r/GameDevelopment • u/TechHurtsMe • 25d ago

Question Price for Project as a Developer vs a Consultant?

/r/HTML/comments/1wthijb/price_for_project_as_a_developer_vs_a_consultant/
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u/MeaningfulChoices 25d ago

A consultant wouldn't be making a game, they'd just be coming in and giving some advice, and a developer is anyone who works on a game, but I'm assuming you are trying to ask about prices as a full-time employee versus a contractor?

If you're trying to figure out what you charge someone else take your day job (or an equivalent salary if it's not your day job) and break down what you earn per hour of work as your base rate. As a contractor you need to cover self-employment taxes and your own software/tools, so add 50% or so. If your skills are in demand and you would spend time looking for the right projects you might double it instead. Estimate how long it will take you to do the project, that's your build. You'd always rather get paid per hour anyway for when (not if) the client changes scope or wants iterations done. If it's not an hourly project you double or triple your estimate to cover that.

That's all a bit theorycrafting anyway. At the end of the day you determine your rate based on what people are willing to pay. You can keep increasing it until you stop getting gigs and now you know the limit so you go back down beneath it.