Well, that’s a daunting headline.
How much does an indie game visual novel cost?
Short answer: It depends.
The major categories to consider:
Art (Background, Sprite, UI, CGs, items, assets, key marketing art, logo)
Programming
Writing
Music
Voice Over
Sound Effects
Editors
Sensitivity Readers
QA / Playtesters
Localization
Community and Social Media Management
Marketing
Don’t forget that Steam takes 30% and requires $100 USD up front
Random little expenses that come up that don’t neatly fall into a category
When I was pitching for funding, I wanted to gather a team and pay them a living wage, so we could focus for one year on making the game Call Me Cera. I’ll write another article going into detail but the takeaway is that we didn’t get funding. So, I got creative (after I finished crying and eating sad cookies).
Here was the new plan:
Create a series of vignettes: shorter games in the same universe that we could sell to build our portfolio, build up trust between us and our audience as a newer studio, show off what we can do, and earn some income that we could use to pay for art, music, and marketing the larger game.
Write up contracts that clearly define who is getting paid what and when, with partial payments in the present and the rest paid off with profits once we start selling games.
Scope down. Decide what’s necessary, like sprites, and what can be added later when we have funds, like voice acting.
So, now that Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’ is completely done, would you like to know how much a visual novel costs to make, on a shoestring self funded budget? Well, it’s your lucky day.
Art
This was our biggest expense. I had two artists working on this game, with an additional artist who created our logo. Here’s the breakdown:
Background Art: 4 bgs at $150 USD each = $600 USD in total
Sprite Art: 5 characters, with 4 poses each, at $175 USD each character = $875 USD in total
Sprite Art variations (same pose, slightly different face expression) at $20 USD each = $100 USD in total
Item assets (for this game, things like the Korean text bubbles), various prices depending on the art. = $260 USD in total
Menu Screens, UI, Textbox etc = $500 USD in total
Logo = $500 USD in total
CGs: We can’t currently afford CGs but we do have an unlockable special scene as the ‘good’ ending, which cost another $150.
So that brings the art cost total for Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’ to $2985 USD.
Music
Our composer created an original album for Call Me Cera, of which four songs are in Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’. The four songs are roughly a minute each. They cost $300 USD a minute.
Therefore, $1200 USD in total for the music in Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’.
Sound Effects
Our Sound Effect person is doing the sound effects for all four vignettes and Call Me Cera and will invoice us when it’s completely finished. So, as of now, I don’t have this number.
Programming
I’m solo programming all of the vignettes and Call Me Cera, and I’m not paying myself. Not saying I recommend this but I did what I had to, to ensure those I brought on feel fairly compensated and the game gets made. So, technically zero but only because I want to grow my company and get these games created.
Writing
I also solo wrote Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’. So technically zero. But again, only because I want these games to be made and I’m planning on growing my company into a career for myself.
Playtesting/QA/Sensitivity Readers/Editors
I’m looping this together because many of our sensitivity readers and editors were also playtesters. We had about two dozen volunteers who playtested the game at various stages, as well as about a dozen of additional people, who filled out forms answering research questions for things like how to style Amira’s hijab. When the game was closer to completion, we paid a group of people to playtest. We also paid a group of sensitivity readers. We also paid for Korean translations for the Korean text message assets.
Keeping in mind the lion’s share of this category were friends and generous volunteers, the total we paid was $500 USD.
Community and Social Media Management
It’s incredibly important to have a person keeping an eye on your community. Not only do you want to ensure a positive experience for those who are spending money on your game, but it is a reflection of you and your company. It’s also important to keep social media accounts active. Although I do the analytic/metric/strategy stuff myself, I brought on someone to schedule social media posts each month so our accounts stay active, as well as function as head mod for our Discord.
$50 USD a month, with a scheduled raise every 3 months. After some time, they will eventually take over the entire Community Management role but, as I can’t afford to pay them more at this time, we have kept it to the Discord mod and social media post scheduling duties for now.
Marketing, Localization, Steam’s Cut, and all the rest
Our current running total of the above for this hour long visual novel game is $5185.
Remember, I’m also not paying myself for writing and programming, which is arguably the biggest part of making a visual novel game. So, this total is only a fraction of how much this game cost.
Now, yes, we can and will reuse many of the assets in Call Me Cera. That’s the point. The menu screens, UI, music, sprites, even the foundational coding will all be reused. The hope is that each of the vignettes pay for the art and music in them so that, when Call Me Cera comes out, everyone but me is paid back for what they are owed and I can start putting money toward our next game.
Steam takes 30% and Call Me Cera will be on Steam. However, the vignettes will be on itch.io, which allows us to set the cut at 10%. We’re also donating a percentage of profits to charities that benefit the groups that our characters represent. Expenses like these also need to be factored into your visual novel budget.
As a side note, we are planning a Kickstarter soon, which will hopefully make us enough for marketing and maybe some extras, like voice acting and localization.
So, to summarize so far, Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’ cost about $10,000 to create. (Assuming ~$2k USD each for a writer and a programmer, which is a low rate guesstimate.)
Point is, for this lovingly crafted, hour long visual novel, it cost about half of what a minimum wage worker working full time in the USA makes a year.
GLHC releases in 13 days. In 13 days, it could not make a dime. That’s a very real possibility. With no marketing budget, I’m relying on my outreach efforts and generosity of friends with clout. There’s no guarantee we’ll sell enough copies to make up for the cost. Which means, what I owe my contractors is on me.
I say all this for two major reasons: 1. Good games are expensive to make, even the simple, short ones you might assume are cheap and 2. It’s important to ask yourself if you’re okay not making any of that money back. Making an indie game, especially a visual novel, is risky. Visual novels are treated as non-games or jokes, in many circles. There are a ton of free visual novels that have set the expectation that paying for a visual novel isn’t worth it. And, it is very difficult to get funding for a visual novel, so the risk is likely going to be all on you.
I’ll be writing an article soon about what it’s like to pitch a visual novel to funds and publishers and what to expect. However, know that despite VNs having a thriving community and being a safe space for LGBT+ and marginalized people to have their stories told and shared, VNs aren’t seen as money makers to many publishers. Publishers, by nature, are risk adverse so it’s a hard sell to get funding.
There you have it. Complete transparency of what Good Lookin’ Home Cookin’ cost to create. If this article helped you, please tell someone about our game. You can link them to here: https://toadhousegames.itch.io/ It will be live at 12:15pm US Eastern on April 14th, for $5 USD. Wish us luck! <3