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

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

#251

Post by efields »

hnthrowaway0328 wrote: post #249
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.

Yeah it is pretty good, but not as good if someone really wants to take the risk. There are people, e.g. fund managers and corporate CXOs that talk about they get the big bucks because they take the risk, but TBH what risks do they experience? If something fucked up they can simply walk away, usually with fat profits for their own. On the other hand, a couple of indie developers risked getting nothing from a full-tim…

Just let it be good. It doesn't need to be more. It doesn't need to be such high risk all the time.

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

#252

Post by larsiusprime »

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.

Don't forget the publisher's cut!

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

#253

Post by OkayPhysicist »

izzydata wrote: post #181

What are they going to do next? Perhaps they will start a studio, hire some more people and work on some new endeavors with this money?

They have a roadmap on their site. At the historical rate of development, the game will continue to be developed by Toady until his death, upon which (barring suspicious circumstances) the game's source code will be released.

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

#254

Post by kelvie »

masakreTech wrote: post #23

And? - Cherry games with Hollow Knight have made more money and it's just a team of three people.

" Comparing accomplishments is a short-circuit pathway to tearing others down."

This is from a comment that I read on HN a few days ago that really stuck out to me, and applies here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34581366

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

#255

Post by BiteCode_dev »

Archelaos wrote: post #28

> The fairytale ending is reality, but you didn’t kiss the toad. Some philological pedantery: In the canonical Brothers Grimm version of The Frog Prince, the frog does not turn into a prince when kissed but when smashed against a wall.

I was expecting this threads to turn into a fire dumpster, and instead it turned into exactly the kind of debate I read HN for.

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

#256

Post by genocidicbunny »

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.

As far as indie devs, yes, but in the greater scheme of things that is still fairly pittance money. $180k pre-tax split two ways, and then eaten into heartily by health insurance (Tarn and his brother have mentioned that medical issues are what pushed them to do the Steam release) doesn't leave a whole lot.

But that also means that as long as they don't significantly increase the cost of their lifestyle, that $7m pre-tax will go a very long way.

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

#257

Post by AtlasBarfed »

croes wrote: post #138
criley2 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are in a post-Minecraft world, so I don't think your criticism has any merit. Minecraft was a sandbox single-dev game that broke every mold and trope, and sold for $4 billion. Me claiming that DF could be worth $100M in a world where Minecraft was worth $4B and is likely worth much more now... not a crazy take.

Minecraft was 2009 and had a graphical interface. I doubt that in 2006 a game with an ASCII-Interface would have been a great success if people had to pay for it.

Ok, so how close is minecraft as a "toolkit" for converting ascii games to graphical? I don't know how minecraft servers/mods/etc work, I just have been watching my kid's JJ/Mikey with him. I squarely missed the minecraft crazy, I was post-college.

But DF could be (squints) converted to some minecraft "world" couldn't it? How hard is it to do minecraft worlds that would mirror/translate/active generate from some complex sim process like DF?

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

#259

Post by warent »

hnthrowaway0328 wrote: post #249
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.

Yeah it is pretty good, but not as good if someone really wants to take the risk. There are people, e.g. fund managers and corporate CXOs that talk about they get the big bucks because they take the risk, but TBH what risks do they experience? If something fucked up they can simply walk away, usually with fat profits for their own. On the other hand, a couple of indie developers risked getting nothing from a full-tim…

You're thinking this in a very capitalist way which seems completely unrelated to these two gentlemen. These guys are now profiting off the game out of necessity, not because they're finally "cashing in" on all their "risk". From the beginning, this was a passion project and an expression of themselves. Not an investment.

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

#260

Post by ivalm »

christkv wrote: post #89
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.

If they are smart the money will be taken out as dividend and thus only pay capital gains tax.

I think for this amount an llc+pass through is still likely less tax.
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