Hi, I've been thinking about founding an Indie Game studio recently,

I have some projects in my mind. I'm interested in the process of building from the ground a studio (both management & economical part), how to find people to hire, and the process of making games and publishing them. I've been working on few little project, collaborating with others, or my self, but never published something truly mine.

Few details of the main project: A zombie-survival FPS, with a great plot/story and astonishing graphics, and if money allow it, an online multiplayer (something similar to State Of Decay).

So my questions are:

1. How much does it cost, first to found, then to run a game studio (yearly)?

2. What are the roles in a game studio and how much everyone should be paid?

3. Do I need to have already founded the Studio to start a Kickstarter campaign?

4. Tell me your personal experience, both founding an Indie Game Studio and working in one of them.

Thanks a lot, feel free to ask question for further details

It sounds like you are mostly putting the cart before the horse.

You don't need to make a big production of starting to work on game projects you plan to sell. You don't even need to form a legal company, although if you're going to involve other people in the production process at all, you probably should, and there are potentially some tax benefits for doing so (discuss this with a certified accountant or tax planner).

In the US a good option for this is to form an LLC. This involves only a few forms and a small fee (consult the website or office of your local government for details), and it lets you have a legal entity shielding you from total liability and provides a useful entity to assign intellectual property to in the event you bring a partner/collaborator/employee on.

As for employees: this is where you start to get ahead of yourself. Stay far, far away from hiring people as you can. You can bring on collaborators or partners (be sure to consult a lawyer and draw up contracts stipulating the ownership of their own, terms of their work, compensation, et cetera), or you can purchase work from third-party artists/developers/whatever. But as soon as you start talking about "hiring" people, people's expectations of that arrangement change, to the tune of expecting a salary and benefits. Salary alone can run you anywhere from 60k to 90k per year, approximately, depending on who you are hiring for what and where they are physically and in their career. Benefits are another several thousands of dollars on top of that. At this point you've gone from maybe a few hundred dollars in LLC filing fees to needing have a cash flow that will support nearly 100k a year. That's a huge jump, and you don't even have a product yet.

And the project? "A zombie-survival FPS" is totally doable, but "astonishing graphics" tend to cost money, both in terms of an artist who can produce them and a programmer who can build or leverage the technology to render them well in the game. That's starting to feel like where you'll need to scope the project back because you may not have the capital; if you need both a programmer and an artist because you can't do one or both yourself you're now talking about two employees, so maybe 200k a year. Conservatively.

To more directly answer your questions:

How much does it cost, first to found, then to run a game studio (yearly)?

If you can't at least come up with ballpark numbers for this yourself, you really have no business running a studio. Every company is going to operate differently, with different costs and overhead, and managing and planning for that is going to be a critical part of your role as the founder of the studio. Unless you can afford to simply hire somebody to manage it. Sit down and think about what you (think you) want, specifically, and then go out and start doing research on those specific things. How much do programmers cost on average in your area? Are you going to want an office? What's office space rent like in that area? Electrical and internet bills? Et cetera.

What are the roles in a game studio and how much everyone should be paid?

You don't hire the positions "a studio should have." You hire the positions you need. Ideally, in the beginning, that's as few as possible (zero). But if you have a critical gap in your skills, you're going to need to fill that. Hiring somebody to do it is one way, but establishing contract work arrangements is probably better. Frankly I'd worry less about who to hire and for what positions and more about finding a good accountant and a good lawyer and how to pay them. Rather than try to staff up to make your dream project, find a project you can make yourself without hiring anybody, maybe buying a few assets or whatever.

Do I need to have already founded the Studio to start a Kickstarter campaign?

Individuals can run KickStarter campaigns, as far as I know (consult the Terms of Service for details). So no, you don't need to have formed the company, although it's probably a good idea for the liability shield. What's more important is having an actual product and a plan that will convince people to hand over money and be something you can actually achieve. I would try to build as much of your project as you can without even considering Kickstarter. Not only will you then have something that more closely resembles the final product (which is more interesting to donators), but you also reduce the risk the project will fail (since it's further along) and the scope of the things you're asking for Kickstarter money for are likely to be smaller. For example, maybe you can build your game with cheap/free assets off Turbosquid and the like to get the gameplay, mechanics and technical details down. Then you can find a good artist, work out a contract, and engage a Kickstarter campaign to cover the actual cost of that contract to get your final art in the game.

I really think at this point the only things you should consider doing are:

• form an LLC or whatever the equivalent is in your area if you're not in the US
• work on your project yourself, without involving the hiring of employees or the pomp and flash of a "studio" until you have something resembling a fun, salable product
• then go from there

I've been thinking about founding an Indie Game studio recently ... 2. What are the roles in a game studio

You aren't ready to start a studio until you've worked in games yourself. This article is about starting your own company: http://www.sloperama.com/advice/lesson29.htm

BTW, this is not a management question. Moving to Business.

It can cost a lot of money, up to many millions. What is your budget? What are your skills, art, programming, design etc? Are you thinking of using an engine like Unity? A lot of indie devs have very little money but are skilled in the art and programming side, they live at their parents house - work till all hours in the morning - until they make their first hit game then they branch out. OK that's not entirely true but it is in a lot of cases. To make a serious FPS requires a fairly large skilled team and a lot of money(assuming the team are going to be paid).

Thanks to all,

Rereading my question, I realized that I have not explained well, even if your answers were very detailed.

Starting from the concept, as already mentioned, is a FPS like The Last Of Us, then a dense and engaging plot (perhaps based on the decisions and actions taken by the player), the Unreal Engine 4 would allow a lot of flexibility in that, without mentioning that is free (with a 5% royalty / quarter after $ 3,000 in revenue). The graphics are what I consider one of the main parts of the game, which must be realistic and immersive, relatively easy thing again thanks to UE4, so a good designer is the key to the project. In addition, if funds allow, a multiplayer (set in the same map/location of the singleplayer), take as example State Of Decay, although the concept is essentially different.

Talking about money, I have some money, but not sufficient even to think to put someone to the development for a few months, I do not care to be payed, I need enough to live in that period, then the real earnings would be determined by the the actual sale of the game. With that said, I thought that fundraising would be the best choice, keeping in mind the concept of Kickstarter, all or nothing, with all decisions taken after knowledge of the budget, and if the fundraising go wrong, I will not lose anything (at least in dream). That's why I asked how much workers should be paid, I guess it should take more or less 2/3 years to have the finished (and ready to sell) game, so fundraising must cover all costs for all the amount of time.

Currently I live in Italy, where, unfortunately, the game industry is not taken seriously, and it would be very difficult to find someone able to support(work in) such a project. So I thought to move to the UK, thanks the European Union would be very easy to relocate for work, or in the US, where, however, I would need a visa that would allow me to work (the best one is the EB-5, but where you have to be willing to invest at least $ 1 million and employ at least 10 people for at least 2 years). Thanks for your help and time

With that said, I thought that fundraising would be the best choice, keeping in mind the concept of Kickstarter, all or nothing, with all decisions taken after knowledge of the budget, and if the fundraising go wrong, I will not lose anything (at least in dream).

The risk inherent in Kickstarter is not that you won't get the funding, it's that you'll get the funding and then be unable to deliver.

Thank again for your reply,

The risk inherent in Kickstarter is not that you won't get the funding, it's that you'll get the funding and then be unable to deliver.

True, but Kickstarter won't give you any money, anyway. I'm pretty confident about getting at least the money I need, I've done some researches, and, even if Steam is plenty of zombie game, I haven't found anything even similar to my project.

I'm very determined to realize my project (as well as my dream), I really think that people would really like it.

• Do you think is it possible to realize something like this?
• I ask you again, what's the minimun number of people that I'd need to get everything done in a few years? What roles (art designer/programmer/consultant/audio...) should I search when I'm looking for people to put in my project? (Ik the question sounds bad)
• May I need a publisher or working and selling a game as indie is the same? What are the benefits and cons of having a publisher? (I can't really find the answer to that)
• Do you have any source (book, website, ...) that can help me understanding better the process of making and selling a game?

Thanks :)

• Do you think is it possible to realize something like this?

of course, it's just a question of investment. investment is time * skill * money, you can compensate one with the other.

• I ask you again, what's the minimun number of people that I'd need to get everything done in a few years?

Minimum is just one, you. There are a lot of one-man-studios that create indie games.

What roles (art designer/programmer/consultant/audio...) should I search when I'm looking for people to put in my project? (Ik the question sounds bad)

that purely depends on what part of it you cannot do.
if you are a one-man-studio, you can do all, you really don't need to hire anyone else.
in contrast, if you are an idea-guy and you cannot do anything, you might need to hire a producer first that will organize all the work and will tell you, based on your ideas, what people need to be hired.
there is no default setup. you might say you want some 8bit chip tunes for everything, you might hire one cheap retro hobby composer. in contrast, you might want an orchestral theme like homeworld, then you'll need to hire 20 highly skilled musicians.

• May I need a publisher or working and selling a game as indie is the same? What are the benefits and cons of having a publisher? (I can't really find the answer to that)

publisher are those that will deliver the money, usually also the producer and will distribute the game as well as advertise the game. But usually it's not your decision to have a publisher, you rather advertise to a publisher either your game in development, or your studio. but in both cases publishers will evaluate how skilled your people are and what value the IP has that you own and based on that you'll get a deal offered.
Publisher for a Studio is like an Employer for an Employee

Do you think is it possible to realize something like this?

Yes. But I am not convinced that you current can, not to the specifications and through the process you're envisioning in your head.

I ask you again, what's the minimun number of people that I'd need to get everything done in a few years? What roles (art designer/programmer/consultant/audio...) should I search when I'm looking for people to put in my project? (Ik the question sounds bad)

One. If you can't do all the things you need to do, however, you have to find some other way to get that particular task accomplished. You should look for ways to fill in the gaps in your own ability or knowledge.

May I need a publisher or working and selling a game as indie is the same? What are the benefits and cons of having a publisher?

You don't need a publisher, and you probably don't want one. A publishing deal is another one of those things you might think you're "supposed to have," but it's unlikely to actually happen (publishers aren't generally going to take a risk on an unproven studio without a tangible product ready to go, that is, already demonstrably built). And you probably don't want it to happen, because while publishers give you money, they also generally end up owning the game and the intellectual property. You give up significant control over your project when you sign with a publisher in most cases, and as an unestablished single-person developer you are unlikely to be able to negotiate a favorable contract with a publisher. Put the idea of a publisher out of your head.

Do you have any source (book, website, ...) that can help me understanding better the process of making and selling a game?

People don't generally write books on that subject.

My share; you're saying that the designer will be the most important. And that UE4 will deliver the graphics you need. Just keep in mind that UE4 will just render a cube with 1 diffuse texture if you just put in a cube with 1 diffuse texture. I wouldn't underestimate the role of modeler (and maybe artist a bit earlier in the process).

On the publisher/ developer part: in my non gamedev business, going into a new market with a new product is called suicide. It might be a bit similar in your situation where you want to go from zero to both being the developer and publisher. You might wanna consider starting to grow to be a developer and find/ convince a publisher (better one thing right then 2 things 50%).