10 developers that are paid a normal programmer salary (~$100k) with overhead (~3x), and suddenly you burn through all of the kickstarter money in a year. Stormgate has 50 full time employees, so it's going to be very expensive to keep the studio going. IMO, they should have worked with a smaller team for a longer period of time because core parts of the game are still very rough.
The Agent that brought in the $25 million into Frost Giant from Kakao Games took $9.7 million of the $25 million. That kind of money doesn't just walk in the door. With deals as big as $25 million is the accountant and lawyers that get paid the most. The lowly software code monkeys ... get paid like monkeys.
Great discussion! I agree that the first look at Stormgate's Editor has restored a good chunk of that lost trust. Regarding Frost Giant's decision to spend resources on a physical office: Eleventh Hour Games, a fully remote studio, has moved this discussion forward recently by releasing a fantastic product in Last Epoch. Can mid-sized studios justify the cost of collocation in the current market environment? I don't know the answer, but I can still respect Frost Giant's decision and I still trust that they will produce a successful product.
Last Epoch is insanely good and 100% agree. Personally think it very much can be a huge waste of otherwise useful financial resources to secure a physical office, but I think that hugely depends on corporate structure and dynamics. But Frost Giant has got money to burn so I don't think they really care if it's worth the return on investment or not 😂.
I'm not sold on Stormgate. Even though I can recognize the amount of efforts put into it, it looks too much like starcraft 3 for now. Spending so much money into that development perhaps would have warranted a more original or creative approach.
Some StarCraft, some Warcraft in there for sure! It's very purposely targeting the fans of these games. Maybe you need something more fresh though, and that is fine as a preference. - Naka
@@andreicristian9575 well it's made by the devs who tried to make SC3 and WC4 at Blizzard but Activision said no so they're doing it on their own. if blizzard won't support their IPs then Stormgate is the best we can hope for
@@miavolosss Well if this is the design they could come up with then I'm glad Activision didn't greenlight it lol. The story you're repeating there is a "cool story bro", but nothing more.
Outside of Gamescom and The Game Awards, I believe there was no paid promotion for Stormgate. All social media and content creation presence is organic, with insider access provided to key people. - Naka
@@RTSMasterminds The Agent who brought in the $25 million deal with Kakao took $9.7 million leaving Frost Giant with $15.3 million. You think he took too much? Well Frost Giant can have $0 and the Agent doesn't get his cut. $25 million does not just walk in the door. You have to go and get it. and whoever brings in that kind of money gets a big piece of it. its not like major investors were lining up for Frost Giant. You can now see how desperate they are for cash.
Thank you for taking the time to talk about this subject. Great points all around, lovely to listen to.
10 developers that are paid a normal programmer salary (~$100k) with overhead (~3x), and suddenly you burn through all of the kickstarter money in a year. Stormgate has 50 full time employees, so it's going to be very expensive to keep the studio going. IMO, they should have worked with a smaller team for a longer period of time because core parts of the game are still very rough.
Rajesh will work for $10,000 per annum for 13 hours a day
The Agent that brought in the $25 million into Frost Giant from Kakao Games took $9.7 million of the $25 million. That kind of money doesn't just walk in the door. With deals as big as $25 million is the accountant and lawyers that get paid the most. The lowly software code monkeys ... get paid like monkeys.
Great discussion! I agree that the first look at Stormgate's Editor has restored a good chunk of that lost trust.
Regarding Frost Giant's decision to spend resources on a physical office: Eleventh Hour Games, a fully remote studio, has moved this discussion forward recently by releasing a fantastic product in Last Epoch. Can mid-sized studios justify the cost of collocation in the current market environment? I don't know the answer, but I can still respect Frost Giant's decision and I still trust that they will produce a successful product.
Last Epoch is insanely good and 100% agree. Personally think it very much can be a huge waste of otherwise useful financial resources to secure a physical office, but I think that hugely depends on corporate structure and dynamics. But Frost Giant has got money to burn so I don't think they really care if it's worth the return on investment or not 😂.
Most of it would come down to management. How the funds and teams are managed. Unfortunately, not everyone manages this well.
I'm not sold on Stormgate. Even though I can recognize the amount of efforts put into it, it looks too much like starcraft 3 for now. Spending so much money into that development perhaps would have warranted a more original or creative approach.
Some StarCraft, some Warcraft in there for sure! It's very purposely targeting the fans of these games. Maybe you need something more fresh though, and that is fine as a preference.
- Naka
@@RTSMasterminds I am a fan of those games, but see this one as an uninspired, deprecated copy.
@@andreicristian9575 well it's made by the devs who tried to make SC3 and WC4 at Blizzard but Activision said no so they're doing it on their own. if blizzard won't support their IPs then Stormgate is the best we can hope for
@@miavolosss Well if this is the design they could come up with then I'm glad Activision didn't greenlight it lol. The story you're repeating there is a "cool story bro", but nothing more.
Answer: Maybe don´t spend all your money on bribing people and advertisments before you have a roughly finished game.
Outside of Gamescom and The Game Awards, I believe there was no paid promotion for Stormgate. All social media and content creation presence is organic, with insider access provided to key people.
- Naka
@@RTSMasterminds The Agent who brought in the $25 million deal with Kakao took $9.7 million leaving Frost Giant with $15.3 million. You think he took too much? Well Frost Giant can have $0 and the Agent doesn't get his cut. $25 million does not just walk in the door. You have to go and get it. and whoever brings in that kind of money gets a big piece of it. its not like major investors were lining up for Frost Giant. You can now see how desperate they are for cash.