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Are my pricings fair?

A topic by 4Elements Studio created 34 days ago Views: 366 Replies: 11
Viewing posts 1 to 5

I am a Game Designer and creator, looking for a job. Because I used to do it for fun, I am new to charging for making somebody else's videogame idea, so I don't even know how much to expect to be paid.

In my country, I can live comfortably with just 3000 to 3600 dollars a year, and the prices listed assume a "per asset" pricing model.

Now, considering the above, the question is: am I fair to charge these prices?

$8 per normal enemy
$16 per stage hazard
$32 per stage
$16 per extra boss attack (for complex bosses that are more than just normal enemies with a lot of HP)
$64 per player character ability (including weapons and non-recovery power-ups)

(Normal enemies are cheapest because they're the easiest thing to make for me, while player weapons/abilities are most expensive because they're hardest to make)

Hypothetical Mega Man style game (1 year of development time, not counting playtesting):

50 normal enemies -> $400
12 stage hazards -> $192
12 stages -> $384
13 bosses with 5 attacks each -> $1040
Player character has 12 weapons, a dash and a wall climb -> $896

TOTAL: $2912

Hello, Godot Generalist Developer here,

i'm no expert, but there is a few considerations I look for when commissioning something. I must emphasize the importance of presenting things you've made in the past. I also like to see detailed descriptions of your abilities, example "i have experience with 2D platformers, 2D top down games, Finite State Machines, I sometimes make SFX and Music, and i've done some marketing" not all these skills will be related to a commission but it shows you have experience and reliability in the field. 

A good way to market yourself is to make stuff frequently and post them as asset packs or around social media's, free or paid, if people like your work they will look into your other work.

Now back to your topic. Consider having different commission models. It sounds like you are a generalist if you are able to produce an entire game on your own, use this to your advantage by widening your commission models. Not everyone is looking for a whole game, some people are just looking for art specifically, or they want SFX, or Music, those are the most marketable skills on itch(to my knowledge) you may have to consider other platforms if you're looking for clients that want whole games, Itch is full of indie dev's honing their craft, there are generally more developers than artists/sound designers here.  This means its hard to stand out, if your pitch is coding related. 

I think, it may be more appealing to price based on how long you think the project will take, having a spreadsheet is a good start, and explaining to clients why having 50 enemies will "add x time to the project, so the cost should be reflected like so" would go a long way to making clients want to work with you. 

take my advice with a grain of salt, i'm just an indie dev who likes developing

That is the reason why I decided to put my portfolio on DeviantArt, where there's bound to be artists that can cover for my poor graphical skills.

I asked this same question to friends on Discord, and one of them agrees with you in that I should replace my commissioning model entirely. Like you're saying here, one price for the full game based on how long it'll take. I believe your advice is good.

You can see my achievements in the following sites: (just ignore the 3D Custom Girl foot fetish pictures in the rest of my DeviantArt profile...)
https://www.deviantart.com/leotheevil/gallery/94887856/game-making-practice
https://fourelements.newgrounds.com/games

Are you prices fair? Sure, who's to say they're not.

Will Indie developers pay that? I doubt it, most are on tight budgets (as seen by the quantity of unpaid vs paid requests on itch.io).

Is it market-related? For a commission, perhaps. For an asset pack, no. It's far above the market.  

I can pay $2 - $15 per character that is rigged, comes with animations and is pre setup in Unity at the Unity Asset Store.  You're charging $80 per boss character with fewer animations, and I must set it up myself (which is no big deal for 2D, but it is an extra step).  

Perhaps have a look at Fiverr. You can see what other artists are charging and whether they get much work.

Now THAT is the answer I was looking for! So no, my prices are NOT fair considering the budget of independent creators. By the way, I meant those assets from the programming side, not the graphic side.

Nevertheless, I shall halve those prices. I'll probably need to tackle two projects at once to make money for the year without taking too much from others.

Thank you.

(1 edit)

        Hello! I'm also a gamedev that also lives in South America just like you, and truly $3000 for a year lets me live comfortably. 
I'm kinda confused about your pricing model because it's very different from your portfolio work at DeviantArt, as others said before, try showing samples and examples of what you said on your price model. If you know how to model an asset from the start, rig it, apply textures and etc etc etc and later insert that onto the game engine, make it functional, so show exactly that! Like I'm a pixel artist, so you will find samples of spritesheets and tilesets on my portfolio.
But, I sightly disagree on your prices. I don't think they are high, they are somewhat, low.
Some pointers:
1- Usually a good way to see if your price is to steep is to look onto the price models of others and compare the complexities of the work made. So, If I see that the average indie pixel artist charges 30$ for a single 90x90 sprite, and maybe I'm more of a begginer, then I will charge a bit less, like, 15$~20$. 

2- Unfortunately Itch.io tends to not be a fair way to measure the price of your work because as Evolutionary Games pointed it out, most of work offers here are for free. Search for job posts and offers in others places also directioned to the indie developer. Like, if you hoped onto GameDevLeague discord a few hours ago, you would see a job post where a Dev was paying 200$ for 3d lowpoly models (which seems to be your area). Each.

3 - Another way to measure the price of your work is to also search for what's the average salary in the area that you want to work on, on the country that most of your clients are from. Because it tends to happen that 3rd world countries have their own currency pretty low compared to those of the 1rd world, and if a client would have to pay for a certain price in their own country because that's what's worth there, why they should pay less when hiring people from other countries? Not only this promotes the lowering of the basic wage for that service on the country that hires you (if the average american pays 20$/h for a begginer 3D modeler (3d modeler salary in United States) and can pay 5$/h for a brazilian, which is pretty close to four times the value of the minimum wage, and of course we are talking abouth a hypothetical client that has the necessary budget for them, they will keep hiring brazilians while still trying to lower that wage (Some outsourced studios that work for Riot Games has their employees receiving the minimum wage, which is around 1,45$/h) but also has you receiving less than you possibly could.

4 - But again, Evolutionary Games has a point. Most of the clients that I deal with, doesn't really have the budget for the average gamedev, so it's okay to charge less. I usually charge around 10$~15$/h and measure up how many hours it would take to do each stuff. A simple 32x32 spritesheet, with 4 frame for each direction (16) frames, then. It would take me around 4~5h hours, so 50$ sounds okay. But when a client budget is tight, I lower a bit that price, sometimes even in half, but no more than that. So, it's usually a good guess to charge around for how many hours you took to do that asset,  and multiply it by a little less than the average price of your $ per hour.

5 - While it's true you get cheaper prices at stores, remember this. You are doing original artwork for the client based around the details they want. It's an asset that you thinker to their preferences, at that's is more pricey than something that's already made and made to see in bulks. That's how people that sell their assets in store gains money as well, they expect to sell a lot more than a single unit.

EDIT:
6 - Found out that you are a programmer.  How much is my code worth? : r/gamedev Here's a programmer discussing what price to charge for what it seems an entire game. You can see beginner programmers, intermediates and experients ones teling how much they would charge.

So that's all I have to say. Be more clearly on what you create with what has on your price model. Search for the right clients that has the budget that's fair to the client but also doesn't give that bitter sensation that you are being underpayed.

I'm throwing away the pricing model in the original post entirely anyway, that was the completely WRONG way to do it. Now I'm thinking something like $100 per level (with all enemies and stuff included) if the game's an action platformer (which is my specialty genre, but I'll need a different plan for genres that don't fit that structure, such as Point-and-click Adventures).

I appreciate the pointers, however, and I'm reading the link you sent me right now... Yeah, I think I get the idea.

Thank you.

Hey @4Elements Studio  How can I get in touch with you ? what's your discord?

Search me as leotheevil on Discord.

(1 edit)

Hi I'm not sure what you are refering to, this is a programming part or the visual part.


For commissions you should ask for the standard and no lower just because in your country you can live with X amount of $, you have to think is better for you to ask for the standard and is better for the rest that you ask for the standard price. 

Depends on the skill that is needed, you won't get a complete project, you will get tasks to do, or fixing errors (assuming you are in the programming part of gamedev)

I work in visuals but you should always do a research by your own, try reddit on r/gamedevClassified or something like that, you will get a hint of how much people is asking for your knowlege. 

Yeah, I must have forgotten to make it clear that I meant the programming part.

The problem with my prices is that whichever artist/animator commissions me to make their games might NOT have $3000 to invest in me. I don't know how much money they have available, and if my price is too high, they might simply not hire me at all. They have to eat too. And judging from another answer above, it seems independent animators indeed do not have $3000 to spend.

Anyway, thank you for your advice. It is clear that I need to re-think my entire plan.

(1 edit)

In a way you are right but also you are doing a mistake for not making clear to the person that making a game is difficult, takes time and money.

You need at least 1 of the two options, is better to make the other person understand that. Making games ready for the public and with the expetation of million of dollars is not easy and not cheap.

For what I do I try to listen the client and then offer a package, if the person doesn't have money I exchange money for time, the deliver will take more time than it should because now I'll have to get other commissions for the month.