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Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

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Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#251

How much of a cut does the publisher and steam take from a $20 purchase?

In gamedev we usually count it like this:

* Refunds and VAT 16% overall

* Steam cut 30% below $10,000,000 sales

* Publisher cut from net profit after recouperation is around 50%

So developer get around $5.88, but obviously for some countries it's can be better because there is no VAT or lower VAT, but price there would be like $5-15.

PS: And yeah from $5.88 you still owe some corporate tax.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#253
post #250
post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest answer? Dancing stick figure guy on the title screen. I did it very early in the project, in a fugue state at 3am. It lingered and lingered there, with ppl wondering "Is this real? Is this the actual title screen?" and luckily by the end I think everyone had drank enough psychedelic koolaid to agree - stick figure man stays. The artist made some better art for his hands/feet, and that was that. He's divisive,…

Balanced games feel like a chore: you just sit through them, trying to avoid those mistakes that aren't balanced away and there's never any hope for some positive discovery. Decisions do not matter and the pro-balancing crowd even thinks that this is a feature, not a bug. Yes, discovering the city-per-tile problem in Civ would ruin the game for you (I never did). That clearly is the bad kind of overpowered. But sendi…

Agree. Over-balancing everything in single player games sucks out the fun.

"Single-player" here is key - minutely perfect balancing is often a necessity in multiplayer games, and I suspect sometimes that mentality is carried over to single-player experiences without stopping to question it.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#255
post #251

How much of a cut does the publisher and steam take from a $20 purchase?

In gamedev we usually count it like this: * Refunds and VAT 16% overall * Steam cut 30% below $10,000,000 sales * Publisher cut from net profit after recouperation is around 50% So developer get around $5.88, but obviously for some countries it's can be better because there is no VAT or lower VAT, but price there would be like $5-15. PS: And yeah from $5.88 you still owe some corporate tax.

Damn! Thank you very much for the info. Quite interesting - and unfortunately, more of a cut than I expected.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#256
post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In gamedev we usually count it like this: * Refunds and VAT 16% overall * Steam cut 30% below $10,000,000 sales * Publisher cut from net profit after recouperation is around 50% So developer get around $5.88, but obviously for some countries it's can be better because there is no VAT or lower VAT, but price there would be like $5-15. PS: And yeah from $5.88 you still owe some corporate tax.

Damn! Thank you very much for the info. Quite interesting - and unfortunately, more of a cut than I expected.

Unfortunately games that did not succeed never make it to the point where publisher recouperated it's investments so it's actually worse. If the publisher fully funded the game they will take 80%, 90% or everything.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#257
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam takes 30% and the publisher ( https://rawfury.com/developer-resources/ ) takes 50%, so the dev should end up with 35% of revenue (which then needs to be taxed etc.).

You're right, but unfortunately you forgot that: 1 - Before Steam take it's cut there are taxes and refunds, 15-20% depend on geography of sales. 2 - Publisher need to recouperate spendings agreed in contract, but yeah then it's likely between 40 and 60%.

For 1., I had the taxes afterwards and since every factor is just multiplied, it doesn’t matter for the end result. And do refunds count into the final sales number?

For 2., I linked the page where you can find the document where the publisher claims to take 50%, if I didn’t miss something while skimming it.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#258
post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right, but unfortunately you forgot that: 1 - Before Steam take it's cut there are taxes and refunds, 15-20% depend on geography of sales. 2 - Publisher need to recouperate spendings agreed in contract, but yeah then it's likely between 40 and 60%.

For 1., I had the taxes afterwards and since every factor is just multiplied, it doesn’t matter for the end result. And do refunds count into the final sales number? For 2., I linked the page where you can find the document where the publisher claims to take 50%, if I didn’t miss something while skimming it.

Unfortunately when selling games on Steam you pay taxes twice. First of all Steam pay VAT all around the world. It's not included in their 30% cut. And then you pay corporate tax from your net profit after Steam or publisher sent royalties your way.

Refunds on Steam can happen after a while so it's important to keep them in mind. If you sold 100 copies of your game 5-10% will be refunded.

> I linked the page where you can find the document where the publisher claims to take 50%.

I havent worked with Raw Fury and wouldn't be able to talk about it then anyway, but:

1 - If a publisher funded your game they will recuperate expenses by taking 70-100% of net profit. After that it can be 50%

2 - Some publishers also include localization, QA, LQA and even marketing budget into recoup amount.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#259
post #49
post #4

200,000 units is a far cry from just a 'minor hit' - congratulations! During the project, what was the biggest instinct you had that was ultimately validated by its success, but still surprised you? What was a lesson you learned that you didn't expect? How was working with a publisher? What did they do right and what did they do wrong?

Honest answer? Dancing stick figure guy on the title screen. I did it very early in the project, in a fugue state at 3am. It lingered and lingered there, with ppl wondering "Is this real? Is this the actual title screen?" and luckily by the end I think everyone had drank enough psychedelic koolaid to agree - stick figure man stays. The artist made some better art for his hands/feet, and that was that. He's divisive,…

I think that's a great lesson about art: trying to polish things into "objectively good" doesn't work, while human connection and weirdness and jank stay in the memory.

Re: Show HN: I got laid off from Meta and created a minor hit on Steam

#260
post #253
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Balanced games feel like a chore: you just sit through them, trying to avoid those mistakes that aren't balanced away and there's never any hope for some positive discovery. Decisions do not matter and the pro-balancing crowd even thinks that this is a feature, not a bug. Yes, discovering the city-per-tile problem in Civ would ruin the game for you (I never did). That clearly is the bad kind of overpowered. But sendi…

Agree. Over-balancing everything in single player games sucks out the fun. "Single-player" here is key - minutely perfect balancing is often a necessity in multiplayer games, and I suspect sometimes that mentality is carried over to single-player experiences without stopping to question it.

The trouble with the internet is that it's hard to stop competitive mentality leaking in; the game may be single player, but there are lots of people playing it, and they can watch each other and show off.

(this basically killed puzzle / mystery box games, which survive only in a weird corner for not-very-online people playing on mobile)

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