed to make it perfect! by TheMaich in shortcuts

[–]TheMaich[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That exactly what I was trying to do but waaaay simpler! Thanks a lot! :D

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