Budgeting for Indie Game Development

TORONTO - Nov. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- If you ask any game developer how much goes into making a game, they will tell you it’s a lot more than one would expect. This is usually done by quoting how much different elements cost. We like to think that when making a game, there are more important things than money.

Allied Games (http://www.alliedgames.co/) is a small, independent studio run by just a few guys so the idea of a comprehensive budget is a bit misleading. As a small studio we have to stay agile and be able to adapt quickly. Unlike large studios where many elements of a game are worked on all at once, Indie studios have to prioritize only the most important things first. We have to identify what is essential to getting the game out there and focus only on that. Usually, you would have set budgets for audio, animation, design, marketing, programing and a multitude of sub categories depending on the size of your team. Us? Well, we have that, but it’s more of a fluid budget. It was set up with the expectation that those numbers would shift around and to do so quite often.

For Shadow Heroes (http://kck.st/1c1ZyFE), we wanted to build a small game that could be scaled up. To do this we decided to follow in the footsteps of Bethesda and create a small piece of the world at a time, similar to what they did when creating The Elder Scrolls series. We started with the Republic of Three Towers, due to it’s history and ability to fit into the real time strategy genre we had chosen. Here we developed a 20 level campaign that explained some of Hendrikas history and developed some of the neighbouring nations as well.

We have encountered many hurdles during development, one of which caused us to switch engines and start much of the programming over again. Most studios would not even consider this option, but because we are designed to be agile, it was not a hard choice. We wanted the game to be able to scale in the future, so it was imperative that we choose the engine that would be supported the longest and that meant switching to Unreal Engine 4.

This is a big part of how we came up with our Kickstarter (http://kck.st/1c1ZyFE) goal of $70,000. Switching to an engine that supports our overall vision takes both time and money. So a big part is the cost of purchasing a license to release the game using the new engine. On top of this is the cost of some of the audio and the tools used to continue developing the game itself. Does this pay to finish the game? No, that’s already taken care of. What it does is it frees up some of that liquid budgeting so that we can focus on the most important things.

We want this game to be enjoyed by as many people as possible. We have designed our entire company based on transparency and cooperation with the community. We don’t want to make a game just for ourselves, we want to make your game. Your ideas and thoughts on how we can improve gameplay, as well as expand the lore is the most valuable asset any developer could ever ask for. We want to stay agile so that we can implement these ideas quickly and communicate with the player base regularly. The more people that provide feedback, the more we can tailor the game to you.

While it takes a lot of time and money to create a game, it’s important for indie studios to stay agile in order to build a game the public actually wants. We are a long way from filling in all the areas of Hendrika, so there are plenty of avenues to explore including different genres of games to help reach all the audiences out there. But the most important thing for any studio out there is you, the player. Your feedback and support is what allows us to create the games you want. Don’t sit quietly and watch, speak up and let your thoughts be heard. Join us on Kickstarter (http://kck.st/1c1ZyFE) to support Shadow Heroes, and join the community on our forums (http://www.shadowheroes.com/forum/) or Steam (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=184...) page. We don’t want to make our game, we want to make your game.