Porter's World

Work to Payout Graph

There’s always a balance in everything. In the flash industry there’s a balance in how much you work, to how much you get paid for that work. It’s important to find this balance if you plan to make a full time job as a game developer. Below we’ll take a look at the lower end, the higher end, and of course the golden area right in the middle. Keep in mind there are always reasons to branch off of this price/payout golden area, and we’ll go over those as well.

Let’s take a look at the lower end of the chart. Mini games have always been accepted in flash. A simple concept that can be picked up and played, but doesn’t have too much depth. Without an amazingly original and exciting idea, these games don’t pay off too much, nor do they require that much work. They may only pay a few hundred dollars in payout, but they also only take 10-20 hours to create. There are a few advantages to this. First off, it’s easy to get the idea, keep motivation and see your project through to the end. Longer projects tend to drag on after awhile and the developers efforts dwindle as a result in the later days of production. It’s also a useful tactic to follow for bill paying purposes, some people prefer to be paid on a weekly or bi weekly basis, this is definitely the way to go for you.

Next we’ll look at what I’ll call the golden area, right in the middle. This area offers the most money for your hard work. Medium hours and optimal payout for those hours. You don’t work months and months on end on a project, you work a month or two depending on your team size and hours put in. This area is the best as I’ve said because you get the most money for your work. A small game that could get you a few hundred dollars for 10-20 hours. Let’s say such a game would get you $600 USD. Now let’s visualize turning that small idea into a more in depth game, but nothing over the top. Something with replay value, levels and perhaps a short story, again, keeping this game at a medium sized project. If we can manage to do such a thing and only double our hours, or go slightly over that, we can turn $500 USD into $5000 USD. Not all games will fetch such a price, but even so reaching the $2000-$3000 mark isn’t unreal by any means. As you can see, if you’re capable of creating such games with your creative abilities, it’s definitely worth your time to expand upon those small ideas.

Work to Payout Graph

The last section we’ll look at is the high end. This section requires the most work, and even if you’re games are huge and very successful, you’ll find that the money really doesn’t compensate for how many hours you put in. There isn’t really much to say on this, you just generally don’t get as much money for the large amount of work you put in. There are exceptions, but as a general rule of the market It’s best to avoid this unless you’re looking into micro-transactions, a website specifically for the game and many other additions that will keep your money coming in, and again, your game must be a hit for any of this to matter. This area is unfortunately one many new comers fall into without realizing two things, they probably aren’t capable of finishing such a project yet, and second, it’s not worth it. The last exception to going into this area is one that should not be forgotten, doing it for the fun. If you’re passionate about your project and just want to see it come to life, go for it, designing games should never just be about the money, but don’t forget that you probably won’t see the cash the work should bring in, but if you’re really into your project that shouldn’t be an issue.

So as you’ve seen, there are definitely different many things to consider when determining the size of your project. There are bonus’s to all sized projects, some better for casual production and others better for bringing in the right amount of cash. It’s ultimately up to you to decide which sized project you’ll pick, but make sure to take all the above into consideration when you do so.