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创造一款VR游戏的成本计算

发布时间:2016-12-15 10:12:14 Tags:,,,,

作者:Joe Radak

最近出现了一些关于VR游戏融资的讨论,即关于钱来自哪里,游戏成本是多少等等。这些讨论主要是围绕着来自像Oculus等公司的资金以及作为接受了这些资金所交换的独家使用权等等。我们可以找到许多关于创造VR游戏成功昂贵以及作为开发者的我们需要更多钱才能生存的文章。但是因为现在在VR领域还没有太多钱,所以我们必须想办法去赚钱。我在几个月前也写过关于VR游戏开发难度的文章。

但是在所有来自VR游戏开发者的文章中并没有关于创造一款VR游戏的成本分析。这是可以理解的,毕竟很多人都是签了保密协议,所以他们并不能对外公开这些信息。而幸运的是我能够公开谈论创造一款VR游戏的成本,所以我将在此和你们分享我们在创造自己第一款游戏《Light Repair Team #4》时所消耗的成本。

Light Repair Team #4(from ebay)

Light Repair Team #4(from ebay)

开始前需要注意的一些事

开始前我需要提供给你们一些关于《Light Repair Team #4》(简称《LRT4》)开发的背景。首先,在2016年初我自己花了14周的时间创造了《LRT4》的大部分内容(95%)。即包括编程,图像,设计等工作。我的好朋友同时也是Eerie Bear Games联合创始人Noah Rojahn主要负责一些棘手的编程内容。同时John Dekker和Ed Harrison创造了一些音乐能够用于我们游戏的预告片和背景音乐。

其次,这是一款面向HTC Vive发行的游戏。我们将其添加到一些媒体包中并且它也获得了“Check out these VR games”页面的推荐,在发行还出现在一些商店的主页中。除此之外我们还多次被一些文章所提及,即主要出现在“这是你现在可以尝试的所有新游戏”列表中。

再次,这是一款自给自足的游戏。即意味着游戏的所有成本以及和游戏相关的所有事宜都是由我自己的积蓄所支持。我是自己为自己买单。这听起来可能有点奇怪,但对于理解并衡量游戏开发成本来说非常重要。因为不管是你自己工作还是为别人工作,你都需要支付给自己薪资或者接受来自别人的薪资支付。

我将基于两种方式来看待VR游戏开发成本。首先我将着眼于自己是否给予自己时薪,因为我是一名自由职业者。这当然不是你去计算游戏预算的方式。

其次我将基于“适当”方式去分解游戏成本,就像我会为了获取融资向Valve或Oculus宣传游戏。这也是所有人应该进行宣传的方式。

1.以小时为单位(这是错误的方式)

让我们着眼于我是如何以极低的40元/每小时为自己和Noah分发薪资的。

14周开发时间 x 1周40个小时 x 1个小时40美元=22400美元(包括原型创建,设计,图像)

Noah工作5个小时 x 1小时40美元=200美元

设立公司的成本 + 法律事宜=3500美元

服务器成本10美元 x 3个月(我们使用的是Digital Ocean)=30美元

外包两首音乐的成本=3万美元

总成本=29130美元

这是一种较难管理的方法,并且因为游戏开发很难以小时为单位进行预测,所以我们很难去追踪游戏开发周期。我们可能需要花费一个月去做某事,那我们又该如何去计算这一个月中我们花费了多少个小时呢?你不应该如此去计算游戏预算。除此之外还有其它需要考虑的因素,即尽管一个合同工将获得40美元的日薪,他真正拿到手的钱最多只会是30美元,因为在美国自由职业者需要交纳至少25%的收入所得税。所以不要这么计算游戏开发预算。

2.“可接受的”预算方式(正确的开始方式)

让我们着眼于人们到底是怎么做的。让我们假设Noah是免费提供5个小时的劳作。

4个月 x 每个开发者1万美元=4万美元

设立公司的成本 + 法律事宜=35000美元

服务器成本10美元 x 3个月=30美元

外包两首音乐的成本=3万美元

总成本=46530美元

这便非常接近游戏的真实预算

这是许多预算草案的标准,因为它涵盖了所有必要内容(游戏邦注:包括税收,保险等等)并且也留有一些余地。

但等等,我似乎忘记了一些事!因为并不是所有人都是在家工作的,所以可能还要包含办公室装修与维修费用。

拥有工作室的VR游戏开发平均成本=1500美元

Vive或Rift的成本(如果你没有开发包)=600至800美元

办公室租赁费=500至5000美元

(良好的)网络成本=110至180美元

每个开发者所需要的桌椅=1000美元

一般办公用品=150美元

其它公用设备=250美元

我并未包括像Unity Pro,Maya等软件的授权费用。

所以如果我和Noah并不是在家工作,那么从头开始创建一个办公室的总成本为(我们已经拥有免费开发工具):

2台计算机=3000美元

1年的办公室租赁费=6000至60000美元

1年的网络成本=1320至2160美元

办公室家具=2000美元

办公用品=150美元(最低值)

其它能够使用3个月的设备=750美元左右

总成本为13220至68060美元。

所以我们应该卖出多少游戏才能赚回这些开发成本?减去税费,Unreal Engine的使用费以及Valve的抽成,我们只能获得净收益的60%。所以对于每一份全价出售(7.99美元)的游戏,我们只能获得5.2美元。基于错误预算计算便是需要卖出5602份游戏,而基于正确预算计算则是要卖出8949份游戏。不过这一数值可能要再高一些,因为我们的游戏在Steam上进行促销。而这同时也会受到我们是否在家办公的影响。

事实

那么《LRT4》到底为我们赚到多少钱呢?

这款游戏卖出了2300份左右,为我们公司赚取了14000美元的收益(不包括我们需要支付的税收和其它费用)。如果你是以“最廉价“的方式进行计算,它也仍是不赚钱的。此外,在4月于Vive上发行之后,我们又在之后几个月进行了一些更新,所以我们又为其花费了更多钱。

当然这只是关于我们的游戏,其它游戏是基于完全不同的预算,但我保证有很多游戏都不能完全赚回本。就像尽管Survios声称他们在几个月后赚到了100多万美元,但我还是好奇他们是否真的赚回了本。

我们其实是在冒险,或者说每个VR开发者都是在冒险。对我们来说,这款游戏并未为我们赚回本。从商人的角度来看,VR开发者是很愚蠢且鲁莽的。但是VR却真的非常吸引人。如果开发者不再鲁莽,或者像Oculus或Intel等公司不再提供给开发者资金,VR便不可能长久维持下去。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The Costs of Making a VR Game

by Joe Radak

Or, how we’re down $36,000+ after making an HTC Vive launch title.

There’s been a little bit of talk recently about VR game funding, where money comes from, how much games cost and all that. Mostly this discussion comes up around money being received from companies like Oculus, and the exclusivity rights that may be a result of accepting the money. There’s been a lot of posts about how working in VR is expensive, and we developers need money to live. And since there isn’t a lot of money in VR right now, we have to go where the money is. I even wrote about the difficulties of VR game development a few months ago.

However, in all these posts by VR game developers, no ones really broken down the cost of making a VR game. Understandable, many people are bound to NDA’s and legally cannot reveal this information. Some people are worried about the backlash they might receive for talking about it, worried it might undermine various different things. Fortunately, I can talk about money and the cost of making a VR game, and so I will talk about the cost of making my companies first title, Light Repair Team #4.

A few things before we start

Before we break it down, I do need to provide a bit of background on the development of Light Repair Team #4 (hence forth known as LRT4). First off, I made the vast majority (like, 95%) of LRT4 over a 14 week period at the beginning of 2016, by myself. Programming, Art, Design. I had assistance from my good friend and co-founder of Eerie Bear Games, Noah Rojahn for tricky programming things (For the record, Noah has done and is doing MUCH, MUCH more post-launch. He’s also sole programmer on our new game). Also, John Dekker and Ed Harrison whipped up a couple music tracks to use for our trailer and game background music.

Secondly, the game was an HTC Vive Launch title. It was included in the press package that was sent out and was featured on the “Check out these VR games” page, featured on the main storefront for some time after launch. Beyond that, we were featured in a couple articles and only mentioned in couple more, mostly as part of the “here’s all the launch titles you can play now!” lists.

Thirdly, the game was self-funded, by me. That means that all costs of the game, and things related to the game were shouldered by me and my personal savings. I did charge myself for my own time. This means that I essentially was paying myself to work on the game. It sounds like a weird concept, but it’s absolutely essential in understanding and calculating the cost of a games development. You should always pay yourself or others, for the work you/they give or do for you.

I’m going to look at the cost break down two ways. First, we’re going to look at if I was paying myself my (somewhat low) hourly rate, as if I was a freelancer. I have learned that this is absolutely not a way you should budget your game. I’m going to include a break down of if I had, however, as a way to re-enforce the point I’m going to make.

Secondly, I’ll break down the cost of the game the “proper” way, as if I was pitching the game to Valve or Oculus for funding money. This is, as I understand it, the way that everyone has and should be pitching.

First, Hourly Rates (the wrong way, worth mentioning)

So, lets look at the break down of if I charged myself and Noah at my ridiculously low freelancers rate of 40 USD/hr (This is hella low. Please refer to the Gamasutra Salary Survey from 2014 for a more accurate value)

14 weeks of development x 40 hrs a week x $40.00 USD/Hr = $22,400 USD (This includes prototyping, design, art

5 hours of Noahs time x $40.00 USD/Hr = $200 USD

Cost of setting up the company + legal = $3,500 USD

Server Costs $10/mo x 3 months (We use Digital Ocean)= $30.00 USD

Cost of commissioning two music tracks = ~$3,000 USD

Total Cost? $29,130 USD

29k for a game that had about 70 minutes of content, using the inproper way of budgeting. Like I mentioned you shouldn’t budget your game like this. This method is harder to manage and keep track of as game development cycles can be highly unpredictable at an hourly level. It might take a month to do something, but how many hours in that month? Thats harder to tell. You shouldn’t look at game budgets like this. Something else to consider; even though a contractor is getting $40/hr, they’re really only getting at most 30/hr, because in the US self-employed freelancers taxes are at least 25% of their income. Don’t ever look at game development budgets like this. Ever.

Secondly, the “accepted” way to budget (The right way to start up)

Lets look at how people actually do it. Additionally, we’ll just assume that for the sake of arguing, Noah offered his 5 hours of time for free.

~4 months x $10,000 USD per dev* = $40,000 USD

Cost of setting up the company + legal = $3,500 USD

Server Costs $10/mo x 3 months = 30.00 USD

Cost of commissioning two music tracks = ~$3,000 USD

Total Cost? $46,530 USD

This is closer to a more realistic budget for the game.

*this value is a standard for many budget proposals, as it covers all necessary things (taxes, insurance) and adds a little bit of leeway.

But wait, there’s more!

Oops! I forgot some things! Like, creating and maintaining an office, since not everyone works from home (these are all rough estimates).

Average Cost of one VR ready workstation = $1,500 USD

Cost of Vive or Rift (if you don’t get dev kits) = $600–$800 USD.

Cost of office space rental (heavily location based) = $500–5,000 USD/mo

Cost of (good) Internet = $110/mo —$180/mo

Desks and chairs per dev= $1,000 USD

General Office Supplies = ~$150/mo

Other Utilities = ~250/mo

And I’m not including the licensing fees for software Unity Pro, Maya or whatever else.

So, if Noah and I were not working from home, and building an office from scratch, the total cost would be assuming we got free dev kits:

2 Computers = $3,000 USD
1 year lease on office = $6,000–$60,000 USD
1 year internet contract = $1320–$2160 USD
Office furniture = $2,000 USD
Office Supplies = $150 (I’ll low ball it)
Other Utilities for 3 months = ~$750
Totaling anywhere between $13,220–$68,060.
Yea.

So, how many copies did we have to sell to make back development costs? After Taxes, Unreal Engine royalty payments and Valve cut, we’re only getting about 60% of our gross revenue. So, for each unit sold at full price ($7.99 USD), we’re getting about $5.20 USD. So, with the “wrong” budgeting?—?5,602 units. With the “correct” budgeting?—?8,949 units. This number will be higher though, due to the fact that we have gone on sale on Steam in all sales that we could. And this also reflects that we were working from home, on personal computers.

The Reality

After all that, how much did LRT4 earn us?

About ~2,300 units sold and ~$14,000 in revenue for the company (not including taxes and other royalty payments we have to pay). If you look at even the “cheapest” way of budgeting developers (cheapest in hindesight!), the way you should never do, it still wasn’t profitable. Additionally, after the April launch of the Vive, we did launch a few more update over the next few months?—?so more money spent there, that I didn’t even account for.

Now, this is just our game?—?other games have different budgets, but I’m certain a lot of them aren’t making their money back, truely. Even with Survios announcing that it earned a million dollars a few months back, I’d be surprised if they really turned a profit.

We took a risk. Actually, every VR developer is taking a risk. For us, it didn’t pay off financially and for others, I’m sure it hasn’t either yet. From the viewpoint of a business person, VR developers are stupid, idiotic and reckless. And for VR, thats fucking beautiful. You 100% need to be all those if you want to succeed in VR. If people weren’t being reckless and if it wasn’t for companies like Oculus or Intel shoving money at developers to soften the financial blows, VR would not last long at all. Period. End of story.(source:gamasutra)

 


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