Tools
Publisher's Game Budget Calculator
Four inputs. One total. Built for the moment a publisher asks: what's the all-in number.
This is the number you know best, and the only one entirely in your control. It's also the figure you put in the deck when you pitch to a publisher.
Development Budget is usually calculated by Dev months x Monthly burn Rate + 20% of the total for rainy days.
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This percentage is often buried in the contract definition of Net Revenue. Read the recoupment section carefully before agreeing to any number.
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Covers promotional activities for the game: paid ad campaigns, influencer and creator deals, PR, festival and event presence, trailers, and store page assets. Set by the publisher, not by you. Indie titles typically run $50,000 to $200,000; more ambitious projects reach $500,000 or beyond.
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Porting, QA, and localisation. Usually set by the publisher, but worth pressure-testing: which platforms you want to release on, which languages are non-negotiable for you, how many words you have to localize, etc.. Use the rates below to estimate.
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Reference rates for services
Porting (per platform)
≈ $20,000
Localisation (standard)
≈ $0.015 / word
Localisation (exotic languages)
≈ $0.020 / word
QA
≈ $25 / hour
Total to Recoup
$0
Recoupment. As a general rule, the developer doesn't see a revenue share until net sales clear this total, but this isn't written in stone. Some deals carve out marketing, tier the recoupment, or apply different rules to different cost buckets. Read the recoupment clause before assuming anything.
Notes
- Publisher math. Project viability is usually evaluated against 2x the total (company-level break-even) and 3x (growth). You aren't expected to model those targets, but knowing they exist tells you how the publisher reads your budget when the pitch lands on their desk.
- Estimation only. Every figure here, including the reference rates, is a working estimate drawn from market averages. Treat the output as a directional indicator, not a contract. Real numbers come from real quotes.
- Next step. Once you have a total, run it through the Publishing Recoup Calculator to see how many units you need to sell to clear recoupment at 1×, 2× and 3×.
- Marketing, in my experience. For most deals, marketing lands somewhere between 20 and 50% of the development budget, most often around a third. Bigger budgets tend to sit at the lower end of that ratio.
- Services, in my experience. Services (porting, QA, localisation) usually run between 25 and 35% of the development budget. It can climb well past that when a project is heavy on ports, QA passes, or languages.
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