Board Game Arena

Just like the title says, my question is: Can you make money by developing games for BGA?

I have never seen any information regarding compensation when developing games on this platform. I see that the "volunteers" are mentioned, but... are all developers here just that, the volunteers?

And if it is possible to be paid to work on games for BGA, who should pay the developer? How much on average, and is there enough work to make this a full-time job?

Thank you

MilanGM wrote: ↑18 December 2024, 18:25 Just like the title says, my question is: Can you make money by developing games for BGA?

https://en.doc.boardgamearena.com/How_t ... er_team%3F

MilanGM wrote: ↑18 December 2024, 18:25 I have never seen any information regarding compensation when developing games on this platform. I see that the "volunteers" are mentioned, but... are all developers here just that, the volunteers?

Definitely not. In fact, many games are developed by freelancers, especially big premium games.

MilanGM wrote: ↑18 December 2024, 18:25 And if it is possible to be paid to work on games for BGA, who should pay the developer?

The publisher.

MilanGM wrote: ↑18 December 2024, 18:25 How much on average,

It depends on the game itself and the project's conditions.

MilanGM wrote: ↑18 December 2024, 18:25 and is there enough work to make this a full-time job?

Probably no. Check the link above.

To add to (and reiterate) what ufm said...

Yes, you can make money by programming on BGA by finding publishers willing to pay you for adaptations. You'll probably start by doing a couple smaller projects for little or no compensation, especially for self-published games you see requested on this forum a lot.

No, I would not make this my full time job. It's a lot of fun and I enjoy doing adaptations, but if you have the skills needed to do a BGA adaptation, you could likely work for a real company and make real money. Granted, being a freelancing gamer/programmer has its own appeal, but so does making enough money to provide for my family.

BGA developing is a great side project.

Thank you guys for your reply

But let's say I have a publisher interested in making the tutorial for BGA. And let's say that the game is Boop. How much should I charge them?
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/355433/boop

And how long would it last to make that adaptation? (on average)

You're asking us how long it will take you to do an adaptation. That's really tough to answer for someone else. Given that this is your first game, I would allow yourself at least a solid year.

As for price, that's going to depend entirely on you and the publisher. As I indicated above, my strategy is to charge a very low amount for my first adaptation. It gives you time to learn the ropes and lower timeline expectations.

I also advise publishers to shop around and get quotes from other developers in case they find a timeline and bid that work better for them. This ensures that both sides are happy once a deal is struck.

MilanGM wrote: ↑19 December 2024, 14:38 Thank you guys for your reply

But let's say I have a publisher interested in making the tutorial for BGA. And let's say that the game is Boop. How much should I charge them?
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/355433/boop

And how long would it last to make that adaptation? (on average)

Adaptation time can vary a loooot and it most of the time not completely related to the perceived "difficulty" of the game ("it's just a card game with 50 unique card effects!"...). As an experienced dev, I would consider an average game (something like Welcome To or Heat) to be around 100h of my work and charged accordingly. But I have made games that were three or four time shorter than that and other that were three or four time longer than that so the average value is probably not very relevant.

Wow, that's actually pretty long. I wasn't expecting that.
Thank you guys for your answers

MilanGM wrote: ↑22 December 2024, 18:05Wow, that's actually pretty long. I wasn't expecting that.

At the risk of repeating myself, I strongly, strongly[/n] recommend programming up a sample game first, even if it's just something simple like Uno that never gets released to the site.

Until you've tried it, you don't know what you don't know.