if you have that money to invest, chances are you don't really need it back unless you're fronting it via equity. but this isn't a thing for outside funding, unless you're talking through arts grants or the likes of the nordic game program - it's for those close to it, more interested in potential outcome than return on investment
do any devs operate like nonprofits?
- Thread starter inlimbo
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Silent_Buddha
Legend
As I mentioned, unless you are already rich in the first place, noone is going to throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at a project unless they think think they can make a profit from it.
Think about it this way. Would you be willing to quit your current job, and empty your bank account, and potentially take on debt in order to fund this project that you want to do? And with no expectations of making any money off of it? When there's a 70% chance that at the end of 2-3 years you will end up with little to no money, and possibly only debt. And at the same time limit yourself to only breaking even for that other 30%.
So at the end of say 2 years. There's a 30% chance you'll end up with the same amount of money as you started with. And a 70% chance that you'll end up with no money.
And yes, I've heard of stories of independant developers who have self funded their projects. Many of them taking 5-10 years to finish their game because they didn't want to take on debt. and thus had to keep working regular jobs while doing their projects on the side.
And as I mentioned before. For small budget indie games that's fine. But once you get into mid sized developement. That is no longer a luxury that is available.
Regards,
SB
Think about it this way. Would you be willing to quit your current job, and empty your bank account, and potentially take on debt in order to fund this project that you want to do? And with no expectations of making any money off of it? When there's a 70% chance that at the end of 2-3 years you will end up with little to no money, and possibly only debt. And at the same time limit yourself to only breaking even for that other 30%.
So at the end of say 2 years. There's a 30% chance you'll end up with the same amount of money as you started with. And a 70% chance that you'll end up with no money.
And yes, I've heard of stories of independant developers who have self funded their projects. Many of them taking 5-10 years to finish their game because they didn't want to take on debt. and thus had to keep working regular jobs while doing their projects on the side.
And as I mentioned before. For small budget indie games that's fine. But once you get into mid sized developement. That is no longer a luxury that is available.
Regards,
SB
I think your really asking if any game companies are cooperatives, right? Non-profit implies something completely different.
As far as I can tell the closest thing to a cooperative in the game dev community would probably be Valve Software. Valve is largely horizontally operated with very little vertical hierarchy - aside from the "Gabe Put." I dont know about wages though and whether they are also horizontally equitable. Gabe was already wealthy when Valve was established and he doesn't strike me as greedy so my intuition tells me that the wealth of Valve is spread out fairly evenly amongst the employees but I have no way of knowing.
As far as I can tell the closest thing to a cooperative in the game dev community would probably be Valve Software. Valve is largely horizontally operated with very little vertical hierarchy - aside from the "Gabe Put." I dont know about wages though and whether they are also horizontally equitable. Gabe was already wealthy when Valve was established and he doesn't strike me as greedy so my intuition tells me that the wealth of Valve is spread out fairly evenly amongst the employees but I have no way of knowing.
Nope.
inlimbo said:
Like i said, Software companies, in particularly small developers generally do not obtain debt finance ( to high risk) with the exception of lending office space. They are all equity funded.
That equity needs a return on investment that adequately rewards for the risk otherwise no sane person will do it.
Regarding wages, usually you get what you pay for! Further, it will not limit risks by lowering wages as dev houses are hit or miss. You either create a great product, or ur bankrupt!