Financial Fridays! Virtual Reality Projections.

Last week was all about #gamedev economics. This week’s theme will be #VR. To transition between the two, here is some #VR #gamedev economics! VR is going to grow like crazy over the next 5 years: http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-virtual-reality-headset-sales-projections-2015-3?op=1

Financial Fridays! So, what does it cost to make an indie game?

As promised in yesterday’s post, here is a very useful link that will help developers do some back of the napkin guesstimations. Not to be confused with proper projections or calculations, this napkin scrawl is still far superior to the Dinofarm formula: ‘Big indie’ Kickstarters are killing actual indies In the article the author likewise

Financial Fridays! Costs data.

As with yesterday’s sales data, these figures should also be revised downward. Again, these numbers are dated but remain good case studies. It has gotten significantly cheaper to produce video games over the last 3 years. Star Command http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/starcommand/star-command-sci-fi-meets-gamedev-story-for-ios-an/posts/208395 Auro http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/177512/kickstarter_for_the_average_indie.php Dustforce http://hitboxteam.com/dustforce-sales-figures

Financial Fridays! Sales data.

These numbers are dated. Given the current problems of discovery (marketing), the projections for games of these types should be revised downwards. Don’t forget though, production costs should be revised downwards too. Reasons include technological advancements (eg. state machines) and increased availability of assets (eg. Unity Asset Store). Solipskier http://mikengreg.com/blog/2010/10/2-months-of-solipskier-app-store-sales/ Dustforce http://hitboxteam.com/dustforce-sales-figures Mega Jump http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31350/Get_Set_Games_Key_Lessons_From_Going_FreeToPlay_With_iOS_Mega_Jump.php

Financial Fridays! Some clarity.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/274500/discussions/0/405691491102673468/?tscn=1456139312#c405692224242982114 Upon reading its context will become clear. There is a chasm between what people think a game costs to develop (if you read through the comments, here’s a “developer” who thinks great games can be made on a budget of $0) and what it actually costs. Perhaps that’s more accurately this week’s theme: the