Ultimate gamedev funding tierlist

When you're a gamedev, money can be a tricky thing. You need money to be able to make a game, but until you've actually released a game, you can't make money from it. So, how do you exactly fund your studio then? In this video, we go over some of the different ways you can fund your studio, and talk some more about our personal experiences with it.

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Timestamps:
00:00 You'll need to eat
00:40 Crowdfunding
04:37 Publishers
11:00 Incubator
14:38 Government grants
20:36 Venture capital
21:52 Game residuals
24:02 Personal savings
26:19 Bank loans
27:27 Other grants
29:52 Community funded
34:16 Freelance
37:19 Overview
37:31 Closing thoughts
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[nbcde]

I am funding my game through bank robbery

[edhahaz]

What worked for me is rich parents. My game flopped tho

[voidexp]

What works for me is having a part-time job and drastically cutting expenses. Take the one that pays most for the least amount of time. You don’t necessarily have to like it, it serves the only purpose of paying your bills and buying you precious TIME.

[robertduffin]

Jsyk, I don’t think you guys need to stress about hurrying up, if it’s for our sake. I could watch this kind of stuff for like 4 hours straight. It’s fascinating and extremely helpful!!

[surplusking]

Actually best strategy for indie funding is consume less and make it yourself. Learning how to cook your food significantly decrease your cost, Leaving car-centric place and using biking and public transportation also significantly decrease your cost too.

[woodchi]

I’d just like to add, from my own observation and experience, Kickstarter done right is a full time job creating the campaign in and of itself in addition to creating your game for the period of the campaign (and leading up to it). Following that it’d be about the same amount of work as a Patreon. Patreon is spread out and its work should just be updating people about the game dev work you were doing anyway. = Ks is a lot more work than Patreon.

Really appreciated this video. Very informed info. Thanks greatly.

[jarusa]

So one of my projects, I coded a procedural generation module that I plan to put in the Unity Asset store.
So game asset sales could be additional.

[The_Gryph]

Work your 9 to 5. Gamedev in the evenings. Maintain a secure cashflow.

Quitting a job before you know you can support yourself is idiotic. It puts you at risk, it puts your family at risk if you have one. Take a realistic approach to money because you don't deserve a business if you don't. If your product takes off and you end up hiring people to make more titles, you're responsible for more peoples wellbeing than your own. You owe it to them.

Even if you hate your job and it's temping as f**k, keep working until you absolutely know that you can transition.

Work in the evenings and if you have to get there at a slower pace as a result, tough. If nothing else it'll teach you to value the time that you have spare and learn how to prioritise tasks.

If you want to argue burnout, I'd say if you can't handle that you can't handle running a business postlaunch.

[whilefree]

In the long run having an engaged community beats everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. So if you have a career and you can pay your bills, don't quit your job. Focus on growing your own community, and at the same time grow your experience. Think about the long run... That's all I can say.

Awesome video by the way. You got a new subscriber.

[Savigo.]

Ok, let's rephrase it: crowdfunding isn't the best option if you don't care about doing marketing. Now here is some stats:
- 48% of all games (including board games since they belong to the same cathegory) achieves funding goal on kickstarter.
For succesfully funded video games the amount of money they receive is:
- 20th percentile: $3000
- 50th percentile: $15000
- 80th percentile: $60000
I will link the source below in case youtube decides to remove the comment becaus of the link.

[ViperZero]

Great breakdown, guys! I’m an aspiring developer trying to learn coding and landing on the right engine to use. Thinking of letting my YT channel fund initially until the game can get on its feet. Still in the initial phases and trying to learn, but your videos are super helpful!

[TheSharkasmCrew]

The other very real issue with coasting on your personal savings is that your essentially burning through your retirement savings. Long term investments of that sort benefit a lot from starting early, because of their compounding nature, and by working for 5-10 years and then burning through those savings your basically sacrificing those years that could start your retirement portfolio off right.

I also don't see it being very realistic in todays economy, because the cost of living is so high (at least here in Canada) that you really can't save much unless youre living at home rent free or you have insanely cheap rent somehow.

[Nefelibatacomingthrough]

Very important and interesting ideas.. Making games has always been a dream and I try to get my foot in the door with game music. We'll see how it goes in a few years.. :DD Thank you for these informational takes! Greetings from Finland!!!!1

[_nickthered]

Thanks guys much appreciated! Good review of the options and some good insights. Good luck

[maxtera]

Thank You for the video, I wasn't aware of that many options before. Personally I have worked for one year as a game developer, saved some money and started freelancing, which is not going well to say the least. In the free time when I don't have the freelance work, I try building my own games. But the sense that the money is slowly melting away is always there, then the freelance jobs are not so easy to come by as You mentioned. If there is a decent job, there is a lot of competition, over 50 people apply to the same one. The time it takes to find one doesn't seem to be worth it at all. Then You don't know what kind of job it can become, it might be really awful. My friend likes to say: it's better to not have a job at all, rather than have an awful one. There are a lot of burnouts on the freelancer route, I wouldn't recommend it personally.

[simonschliesky]

I was confused by the personal savings placement. When directly compared to Kickstarter, I would argue it is technically better to spend other peoples' savings than your own. That said, thank you so much for the detailed insights on how the funding bodies operate :)

[bruceburnett]

Respect guys. It's a tough road and I respect your commitment. Stay strong. I'm doing a solo go...I've no cash... but I've had time the last while, Film has been on strike. Can't do both. But ... 
That doesn't mean I won't try.  And I have a game plan, so we'll see how it goes.
Thanks for the great vid.

[triskaideka]

Wow I never thought my government would have a grant for game dev! I just checked and they do! Thanks guys!

[neoware]

Greetings from Brazil!
I´m always checking your amazing videos!

[stevenrae]

Indie dev from South Africa, can attest that getting a grant here is a pipe dream 😭😂. Thanks for your videos!