How much do you spend on graphics for your game?

kidult

So as we all know, in general, graphics doesn't make a game, it merely helps the presentation of your game. Angry birds would still play the same without the cartoony graphics, they just help in making the game look "cool". Obviously this isn't always the case but for my question I don't think we need to delve too deeply into that.

So here goes: How much do you spend on graphics for your game? Do you have a set budget? are you employing an artist full time? (perhaps a ballpark salary figure?)

The reason I'm asking is that I have worked almost only for international clients and my rates are on the low side for international work. However since posting here, I've had a few enquirers about work but never any come backs after I've sent out my rates (which I even lowered slightly) my current rates for work are as follows:

I charge on complexity of the brief and the time frame in which assets need to be delivered. For illustration work I charge from R1500 upwards and for concept art it's R1000 and upwards per concept or an hourly rate of R250 per hour. here's my portfolio for reference : http://jeanrouxart.carbonmade.com/

Would be interesting to know what the going rates for game art In SA is at

dislekcia

We have a full time artist and were employing two more while DD was in full swing. We pay pretty low salaries just to keep full time people able to eat, most of our earning happens on revenue share after release. Roughly 15% of our revenue split pool goes towards artists for DD, based on the time/impact they had on the project.

Chris_Bischoff

"How much do you spend on graphics for your game?"

A lot. I work about 4 days a week on graphics and 1/2 days a week on programming/testing/everything else.

*edit* I misread as 'how much time do you spend on graphics for a game

I think when you are dealing with indie's (which is the majority of games studios in South Africa) you generally have to be very conservative when quoting for asset work. Im honestly not sure how to charge as a standard rate, because the budgets of 'studios' vary SO much (from R0 all the way to publisher funded $$$).

Useful reply eh? :D

tbulford

We still experimenting with different models. Its really comes down to how involved and how much time we need from a person. Short periods pay better per hour while longer periods of work might pay more overall but less per hour. Some titles I have fixed a budget outright and asked artists what they can do for that, others we have had a budget and expanded on it as the project went because we believed in the extra spend. In most cases we do have a revenue share model but never exclusively that.

bischonator

@dislekcia @tbulford On the rev share models, do you give staff access to your books?

LexAquillia

@bischonator typically all people in the rev share receive monthly reports with the payments and have a right to a audit if they dispute the figures. If they are right and the figures are wrong then the company pays the audit bill (as well as the shortfall) if they are wrong, then they must pay for the audit. It's a fair system the helps keep everyone honest without disclosing too much confidential information.

bischonator

Thanks! Seems fair enough.

dislekcia

LexAquillia said:

@bischonator typically all people in the rev share receive monthly reports with the payments and have a right to a audit if they dispute the figures. If they are right and the figures are wrong then the company pays the audit bill (as well as the shortfall) if they are wrong, then they must pay for the audit. It's a fair system the helps keep everyone honest without disclosing too much confidential information.

This.

I put out a report every month for everyone that gets revenue share. It's not a ton of work and I use the same spreadsheets to calculate other stuff, so it's not a big deal. The rev share agreement keeps that stuff all confidential between everyone, so it's up to QCF what we want to release to the internet at large too.