How much percentage is shared between the artist, programmer and writer?

[Deleted member 1298420]

Just want to know the percentage they are sharing from e.g. Patreon revenue.
If the programmer is making the game in ren'py as JUST a visual novel (so no fighting, no free-roam and just a series of images with dialogues) what % would justify that?

What about the artist that is making the characters,scenes,animations?

What about the writer that is writing the script and planning and weaving the story.?

Thanks (apologies if a thread already exists, I can't find it!)

 

[Skarn]

If you give % by estimated salaries and work to do : programmer 50% (or more), artist and writer 25% each
But if it's Ren'py project then it's often not programming, it's integrating (like your description)... and that doesn't pay well so 1/3 for each one.

The truth is there's not enough programmer for all projects so they have a really higher salary than other and can expect greater part in project... but they can't do it all alone, they need the others to make money...
If they don't agree they have nothing at the end so you can start by that to set everyone to 1/3...

 

[Deleted member 1298420]

If its less programming and more integrating then wouldn't the % not be 1/3 but 1/4 or 1/5?

 

[Meridian]

Artist will probably take 50% or more since this is usually the part that takes most time and financial investment. With writers and programmers things vary a lot. In your case since this is pure visual novel then programmer wont be able to justify a big share of income going his way since his job will be fairly easy. Writers are wild cards, some work for free just to see their ideas realised in some game, others take big chunk of revenue if they can provide good quality writing.

You gotta be aware though that making a game is just one part of the process. You also have to market it, upload to different websites, do the whole PR thing. Whoever does this work usually can expect to be compensated by having his share of revenue increased.

 

[Deleted member 1298420]

Thanks that helps : )

 

[Jofur]

I'm making a non-porn game with another person and to me the only thing that makes sense would be to split everything 50/50. Even if our workload is not always the same.
The way I see it the game wouldn't exist without either of us, nor would I even continue the game if he left or try and find a replacement. It's our game. Not my game or his game.

But the most important thing is if you are making a small indie game, you don't just want a programmer, an artist or a writer. You want "game developers" who can do a lot of things. For example while my main task is programming I also do design, levels, effects, writing, audio, and 3D modeling and so on.

 

[fitgirlbestgirl]

There really are no hard and fast rules for any of this. Nor should there be. Also, deciding this based on the advice of randoms on a forum thread is a terrible idea because everybody comes in with their own biases ("I'm a programmer, clearly the programmer deserves the most.") and mostly wrong conceptions, unless they have actually worked in the field before. But even then, what was right for them might not be right for your project.

 

[ManhunterAlpaca]

I'm a programmer by trade, and from my experience with remote projects with small teams is that, the revenue split should, most of the time, be equal. Otherwise, it breeds a lot of drama, especially if you have more than a few people working on it.

If it's not equal, I would advocate for the artist to be actually paid with hard cash, or get a slightly bigger share, just to keep them around, especially for 2D games. Switching programmers or writers in the middle of the development is painful, but switching an artist is almost impossible, simply due to stylistic differences between each artist. Let's also be honest here, as programmers, we are likely a lot better compensated in our day jobs, unlike artists.