Say for example you have two developers - one builder and one scripter.
The game isn’t too large or too small, just an average sized town with a few shops, a wilderness, maybe some houses. It’s built in low-poly.
The game also has advanced AI with individual personality, advanced datastore system, a few custom animations, a game-wide trading system between multiple servers.
The main idea was the builder’s, but the scripter has contributed excessively to adding new features in the game.
What do you think a fair profit share would be?
I’m just trying to see how people here think about stuff like this.
Feel free to comment why you think scripters vs builders deserve more based on X.
Generally, scripting is overall a more time consuming task. It also requires a higher level of skill to script efficiently. (This isn’t always true, but generally, it takes longer to learn how to script well vs how to build well) Because of this, a scripter’s time could be considered to be worth more.
If the game is a two-man project, 1 scripter and 1 buider, I would say the split should range from 65-75% scripter, 25-35% builder. These numbers are completely circumstantial and could differ greatly depending on each member’s skill level and proficiency.
This argument is often used, however has little to do with revenue. An idea isn’t what makes a good game, execution is.
You can have a fantastic game idea and execute it poorly, and it’ll never take off.
Generally I’d agree with @Fm_Trick on the 65/35 rule but if the builder came up with the idea for the game, I’d probably go for something more like 60/40 or 55/45
Thank you for your replies! I agree with you completely.
Scripting can take a lot more time than building, especially when it’s low-poly.
And with increasing features being added like MessagingService, more and more pressure is being put on Scripters to deliver bigger and more complex games.
I’d argue that a game idea alone is worth 5% at the very maximum. This is only something I’d consider if the idea itself was really groundbreaking and unique.
To add a little more to this conversation, the scripter generally does the most work because they have to fix bugs, maintain the game and add new content. While the builder generally only adds new content and only rarely modify their existing builds. I would say the builder should get between 25-40% of the game and then the scripter should get between 60-75% of the games profits.
My brother and I are making a game. It’s just us two, so I guess since we’re brothers we both get 100% of the profit. Technically neither one of us will actually see profit until it’s time to DevEx, which will probably happen through my account.
That doesn’t matter for this thread though, but the main point I wanted to bring up is that I think that in my case splitting it 50/50 is actually quite fair. I basically don’t do anything except for script and setup (things like rigging and animations). That’s it for me. He builds, goes game design, UI Design, some GFX, and is overall the project leader. He also had the game idea. If we weren’t brothers, 50/50 would be totally fair.
Teaming up with someone you know personally (whether it be a friend or a relative) is quite a bit better than teaming up with a near stranger for making a game. It greatly simplifies the development and communication process, as well as payment.
Just dropping in with my 2c: ideas are worthless imho. As someone said above, execution trumps ideas. Good ideas are a dime a dozen whe good execution is much more scarce. Don’t give someone more just because they had the idea.
In general tho, it depends on the work people put in. Usually scripters have to do the most work, but it’s not unheard of for builders to have more work to do, so really we can’t direct you accurately! For example, there may only be a couple hundred lines of code needed, but tons of props, assets and maps to build - so I’d say divide earnings based on your own assessment of how much time and effort everyone has to invest
Just being general here, it depends on the amount of work that the individuals put in would in return output how much of the earnings each side should take.
In the case of myself and my friend (I script and he builds) it was a matter of how much work was used in the end goal. For example he builds - his building was complicated and very detailed and took time. My work in this scenario was complicated and obviously took time to do. As such we’d happily agree on a 50/50 cut (we actually do 30/30/40 as we take 30% of the profits each and use the other 40% for more sponsors etc) as we both put in a large amount of work. If my job was relatively simpler - he could demand more if he wanted.
I brought in 350,000 R$ one day from working at a group and respectfully he wasn’t actually entitled to any of it (as it was purely my work) however as we are both friends we decided we’d make joint decisions on how we chose to use it - communication is always key in these circumstances.
I’d rate it on how complex it is and not how much time they spent - I could script something for a solid hour and it could be highly complex and painful for me to do; because I am good at scripting it took me a short amount of time to do. How much would I ask for? The same amount as if it took me 10 hours to do - its the same work its just I’m good at it.
Measure on complexity and not time. A nice example from real life for me would be in my Computer Science class: We got asked to do 3 tasks in 30 minutes and in return we got a mark out of 30 (10 for each task). I got 28/30 whereas the average was 23; why did I get a higher mark when the people with 23 marks got the task done? My method was more complicated (used better techniques), efficient and could be replicated at a larger scale if needed whereas the people with 23 just had a method that worked. We all generally put effort into it and we all had the same time.
You’re right but it can get to a point where your scripting is exceptionally fast, and if so, I think you have the right to demand higher commissions. Usually because scripting takes longer and people like to pump games out as fast as they can today.
You could also see it another way:
I am scripting exceptionally fast so I could request more contracts / jobs and make more robux?
Ehh… I wouldn’t say people “pump games out as fast as they can” and instead would say that they script something once and then twist and drain the idea as much as they can. Same item just different labels.
