Costs
====
1. Scale with number of developers:
1. Salary
1. Taxes
1. Benefits
1. Computers
1. Software
1. Overhead (Power, HR, furniture, phone, ...)
1. Scale with number of players
1. Game server
1. Community managers
1. Fixed costs:
1. Rent
1. Legal
1. Web site
1. Conferences & Marketing
Budget Estimation
====
1. Rule of thumb: $10-15k per developer per month
1. = ~$200k per developer per year
1. Includes all per-developer costs
1. Average: some will exceed this, some will be under
1. Indie (2-12 people, a few months to a couple of years)
1. Often skimp
1. Less experience = cheaper
1. Higher risk of failure
1. Likely lower quality bar (but may be OK, see Minecraft)
1. May take longer to complete game
1. Contract significantly cheaper than employee
* Though reqires management for quality, consistency, etc.
1. Hire for only part of the project term
1. Skimp on other costs (free software, etc.)
1. [Sample Budget Google Doc](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d5rCjsHlqgelB1w5JS5HTuiOnHtL-kQI5Sf-aqLO0R4)
1. Copy of one originally part of a blog post by Chris Oltyan of (now defunct) Zee Gee Games
1. 1 producer, 3 programmers, 2 artists, 2 art contractors, 3 testers
1. 1 year = about $645k cost
1. [Game Developer Article on Budgets](https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/budgeting-and-scheduling-your-game)
1. 1 producer, 1 business manager, 2 programmers, 2 designers, 3 artists
1. 2 years = about $1.1M cost
1. Ballpark
1. 3 people / 3 months: ~$100k
1. 10 people / 12 months: ~1M
1. AAA (300-700 people, 3-5 years)
1. $200k/dev/year for 5 years = approximately $1M per dev
1. Publically available numbers for GTA-V
1. [Cost $265M](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_expensive_video_games_to_develop)
1. Team size:
* MobyGames [Programmer, Developer, Artist, Animator](https://www.mobygames.com/game/windows/grand-theft-auto-v/credits): 398, if 3 years, would estimate $239M
1. $60/game, assume $40 to studio
1. Must sell 6-7M. Steamspy ~ 6.5M
* Not counting console: [total sales $1B+](https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/09/28/gta-5-sales-hit-1-billion.aspx)
1. Others
1. Civ V [Team size 87](https://www.mobygames.com/game/sid-meiers-civilization-v)
1. COD/BO2 [Team size 231](https://www.mobygames.com/game/call-of-duty-black-ops-ii)
1. Ballpark $200-500M
Resources
===
1. [Moby Games](https://www.mobygames.com/)
* Game credits give an estimate of team size
1. [SteamSpy](https://steamspy.com/)
* Used to have really good Steam usage numbers, not as good since Steam put limits on what data is externally available, but still useful