Question about payments

[Miaki]

Hey,
I have some questions about payments.

At the moment im "working"(mostly dont have time for that) on my game and have many thoughts about characters, the story and some other shit(wich directs to nothing at the moment because i have other things on my mind).
At the end of February/March i want to go Fulltime working on the game(and live from my savings for some months)
And i have some savings that im planning to spent on the game for a Writer, Dev and 3D Artist and later on a share the revenue.
Because of that i want to know how much should i expect for each position.
Sorry for my bad english im not a native and need some sleep.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Because of that i want to know how much should i expect for each position.

It totally depend of... well, many factors.

What quality do you expect (a bad writer cost less than a good one) and what amount of works they'll have to do (if they need to works full time it cost more than if it's just few hours/week). It also depend how you present this to them and how much they feel interested by joining the project. Even professional can feel so interested that they want to see the project come true and will lower their price.
You can also found people who are ready to team with you on the project, and therefore only ask for a share of the future benefits. But be aware that enrolling someone as member of the team is a risky bet. Many games have been abandoned, or slowed down, because a key member started to be bored, or was deceived to not earn enough, and just quit the project. Commissioning someone offer more security, but in the same time will obviously cost more.

This being said, globally speaking, relying on commissioned writer, dev and artist, expect to have to spend at least US$ 5000/month. US$ 1200/month for the writer, same for the dev, and the rest for the 3D artist that will have to works full time, and so will ask for more. But I insist on the "at least", with this you'll have average quality. Especially for the 3D artist, that will do the strict minimum and will not involve himself more than that on the project. He'll produce good enough renders, but for what will be around US$ 10/render, he will not care this much about the details, and the result will be soul deprived.
You can surely found peoples that would works for less. There's surely cases where it worked, but there's even more case where the result was catastrophic, with either below average quality, or someone that quit the project before its end. If most game creator on the scene works all by themselves, it's not because they are masochists, nor because they are genius who can do everything. No, it's because they have no choice.