Game Notes
Alexis Kennedy provides a remarkably complete and transparent view into the first year of his new game studio.
At this point half the audience are saying ‘112K? How did you spend that much? It’s only a 2D text game’ and the other half are saying ‘only 112K? How did you spend that little?’ The numbers above are how.
Eastgate’s not a game studio, but we’re not bigger than Kennedy’s Weather Factory. A few things leap out at me.
- Their producer costs about £17.50/hr. I assume that includes health insurance, payroll taxes, and such — yes, I know about NHS. I’ve always been very sad that we don’t pay people more at Eastgate, but this is in line with our reality, too.
- There’s no line for office rent or equipment. Be careful on this if you’re starting up. At minimum, get yourself a very good office chair. I’ve known people in their twenties who did themselves lasting harm by spending a startup year perched on an inadequate chair. Be good to your back.
- There’s no line for accounting time or help, unless this is folded into the principal’s 170 days.
Ex-Eastgater Stacey Mason tweets:
I think Stacey may be too kind to academics in writing about the “the gap between the kinds of research academics are interested in & the stuff companies will fund.” My experience makes me wonder whether academics who study computer games are, on the whole, deeply interested in computer games.
Imagine a university film society in the 1950s, at a place where there was lots of interest in Cinema. Those people would be delighted to talk about Bergman or Goddard or Kurosawa. They’d have read last month’s Cahiers du Cinéma and would have strong opinions about it. Some of them would have read next month’s Cahiers, too. They would travel and wait in long lines for a chance to see The Bicycle Thief or The Philadelphia Story, because you couldn't stream and and you couldn’t rent.
This isn't my experience of academic game studies.