Quote: Original post by SimonForsman
I'd never work for a project that only promised a share of the profits unless i could veto any expenses, otherwise its way too easy for the project manager to reduce the projects profits to zero while still lining his pockets.

Ahh so its a matter of trust, right?

Quote: Original post by Douk

Quote: Original post by SimonForsman
I'd never work for a project that only promised a share of the profits unless i could veto any expenses, otherwise its way too easy for the project manager to reduce the projects profits to zero while still lining his pockets.

Ahh so its a matter of trust, right?

No such thing as trust in business. Money talks and BS walks. If the project is voluntary people might be more inclined to work on it then one of the millions of "I'll pay you later when the game sells zillions of copies" deals.

I have a question for you though, have you discussed your development plans with a programmer/technical person and the appropriate contacts at Valve(Steam)/Microsoft(XBLA) to ensure you're actually capable and licensed to develop on their platforms?

"a. Does selling the game yourself through your own site typically pay more (per sale) than if you used Steam of XBLA, which I assume take a cut of the pay?"

Steam and MSFT take distribution fees for each download. If you publish on your own website, then you keep 100% but it reduces your exposure to the relevant market. Consumers like digital storefronts because it is easier to browse for games and they trust that if the game is broken, they get a refund. If you go it alone, you not only need to tell consumers the game exists (marketing), but you also need to convince them that the game will work as promised (sales), process their payments (operations/accounting) and that it will function on their computer (customer service). All these functions can be outsourced to a digital distributor for a percentage of revenue generated from sales.

"b. What the statistics are for which options people choose when publishing games, just for my own curiosity :)"

This is too vague a question to give you a relevant answer. If you want to know what are the range of possibilities, then you can be sure that making $0 is a real possibility if you go it alone. The risk you will sell 0 games on Steam is still fairly high unless you are willing to promote the hell out of the game and get word of mouth going from gamers. Nothing is guaranteed so unless you have previously release a title, statistics of past performance are not going to be predictive of future sales.

"c. Does 'nobody gets paid till after sales' actually work as much as I think it does? Not counting unfinished projects."

Yes, if the team has incorporated as equal partners or entered into a revenue sharing agreement prior to launching the game. I am not sure how successful you expect this model will be for your situation as many indie projects do not actually generate significant revenue. There are no guarantees, but it is human nature to want a piece of the action if a project is successful. If you properly incentivize team members to maximize their contribution, then you may increase the chances the game will get completed. But this does not guarantee you will make a game that people will want to buy.