Lessons From A Lean Hyper Casual Studio: Vol 2: Know Your Worth

Alright, I admit, this is going to be a controversial one, but I think it's super important to understand the value that you bring as a studio / freelancer so that you can properly negotiate in business.

One of the things I struggled with the most when starting off in the Hyper Casual industry was negotiating. I'm naturally a nice guy, people pleaser type and I hate arguing with people.

On the other side, the HC industry has become a bit cut-throat when it comes to publishers and business developers trying to get the best deal they can with a studio, and sometimes employing some psychological tactics to lower the amount they provide to an unprepared studio.

Let's be honest here, a lot of us game developers are a bit naive and simply love the craft of making games and love the concept of our games being played by millions of people.

We are artists or idealistic entrepreneurs in a lot of cases, and in many cases this is our first foray into the world of negotiating and business.

However that's no excuse to let people walk all over us. I made this mistake getting started, and I think it's important that beginner studios understand the secret measure by which business developers / publishing managers make when it comes to getting and making deals with them.

First thing first, you can get a paid deal. I know some publishing managers don't say this and their first order of business is to try to make you make games for the publisher for free.

They will not even offer you a paid-per-prototype deal at first, especially if you have no experience in the industry.

Making free prototypes can be great if you have no experience at all and you want to just get started in the industry, and if you're aware that your skills are not as sharp as they should be. For me that was definitely the case (despite being an indie developer for many years, I had no idea what I was doing in HC).

However after about 5-10 prototypes and your skills have improved a lot, you really should not be working for free anymore. Once you hit a certain "value" threshold, you should be negotiating to get a payment per prototype deal, at the barest minimum, $1k for a prototype.

I just realized publishers are going to hate me for writing this lol. But whatever, it needs to be said.

Another deal you can get is a monthly salary-based deal if you're making bigger games with more features. Basically if you can't make more than 2 games per month because the scope of the games are too large, I would recommend this type of deal.

Bottom line is that you have to fight for your place in this industry and understanding where you stand on the "Value-Meter" so that you can negotiate the right deal for you, %-wise as well as monthly payments.

Be fair with the publisher, as they are indeed our partners and should be treated fairly, but don't let them walk all over you either!