By proper, I mean it can do most everything that it needs to in house.
Stuff
-Obviously an office and the furnishings.
-Computers and equipment.
-A website.
-Enough money for ~3 to 5 years pay for all employees.
People
-An Office/Project Manager
-An Artist
-A Sound Engineer
-A Coder
-Network Specialist
-Public Rep / Web Designer
Am I missing anything?
off the top of my head (from other business experience)
It will also be the little costs that actually may add up & take you by surprise. Things like providing snacks, milk, beverages etc. in the lunch room
Incorporation Costs
Accountant
Lawyer
Contracting most of that work out is an option, depending on production cycle and the service provided (Lawyer, Accountant, etc.). Economies of scale and all that.
Define proper?
Even Microsoft started, basically out of a motel, Apple Computers started out of a garage…a friend I know started Key 20 Publishing right of of his house in an upstairs room in Cleveland.
If your idea of “proper” is the whole bells and whistles of a corporate looking office, developers and artists wandering the halls, potential clients being greeted by a receptionist, triple ‘A’ studios and publishers calling, etc.; I think first you need to get your feet on the ground and actual develop something you can stand on.
If I just look at your list of “Stuff” and “People”, those come after you have entered the market with a finished product that sells!
However there are those whom do seem to start out, hitting the floor, running and that is usual through investors. If you can raise the capital of say a million dollars you could lease a modest office with enough room to grow, hire full time developers, artists and a system administrator. You can lease the equipment you need or buy it outright. You may have to double up on some of the functions of a studio like you may be CEO, a salesmen, public relations officer and the project manager all in one to start with until you can either hire someone or find the right person for the job.
Than you have the truly rare moments like Bioware, they started out basically in college, later on they developed their game engine Infinity that would become the Baldur’s Gate series, they also licensed it to Black Isle Studios. BioWare - Wikipedia. That was in 1998, in 2012 they retired…so in 14 years they developed several game engines, licensed several others and developed many smashing successes, than sold their company.
These are the exceptions, your mileage will vary.
This. Don’t confuse the trappings of corporate culture with being a “real” or “proper” business. A proper business is people registered with the government getting work done. That’s all that’s really required to be a business.
A business partner and I started a graphic design company back in 2004. While I was all for starting small and working our way up, my business partner was insistent on making our business appear more official. So we ended up renting office space, and we purchased expensive Macs instead of having me assemble inexpensive Windows boxes. (which I was experienced at doing at the time) The costs and overhead of maintaining a corporate veneer ate up all the profits we were able to earn, and we were lucky just to break even. Only one of us was able to pay rent. We eventually wound down operations, and I had to go get a full-time job elsewhere in order to get a mortgage.
My business partner eventually started up operations again, but she did so on a much more modest scale,
Proper working games that can properly feed the staff.
Money. Everything else is optional, and can be brought with sufficient money.
To be considered a real studio, most of that money should come from the sale of previous games.
Ain’t that the truth.
Say your fans (if any) to help you in development and you get the game + DLC for free!
And working remotely will not only be comfortable but it would even reduce the cost of things like equipments, lunch, Electricity, And all utilities. It may add few more problems though.
But you lose a lot too, such as being able to collaborate on the fly and make adjustments on the art and dev side simultaneously.
Very true. Although not in game dev I am in IT and myself and many others work remotely. It is an awesome way to work. With modern tech (well the last decade or more lol) working at home gives you reduced expenses and still connected to the team. In fact 1/3 to 1/2 of many of my workdays I am working on a project with one or more of my team. With chat, email, phone and screencasting readily available the only thing to be gained by going into the office is seeing the person which does nothing for getting things done. We do have a weekly full team conference call and get together 3 to 4 times per year in person for the physical presence thing that some people seem to need. In fact, the annual company-wide summer outing is this coming Friday. Not mandatory to go and sometimes I just work it as normal. Sometimes (like this year) I go just to hang out with them for a while.
i forgot to include costs for IP, copyright etc fees to protect yourself
You need people to work on same time-zone, like, USA hours…
Umm…no. emails travel in less than ten seconds. And…you seriously do not want to be bugged when you are in the middle of figuring or detailing artwork. If it is important the email title will let you know it is an urgent pay attention issue. Skype works well but can be a real time waster. Control freaks looking over my shoulder do not make for a good work environment…and I am there to work…not chum up and be all palsy…design changes and agile this and that is fine…but they should be timed so as not to interfere with workflow. I can probably achieve twice to four times the output working remote in my environment than stuck in an office…having to commute…taking the obligatory lunch break and knocking off when the clock watchers say it’s time to leave…oh…and that go outside to take a smoke break…fergetaboudit. If I had a studio there would be two sections …smoking and full contact smoking… I am there to get the job done, money in the door and better wages for me and other team members. I need several hour stretches at a time to get anything serious forward moving accomplished.
Yes it can also make you loose somethings but compared to the cost cuts it far more better and it can even increase the efficiency :). But some employees may cheat in this way like not working or taking leave and saying there was a problem in internet.
anyone who already has a studio, can you share what is the estimate budget of having one?
Quoted for truth.
Usually if you put yourself such question, double or triple the money you think you need.
$450 a month, but it’s above a coffee shop that can get quite rowdy on open mic nights - eventually I’d love to upgrade to a 1 bedroom.
Honestly though, as a sole developer your ‘studio’ can only cost the local governments fees for forming an LLC or equivalent and your time meaning a few hundred a year to register and keep filed. Opposite end of the spectrum you have many employees (pay, benefits, fringe perks), the cost of your building, water, electricity, network, phones, insurance, and the list goes on and on; you could be upwards of 100,000 in no time flat.
Rambling done - tl;dr; - impossible to provide an accurate answer.
Again you must define the parameters your thinking about when you ask that kind of question because you will get a whole host of answers, which while they are accurate for that individual’s situation, they will not give you any insight on what to expect when you attempt to start up a studio of your own.
From my personal experience working as a contractor in software development for other’s which include those that have a small office (~30’ x ~30’) the monthly costs was about ~$7,000 a month for them, that included my monthly salary, 2 other guy’s monthly salaries (rates were between $15.00 to $20.00 an hour), the office rent, utilities and some monthly license fees. Their revenue was between $5,000 to $13,000 in sales, retainer fees and consulting fees a month, that was between 2004-2007.
Now just based on that, if we consider a modest studio size, with 3 coders ($6,000 x 3 = $18,000 monthly salary), 4 artists ($6,000 x 4 = $24,000 monthly salary), and a system administrator ($6,000 a month), studio rent ($10,000 a month), plus utilities (~$1000 a month), with competitive salaries implied this would be between $55,000 to $65,000 a month to operate or $660,000 to $780,000 a year to run.
So I will say it again, do not worry about trying to “look” like a true game development studio until you actually have a product or two that sells! When you have a steady stream of revenue coming in through sales, license fees, contract work or profit shares from joint projects, THAN you can think about growing into a studio.
For me I operate out of my home, I budget between $0 dollars to $1,000 dollars for assets, per game based on what I need and I am the sole developer coding the game play. I plan on releasing a game later this year or early next year. Whether it actual generates modest or strong revenue is not as important as my being able to afford my overhead costs and not jeopardize my current standard of living OR risking my day job.
Now if the games I release actually sell and I make enough to where I MUST buy the pro license of Unity (I would love to have that problem) I will still keep my day job and will simply create more games, with a slightly higher budget and see where it takes me. If my games continue sell to a point where my yearly revenue stream from game sales is equal to or greater than my day job, THAN I will consider quitting and going full time game developer.