Following in the footsteps of people like Fred Hicks at Evil Hat, I’m going to post about the business side of Mimusubi, with actual numbers. I can be open about this, at least for now, because I have a lot of things going on apart from Mimusubi, so these posts will tell you very little about my personal financial situation.
The summary is: lots of red ink.
This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, I haven’t sold anything, and I have had expenses. So, here’s the breakdown.
Internet Presence: ¥18,780
Advertising: ¥55,015
Labour: ¥214,500
Internet Presence is basically the hosting fees for this site. Yes, it’s higher than it could be, but I want the site to be on a reliable server that will scale, and I can afford it from my other income.
Advertising hasn’t happened yet. I got in on a couple of Kickstarters, one with someone I know directly, and one with someone I know indirectly, and paid for levels that will have them advertising Kannagara some time this year. So I need to get it moving. This will involve convention demos in the US, something I have trouble doing personally, and provide a channel for marketing to people interested in RPGs and Japan. I have no idea whether they will actually pan out, but they both provide something strategically useful.
Labour is paying me for the time I have put into the project. I’ve figured the hourly rate as the rate that I could choose to get paid if I dropped Kannagara as a project, so that it accurately represents my opportunity cost. As this isn’t an out-of-pocket expense, the number is a bit notional, but Mimusubi won’t be really profitable until it has paid for all of my work, as well as anyone else’s.
So, I’ve been going for a year, more or less, and I have lost ¥288,295, or around $3,000, depending on where the exchange rate is. The investment is still quite small, but I haven’t finished developing the game yet.
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