I'm working on a pitch to send out to publishers, and I'm finding myself a little uncertain on the matter of the budget.

Now, I can figure out more or less what I'd want, looking at various costs. That's not a major problem, I think. (Presuming that I'm making no serious mistakes in the matter, of course.)

However, I find myself a little anxious about the idea that I might ask too much, and so incur rejections where I might otherwise have had interest.

There is some data online, but what I've found thus far is all fairly old. (In particular, I've found GamaSutra's "2014 salary survey", and Tom Sloper's “Game Biz Finances” page from 2001.) It's also not clear to me how salaries map to publisher pitch budgets.

So my question: What would be an approximate “ceiling” for a budget given in a pitch to an indie publisher? How much would be “too much”?

A few specifics regarding my case:

• This would be my first commercial indie game
• I've released two much smaller free games
• I've previously been employed in a small game-development company
• The game in question is at a fairly advanced state--well into production, with all major features implemented, multiple levels implemented, and overall somewhat polished, but not done
• A public demo of the game is available, including a few levels

I do suspect that there's no simple answer to this, but a complex answer would nevertheless be preferable to sitting and wondering and being anxious, I imagine!

Thaumaturge said:
I find myself a little anxious about the idea that I might ask too much

That is always a problem, and so is its opposite: that you ask too little and have to ask for more money when you use up the advance. I assume you're asking for money to fund completion of your game, and you want royalties in the publishing deal? And have you thought about ongoing costs after the game is released? If the game is for smartphones, you'll have to update the game constantly when OS updates are issued. If the game has any microtransactions or social interactions, your involvement continues far beyond the game's release. The ask is always a balancing act between too much for publisher acceptance and too little for sustained development.

Thaumaturge said:
It's also not clear to me how salaries map to publisher pitch budgets.

If you are hiring people for your development team, the cost of those people has to be part of your ask. If you are doing everything all by yourself, then there's enhanced risk for the publisher (all eggs in one basket, etc.).

Thaumaturge said:
The game in question is at a fairly advanced state--well into production, with all major features implemented, multiple levels implemented, and overall somewhat polished, but not done

Great! Then you don't need very much money, presumably. Are you crystal clear on what you expect from a publisher, why you need a publisher, and what publisher(s) are a good fit for your game?

Thaumaturge said:
What would be an approximate “ceiling” for a budget given in a pitch to an indie publisher? How much would be “too much”?

You can't get an answer to that question without a lot more information. Like, platform, genre, target audience, monetization, social aspects…

Thank you for the response! ^_^

Tom Sloper said:
That is always a problem, and so is its opposite: that you ask too little and have to ask for more money when you use up the advance.

Indeed; part of this comes up because I looked again at my pitch and realised that I likely had under-budgeted, as I recall.

Tom Sloper said:
I assume you're asking for money to fund completion of your game, and you want royalties in the publishing deal?

Exactly, yes.

Tom Sloper said:
And have you thought about ongoing costs after the game is released?

Honestly, not to great degree--but see my response below regarding monetisation, microtransactions, etc.

Tom Sloper said:
If you are hiring people for your development team, the cost of those people has to be part of your ask. If you are doing everything all by yourself, then there's enhanced risk for the publisher (all eggs in one basket, etc.).

That's fair, and a good point.

Tom Sloper said:
Great! Then you don't need very much money, presumably. Are you crystal clear on what you expect from a publisher, why you need a publisher, and what publisher(s) are a good fit for your game?

Crystal clear? Not absolutely--this is my first time as a solo indie, after all. But I think that I have the right idea.

As to which publishers are a good fit, I hope that I have a solid list for that. I did a research sweep, looking through quite a few publishers, sorting them by apparent fit. Naturally, I don't yet know how accurate my sorting has been.

As to not needing very much money, I'm not sure of what's usual, and thus whether what I'm asking is “very much”. In a sense, that's part of the problem: I don't have a feel for the monetary scale, and thus for whether what I'm inclined to ask is “a lot”. I would imagine that what I'm inclined to ask isn't very much, at least!

Tom Sloper said:
You can't get an answer to that question without a lot more information. Like, platform, genre, target audience, monetization, social aspects…

Ah, good point, and sorry for the omission! ^^;

Let's see…

Platform: PC (Windows + Linux)

Genre: Action-adventure, broadly speaking.

Slightly more accurately, the gameplay amounts to traversal, exploration, and puzzle-solving, with sparse one-on-one combat encounters.

Target Audience: Honestly, I've not nailed that down. I'm more or less following the old dictum of “make the game you want to play”, so I suppose that the answer is people, who, like me, enjoy games like Thief, or Quest for Glory, or other such exploratory/traversal/puzzley/combative games.

Monetisation: Single-purchase.

(Digital, naturally. I wouldn't be opposed to a physical run, but it's not something that I'm expecting, as such.)

Social Aspects: None.

Microtransactions: None.

Have I missed anything there?

Thaumaturge said:
Platform: PC (Windows + Linux) Genre: Action-adventure, broadly speaking.

Target Audience: Honestly, I've not nailed that down.

Monetisation: Single-purchase.

Social Aspects: None. Microtransactions: None.

So it's a Steam game, basically. Fire and forget. Old school. If the game is almost finished as you say, your best bet is probably to finish it by yourself. You're not even certain (crystal clear) what you need a publisher for (but you “think you have the right idea”). Marketing, presumably. The amount of work a publisher would expect is surely a lot more than you think (they'll want to make changes, lots of them). You should estimate what it would cost for you to finish the work. There will be other costs involved in readying the product for release on whatever download platform (Steam or otherwise) it's going to be carried on. You're not expecting the publisher's advance to also compensate you for work already done, are you? I think that would have to be covered by royalties after publication.

Tom Sloper said:
So it's a Steam game, basically. Fire and forget. Old school.

Exactly, yes. ^_^

Tom Sloper said:
You're not even certain (crystal clear) what you need a publisher for (but you “think you have the right idea”). Marketing, presumably.

That's not quite accurate: I'm not absolutely certain--but absolute certainty is, from my perspective, quite a lot.

I'm confident in much of what I want a publisher for--funding, marketing, platform access, and more besides.

But there are uncertainties, especially as this is my first time, so I wouldn't go so far as “crystal clear”. (But then, I seldom would.)

In short, this is a minor miscommunication for us--suffice it to say that I do think that a publisher is called for in my cast, and do intend to find publisher support.

Tom Sloper said:
If the game is almost finished as you say, your best bet is probably to finish it by yourself.

“Almost finished” is, again, not quite accurate: The game is pretty much feature-complete in the mechanical sense (barring things like level-specific scripting, and possibly one or more custom minigame-puzzles that might crop up along the way. Furthermore, as noted, several levels have been made. And again, the game is fairly polished, I feel.

However, I'm finding that content creation--construction of levels in particular--is taking an awfully long time. And there are still more levels to be made, along with their scripting, items, introductory cutscenes, and so on.

And it's against this that I'm seeking the funding part of publication: money to support myself going forward, and the hiring of some level-builders to speed things along.

(Note, again, that I'm also seeking a publisher for other purposes, such as marketing.)

Tom Sloper said:
You're not expecting the publisher's advance to also compensate you for work already done, are you?

No no, not at all! Just to get me through the work ahead.

Finally, I do apologise if I wrote unclearly in my previous posts. :/

Oh, and since I mention level-builders above, let me note that the figure that I'm working on right now is just my own budget, excluding the hiring of said level-builders.

The budget for a Steam game of reasonable quality and content is anywhere from half a million to two million. You have to subtract the work you've already done to arrive at a figure for the remaining development. You'll want more levels, you say, and that means you probably need lots of assets and more features that will arise out of the level design. It's likely going to cost you more than you think (see what I wrote before). The hiring of level-builders is precisely why salary information has to be figured in. New people will go through a learning curve adapting to your process (and that goes for you, too - adding people will slow you down). So don't underestimate the remaining development time.

Tom Sloper said:
The budget for a Steam game of reasonable quality and content is anywhere from half a million to two million.

Ah, that's useful information indeed--thank you! ^_^

And indeed, it looks like my budgeting might be okay--if I work from the lower value there (for safety's sake), and estimate the amount of time elapsed and remaining, and take into account the hiring on others, I can calculate an approximate threshold. And it looks like I'm budgeting below that threshold thus far!

This is encouraging! ^_^

Tom Sloper said:
You'll want more levels, you say, and that means you probably need lots of assets and more features that will arise out of the level design. It's likely going to cost you more than you think (see what I wrote before). The hiring of level-builders is precisely why salary information has to be figured in. New people will go through a learning curve adapting to your process (and that goes for you, too - adding people will slow you down). So don't underestimate the remaining development time.

Indeed, these are all good points, and thank you for them!

I am somewhat accounting for the hiring of level-builders, if admittedly in my own way.

Time… we'll just have to see how much time on-boarding takes. In some ways, my process thus far has been idiosyncratic. On the other hand, my assets are, I think, fairly simple by modern game-dev standards. Conversely again, there are some weird points in the handling of said assets. ….And so on.

But yes, pretty much everything in this art takes longer than you think, I fear! XD;

Thank you again for all of your help! ^_^

Tom Sloper said:

The budget for a Steam game of reasonable quality and content is anywhere from half a million to two million.

Does the 1.5M range account for initial development, marketing or post-release support? What is the salary of one developer?

1. Initial development only. Marketing is extra (see our Business forum). Post-release support is extra. Marketing and customer support are publisher concerns, not paid for by a developer.
2. Click the Gamasutra salary link in the top post.

OnePointTwo said:
the 1.5M range

You mean the difference between $500K and $2M? Different games cost different amounts to develop.

There were dollar signs in the post above - the site interprets such characters as formulaic or something.