Project Budget Lecture Notes

Project Budgets – keep in mind who the budget is for – they should be tailored towards them

There are different methods of creating project budgets, one of which is Asset Triangulation. However, this is a very involved process that can be difficult for beginners to grasp so a simplified version of this method should be utilised instead.

There should be certain things that are assumed during the process of making a budget for this project.

List of assumptions
We are an independent studio
We have the means to publish our game – do not consider the costs for publishing the game – consider only the costs for the development of the game
Consider only the costs for making the vertical slice
We have basic hardware – e.g. PCs
All teammates have an annual income:

Programmer: £20116.14
3D Modeller: £16882.80
2D Artists: £17637.84
Team Leader: pick a role and x 1.5
Consultant: pick a role and x 3 (for the time they’re here – they’re normally external)

Consider marketing costs

Calculate the Risk Mitigation – this is about is about 7-12% of the total production costs (not including things like marketing) – this accounts for the financial impact of the project if major issues were to arise.

Calculate the Profit – the amount of profit that results from this project should allow for a new project to be made – we will use a simple approach. Multiply your budget by a percentage you need the project to return. Next, divide the value by the number of units you think your game will sell. The resulting value will be the amount of copies you have to sell for in order to meet your profit expectations.

According to the survey that will be taken at the arcade event, each person who says that they would buy your game will represent 100 sales.

Team Task: Make a project budget for your game