Hey all, I'm just naive on the business department and how the technology ties together (naturally you can assume I haven't made a game... yet.) For example, a game like Plants vs. Zombies (I hear) cost over $100,000 to develop. My question to the community is why is that?

They had the engine, right? The technology, the staff, the machinery? So what cost 100,000? If we can make games for the iphone for free (like using cocos2d, and all of that is possible on cocos2d), I'm curious what went into every facet of the game.

Thanksss

People, generally speaking, prefer to get paid when they do a job.

A good chunk of it would be time. People need to be paid, they need to eat, they need to put a roof over their heads. 10 people for 10 weeks at $1,000 each per week is $100,000 - there goes your budget.

People, generally speaking, prefer to get paid when they do a job.

I assumed it was their programmers, people that work for them and that this project is just another type of work assignment that wasn't paid for additionally.

A good chunk of it would be time. People need to be paid, they need to eat, they need to put a roof over their heads. 10 people for 10 weeks at $1,000 each per week is $100,000 - there goes your budget.

Gotcha, thank you. I just didn't think they'd pay extra to the people already working for them to be doing... y'know, their job. Unless they hired outside help.

You may be under the impression that games are made in forced labor camps... Actually the staff are not working just for water and bread, so if 5 people work on a game for a year with $20,000 per year wage then you will get your $100,000

Sure, you and a bunch of talented friends could make a game just with your summed will power, but that's usually a very rare case - it's really easy to lose focus when the reward ain't coming...

You may be under the impression that games are made in forced labor camps... Actually the staff are not working just for water and bread, so if 5 people work on a game for a year with $20,000 per year wage then you will get your $100,000

Sure, you and a bunch of talented friends could make a game just with your summed will power, but that's usually a very rare case - it's really easy to lose focus when the reward ain't coming...

Iiii don't quite follow. You're a big company, you have say a thousand workers. They each have an annual salary of $80k

The company heads decide to make <this game>, and gather up a team of their workers. Why doesn't it go under as a company project, something that they do on their work time, and not getting paid additionally for it, follow me?

Who says they're getting paid extra, above and beyond their salaries?

When a company says "it cost us $X to make product Foo" they're generally factoring in employee compensation with that number.

Who says they're getting paid extra, above and beyond their salaries?

When a company says "it cost us $X to make product Foo" they're generally factoring in employee compensation with that number.

Ohhh I didn't know that. Well that changes a lot of perspective on video game costs and whatnot. I always thought these mystical numbers came out from nowhere.

I think you're misunderstanding - it's not "extra pay" it's the budget for the game. It costs money to develop the project because that includes the employees salaries. In the business world, if you're paying someone a salary, they'd better be doing something for you. That number is the cost of working on this project instead of any other. The money to pay the staff has to come from the company's own coffers as an investment.

Yes, the programmers might already work for them, but in business, that money still has to come from somewhere, and be accounted for.

If I'm starting a project that needs 5 employees, and I know those employees are paid $52,000 a year (1,000$ a week) and my estimated time to be finished is 1 year, then that's going to cost me 260,000$ to launch the game. Just because I've already hired them, doesn't mean that money doesn't have to come from my reserves.