From the same interview, they said they scaled up from a team of about 65 for It Takes Two to a team of about 80 for Split Fiction, which they made in four years. Back of the napkin math means that Split Fiction was made for about $50M. I find game budgets to be really interesting to track lately, because so many have become so reckless with them that it’s great to see what can be made if you scope down.
An assumption that each employee costs them about $150k/year in salary/office space/benefits. There are lots of ways it can be more complicated than that, including the fact that they’re in Sweden, but last I heard, $150k/year/developer was about what you’d expect to pay in the US, if a company was interested in replicating this kind of development in a place where labor costs are probably highest.
I’m currently playing split fiction with a friend and it’s really good, we enjoyed it takes two when that came out as well. There’s not enough co-op games like this so it’s good to hear they’re doing well
“A way out” is by the same devs and also pretty cheap.
They had some good parts in there already but the shift to stylized characters definitely was the right call.
A lot of yellow paint and weird interactions in the first one but still very enjoyable.
Oh I never realised that was the same devs, we’ve played the entire series and loved those as well! (The second one wasn’t as good but the third and fourth were great)
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I can’t tell you how nice it is to see this variation on the story instead of “studio behind hit new game shuts down.”
This reminded me of Larian, and I wondered what these two had in common. (Hazelight studios is swedish)
Making good games?
I was thinking more “not in the us”
Fair enough.
From the same interview, they said they scaled up from a team of about 65 for It Takes Two to a team of about 80 for Split Fiction, which they made in four years. Back of the napkin math means that Split Fiction was made for about $50M. I find game budgets to be really interesting to track lately, because so many have become so reckless with them that it’s great to see what can be made if you scope down.
How you conclude that Split Fiction Budget Was $50 Million?
An assumption that each employee costs them about $150k/year in salary/office space/benefits. There are lots of ways it can be more complicated than that, including the fact that they’re in Sweden, but last I heard, $150k/year/developer was about what you’d expect to pay in the US, if a company was interested in replicating this kind of development in a place where labor costs are probably highest.
Wow, you mean they didn’t make a successful game and then immediately triple their staff and try to start pumping out formulaic games at double pace?
But what about company growth??
“Exciting Thing” is a meh title name…
/s
I’m currently playing split fiction with a friend and it’s really good, we enjoyed it takes two when that came out as well. There’s not enough co-op games like this so it’s good to hear they’re doing well
“A way out” is by the same devs and also pretty cheap. They had some good parts in there already but the shift to stylized characters definitely was the right call. A lot of yellow paint and weird interactions in the first one but still very enjoyable.
Oh I never realised that was the same devs, we’ve played the entire series and loved those as well! (The second one wasn’t as good but the third and fourth were great)
Probably one of the few smaller developers who are doing very well under EA’s umbrella.