Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

bay12forums.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 322 posts

Re: Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

#121

Post by tridentboy »

mrpopo wrote: post #113
alpaca128 wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People are just used to wealthy people gaming the tax system to a point it's shocking when someone actually pays them.

With this kind of money, you can absolutely get someone to do all the work you need to make your tax mostly disappear. Heck, they probably find your number and call you directly, you would only have to say "Yes, I want to save a couple million dollars". I'm not saying it's good, but at the moment it's just so easy, risk-free and completely legal.

The thing is that this is the first time they got this kind of money. And it was unexpected, since Dwarf Fortress sold their 8 month objective by the second week. So they weren't in a position of knowing who and how to call that someone.

Re: Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

#122

Post by bongobingo1 »

aliqot wrote: post #100
nevi-me wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I'm merely saying that one can't derive the tax from the $7m without considering expenses. Salaries being taxable at the employees' rate doesn't make it invalid.

plus Steam's cut I'd imagine.

Plus kitfox games, the "steam version" publisher, who AFAIK also brought on artists etc, non-nil contributions.

Re: Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

#123

Post by HEmanZ »

account42 wrote: post #116
HEmanZ wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much depends on how you measure it. But median individual income in the US is quite a bit higher than 19k no matter how you measure it. Real, adjusted, individual including non working and part-time population above 15yo: $38k/yr Including only full-time workers: $57k Median household income: $71k The US has enough problems, no need to make up much smaller income numbers than the reality. https://fred.stlouisfed.o…

Pretty sure GP is talking about net income.

Does it seem at all realistic that someone at the median is paying 50% income tax in the US?

Re: Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

#127

Post by RektBoy »

eps wrote: post #91
program_whiz wrote: post #65

Glad to see this, because they have worked long and hard on this game. For the optimistic, divide ~$4m (post-tax) by team of 2 for ~20 years (they started work in 2002). They've made some money in the meantime obviously, but seeing the final profit doesn't accurately capture the overall investment. Just in case you were thinking of quitting your day job to become an overnight millionaire making indie games.

They were also making 14-15K per month before that (it's mentioned in the post), so they were already extraordinarily successful as far as 2-person indie gamedev teams go.

From what?

Re: Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

#129

Post by omni »

rtkwe wrote: post #99
davedx wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the median income in the US is $19k (net) per year It's way higher, between $50-70k https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-27...

You're looking at the median HOUSEHOLD income. So on average the wages of two people, median income is a bit below half of that at 31k (pre tax I think).

If you look at Table C-1 in parent's source, it has median post-tax household income at 65K which is a much more reasonable number. We're incredibly wealthy, a per-person median income of 19K doesn't pass the sniff test. Keep in mind taxes are much lower at the lower end of the income spectrum as well. If you're married and making the median income, your overall federal tax rate is only going to be about 15%.

Re: Bay 12 Games has made $7M from the Steam release of Dwarf Fortress

#130

Post by sam0x17 »

paulluuk wrote: post #82
program_whiz wrote: post #65

Glad to see this, because they have worked long and hard on this game. For the optimistic, divide ~$4m (post-tax) by team of 2 for ~20 years (they started work in 2002). They've made some money in the meantime obviously, but seeing the final profit doesn't accurately capture the overall investment. Just in case you were thinking of quitting your day job to become an overnight millionaire making indie games.

> divide ~$4m (post-tax) by team of 2 for ~20 years So about $100k per year, per person (after taxes) I know that this is nothing out in Silicon Valley, but for reference, the median income in the US is $19k (net) per year, and about $15k (net) per year in Europe (if you include eastern Europe). I can't tell from your comment whether you feel 100k is high (hence the "optimistic") or low (hence the warning at the end)…

Imagine how much they could have made by now if they had launched on steam 10 years ago
Post reply on HN