Topic about money is super interesting.
I think each of us would like to hear about some tricks that would give us opportunity to make what we love (games) without this annoying thought “well, I have to pay my bills as well”.
I can share my Eastern Europe experience from Poland and Russia - we’ve been doing something close to “mixed way” - so we’ve done many games for cultural /eduational/government institutions - theatres, universities, museums, local government - problem with such orders is that you’re not always doing what you want. And it was never form “artisitc” budget, rather promotional, audience development or so. We also particpated in many grant contests (ministry of culture, different cultural programmes) - and there we managed to get money for some ideas that would not fit other clients.
At some point urban games become very popular way of promoting (and spending) EU funds - so there were many overpriced games - clients paid really a lot of money (EU money) for the games that were not really worth it. That part of the market was taken by event agencies, we didn’t manage to get much of this.
In Russia as I see this there are tree ways of making games:
- making money for free or from your money, with volunteers only for your satisfaction. Still I’m meeting an approach here that games are kind of fun, something not serious enough to be paid for. But I think this approach will change as it changed in past decades in Poland.
- making huge projects - there are some game designers/organizers who managed to scale their projects on federal scale - making same format games from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok and all over the world (maybe in your city as well)- these projects are sometimes supported by federal or local government. Examples of these are RunCity (simple but powerful running game) and Clean Games (eco game connected with garbage cleaning). Not sure about their financing model, but probably they rely on public funds.
- community funded - as Encounter where you usually pay entrance fee that cover costs of organizers and some of those money is given to winner as a prize (is it gambling already?)
I am now exploring another model - making smaller games that someone would pay for - made first two for Polish Institute (so not russian money:).
Tricks that I learned to:
- don’t always try to be unique (even if your artistic soul wants to) - reuse games wisely saving funds and time
- make games for free and than sell them for those who want them
- there is also cheaper alternative for expensive stuff you need in your games
- don’t promise to much - better positively surprise your client
(well I also still learn how to use those tricks)
So tell me - how to do it? How to give up all other jobs and making games feeling safe about the future? 