AN OUTCRY POSTMORTEM #3: Economics. How to not alienate a game team while being poor.

Thematics || Mechanics & Schematics || Economics

I'm finally back with the third and final part of the postmortem! Time to tackle the big question, the one that everybody's lives revolves around in this here capitalist society: Money.

I have to state this upfront: An Outcry's development was worth it. As you've already picked up from the previous two installments of this postmortem, I hold the game and its effects on the world near to my heart.

Add a Zero

That being said: Video games are expensive, and time-consuming to make; perhaps moreso than almost any other medium of art.

You think you have a decent budget set aside to make a more long-form video game? Think again: Add at least one zero to the number you came up with. Then, add half of that number, and you're a good deal closer to what it'll actually cost.

An Outcry, being my first commercial game, was not budgeted very sensibly. I frequently overstretched my finances paying contributions to the game. I always made sure to pay well, and pay timely as best I could - and I did at every point, which I believe is part of the reason nobody who was part of the game's team seems to have regrets about joining - but I did so at the cost of enormous personal financial sacrifice.

"It's better than being in a ditch."

With this came the ever-present weight of debt. I borrowed money from people who care about me, so we could finish the game at the rate we did; I also sold a great deal of my belongings - Beloved records, and DVDs, and books, and games. The things I pawned off that smarted the most were:

• My full collection of Franz Kafka's writings, annotated in a critical edition
• Both of my Twin Peaks box sets, summarily containing Seasons 1-2, Fire Walk With Me, and Season 3
• My rarest find as a record collector, a box set of Spiderland by Slint that included demos and unreleased material.

For a while, it felt like I was shoveling money and my own comfort and security into a big, giant hole. I'm glad I no longer feel that way about the game (especially because all debt that had been left over has now been paid off), but in the moment, it sucked a great deal.

But this video game didn't just cost me money - I asked for an entry fee to playing it. How'd that go? What's the cash register say?

The Tables up to Ten minus Ten

An Outcry has, since its release, made an approximate total of:

USD 15,000.

For 1,5 years of work, that's not bad! But it's also not... good.

It didn't earn anybody who worked on it a living. Additionally, there were two grave mistakes I made in the way that I handled revenue-sharing on the project I must warn small game designers about:

• Deal out the shares monthly, not more or less frequently than that. I dealt them out once per quarter of the year; this was a mistake, as in after three good months of plentiful sales, I'd be sending comparatively large sums of money to people, which are, in this economy and in my living situation, harder to put to the side for 2-3 months.
• Keep perfect track of what money you receive is for your game and what money is for unrelated DLC that some of the people in the revshare haven't contributed to. I personally paid people too much, because I accidentally threw in the game's proceeds and the OST's proceeds into the same pot, and then had to re-send the revenue share for the OST to the game's musicians. I had to retrace my steps so people wouldn't be underpaid, and that was difficult.

Good bookkeeping is VITAL in game development. If you've the means, get an accountant for the tax man, too. It'll make your life as a developer a lot easier.

Is Making Games Even Worth It?

My personal answer is: Yes! I've sacrificed a lot for relatively little, but that little is great; it's a small world that others can take into their hands and play, that invites other people to dream, or forget, or to think, or to feel. I wouldn't let this go for all the money in the world - which isn't coming my way anyway, because I am an indie game developer. B)

To be more precise: If your desire to create something that is interactive and enveloping is larger than your fear of sacrifice, of debt, of discomfort: Absolutely go for it. It's rewarding, even if not in the numbers department.

ADDENDUM:

MARKET. MARKET YOUR GAME FOR THE LOVE OF GOODNESS

Just needed to say that. You think making a Twitter and or Tumblr account you post to semi-regularly, when you've the material and means alongside development, is enough? NO. Market that sucker EVERYWHERE, even Tiktok. Ask somebody who's good at that you might or might not know to do it for you if you yourself are bad at juggling that responsibility alongside making your game.

I'm very lucky that, on BLANKSWORD, Leaf Let and Mybile have agreed to take on marketing duties. That little BLANK dude will be marketed. Market your indie game. PLEASE.

...with that said, for An Outcry specifically, a vector of marketing would have at best been difficult to find and at worst actively hurt the game's vibe. It's an earnest game, one that shows a harsh reality; it's a game that physically can't market some of its most marketable elements so as to condemn them.

I have no regrets for An Outcry on that. But still, please actually read up on marketing when you do it for your game, or ask someone to do it for you who has. Please.

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And that would be that! See you all around here soon with some news about BLANKSWORD.