The Business Side Of Game Development

[@Murihey]

Regarding office - you can look into being remote-first. It's not panacea, but it solves a whole bunch of issues described in the video and lowers your overhead. The flip side of it is: - You're likely going to need to adjust your process heavily around remote communication - You will need to figure out how to do remote IT support - Your version control, build farms etc. would need to be located somewhere in a data center or cloud provider. - You'll probably need to cover some of the costs for electricity, home office supplies etc. I guess there are also other issues that I haven't run into, since I've only done this with 5 people at this point.

[@bignut8466]

Just throwing out Tim’s little ramble at the beginning huh

[@BrandanLee]

We're also a team of 5 (6 & 7 including accounting and OST) and do things fully remote. We provide home office costs in the invoices if they need it and they've always been super reasonable. If I expanded to 30+ I'd start to want to centralize my office & logistics in a small co-op space? The accounting and HR folk prefer working together in person, whereas we nerds are all happy in our dark little home dens.

[@sleepchat]

Thank you, good insight!

[@michaelduan5592]

I had a 30+ person team, with half of them being remote. Our launch went horribly because most of the remote workers ended up doing no work, bad work, or unfinished work. As is the nature of game development, you have to kind of trust people for a long time before seeing results. It's a lot harder to "feel" if someone is faking work remotely vs. in person. In person is quite obvious. I think it can work if you have an established veteran team though. Something to consider.

[@Murihey]

​@@michaelduan5592 I don't think hybrid works. Remote work does need a different way of interaction and has different issues than in-person work. And if most of your core team is used to in-person work, you will not build up collaboration workflows necessary for remote work, you will not trust people working remotely the same way you trust people working in-person, people working remotely will get excluded and disgruntled more easily.

[@View619]

This is absolutely crucial information, Tim. Especially the piece on protecting yourself/company in this time of indie development growth. Keep up the good work!

[@SuccessMindsett-t4k]

Yeah that essentials! But I have a question

[@inevgames]

This is really the thing that game designers fear the most

[@korpos8833]

But somebody has to do it ...

[@inevgames]

@@korpos8833 Yea unfortunately

[@korpos8833]

@@inevgames yeap

[@billy6427]

This is the most important Part because if u aren't doing Business U aren't making money

[@dearmas9068]

​@@billy6427 lol, thanks bud. What would we do without you...

[@metarenegade]

5:53 I helped my friend start a dog grooming business a few years back, and this is so real. The "corporate veil of security," does so much for your mental health. If you want to start your own business, you have to be the type of person who can handle someone walking up to you and telling you everything you've built is at risk of falling apart. That didn't turn out to be true, but for the first year my friend constantly had panic attacks and anxiety because of this, and they actually did have to come to legal bat on some occasions. For instance, they ended up going to court with a previous employer over a non-compete clause, but won the case. They also had a huge and messy legal feud with the co-owner, who they mostly beat out in the court, but then had to build a whole new business from scratch after that. I will say that, 4 years later, they have a very thick skin about being threatened with legal action, and it rarely phases them now. I still go to them for business advice.

[@WastelandChef]

People underestimate this, but no matter how good of an idea or game you have you have, you’re gonna have to do this one way or another. Great insight as always!

[@_ok8362]

Been loving your videos Tim, being in the Industry can be kinda lonely, trying to communicate with people all the things that can go on, especially when it’s not a smooth development. I listen to your videos and it’s like this treasure trove of things that I relate too, or am interested in. So thanks Tim!

[@IndusRiverFlow]

Good video. Touches on an important part of game development that most of us gamers do not see.

[@braydoxastora5584]

Oh we fucking see it everyday when we open our wallets and look at games personal marketplace

[@TheRealJackArthur]

Tim, this video was super helpful. As a young business owner your experience is gold. Thank you.

[@vaniellys]

I love the long pause at 5:30 ! Tim trying to figure out how to explain without giving any details. 😂

[@BobPoekert-nm5sr]

One solution to HR, insurance, payroll taxes, etc is to use a PEO (like trinet or deel). If you're a small company it might not even be more expensive than doing it yourself since you're effectively collectively bargaining alongside all of the PEO's other customers. Also if you're remote and you have employees working in multiple states if you're arranging insurance, etc yourself you have to do that separately for each state, but if you use a PEO they take care of it. Some PEO's even let you hire people internationally (eg: Deel does).

[@hameruson]

Building my first game in my free time, appreciate your insights!

[@mandisaw]

In the US, the Small Business Administration (SBA) offers a mix of online info & in-person assistance to start or maintain your small business. Depending on where you are, State & local gov'ts and private Chambers of Commerce may also have resources available. All free 💜 Even if you're solo, a lot of the business-admin stuff is common across industries. I've found a lot of useful info via books/channels related to home business, professional licensed services (common self-employed careers like accountant, plumber, etc), and our fellow media-arts folks like indie writers, musicians, actors, crafters, etc. Been running my games+apps business for nearly 14yrs now - every year there are tons more free resources available to learn from.

[@Jaqinta]

Hi Tim , correct me if i'm wrong , but i think that in some of your videos i'm summarizing what you said that , you've been have more confort zone for being an Employee rather than being a Employer , it's like you can focus on your profession much more if you work as a Employee . ( might be understand the situation completely different ) I've read some articles or maybe some videos about Steve Wozniak that he simply said that "rather than being one of the administrator of Apple , i would prefer to become employee" . He likes to do his stuff much more than rather working on management stuff. Maybe you have kinda same feelings as him or maybe completely assuming wrong about that .

[@CainOnGames]

Yes, I am more comfortable as an employee than an employer, and mostly for the reason you state, so that I can focus on making games rather than all of the surrounding business details of keeping a company going. It's why I liked going back into a senior role versus being a director, because I rolled up my sleeves and coded and did detailed design work, rather than just oversaw and directed people doing those tasks.

[@anyanyanyanyanyany3551]

4:34 This is actually basic economics 101 that I learned in high school, not in the US though, but elsewhere. Asset protection is a good reason why having a partner and incorporating might work better, even if the required initial investment might be higher as well.

[@mandisaw]

They taught it in the US too, but not at every school, and apparently not for a couple decades, at least. I learned some of it in junior-high home economics & later, HS economics. Buddy of mine from farm-country had a class on entrepreneurship & running a farm business. But we're in our mid/late 40s.

[@SiriusMined]

Actually, a lot can be learned from a failed enterprise. The fact that you made mistakes and you are aware of it helps and you can point out things that people that didn't have those particular problems wouldn't necessarily be aware of

[@imcharming4808]

In most companies there’s a nice lady who does all the headachey stuff that no one else either wants to do, knows how to do, or both 😂

[@tjrobertson9807]

Thank you for convincing me never to start a game studio 😂. I'm feeling much better about being a solo dev after watching this

[@sleepchat]

Honest question: where did the money come from to hire offices, hire a team and give you enough runway to build your visions into reality?

[@CainOnGames]

Our publishers. They pay you an advance for the game, which you pay back out of your royalty share after the game ships.

[@sleepchat]

@@CainOnGames Guess I better get a solid GDD and game slice ready! Thanks Tim, appreciate the content immensely.

[@SethStoker]

Thanks you so much, answered some of the questions I had.

[@SuccessMindsett-t4k]

Really? Like what questions?😊

[@LTPottenger]

Why it makes sense for indy developers to make a working game first, then get artwork and market. But ironically this way of doing things gets one millionth the support as a couple cool looking art doodles and grandiose promises.

[@mandisaw]

Art is as much part of what makes a game as the gameplay mechanics. And marketing is a crucial part of any commercial venture. You can make games as a hobby, and ignore all of this stuff. But if it's to be a business, then yeah, you've got to treat it seriously as a business.

[@Me__Myself__and__I]

Parking. That is very much an LA problem . I've worked in several states at startups through large corps. Only in LA was there a SERIOUS lack of parking. And the parking in LA was sometimes ridiculous like having to park a mile away at some lot the company rented. If you are negotiating a lease absolutely ask and ensure you get adequate spaces. But luckily in a lot of places it will likely not be an issue.

[@Steak514]

Other than incorporating which is pretty easy, this all sounds like such a headache. Makes me happy in some ways I'm working with a small remote team on an indie, rather than getting a publisher and ramping up so quickly.

[@uziao]

Thank you for sharing, Tim :) Luminous hugs from Brasil

[@BrandanLee]

I love that in 2024 there's almost no reason to have a corporate office. Functionally everything we do we can do remotely, online. It helps if certain discussions happen in person, and voice chat daily or weekly is an absolute must, but running a discord/slack and email + gitlfs ticking away as commits happen, transferring files to your cloud storage from artists... the entire development can happen online. The only pain points for me and my team are: we kinda miss hanging out together, just shooting the shit and keeping up with each other as friends outside work. We do leave a little window of time after the weekly meeting to just voice random life updates, and we can always call each other during the week, but it's not the same as going out to eat and just talking about life or random ideas. That's a bummer. But we are also on 4 continents: Spain, UK, Japan, Canada & the US. Narrative dialogue also suffers, as it often helps to just write in person together over a pair of laptops, and have another person writing notes what we've auto-dictated in the writer's room. Not having that hurts the quality of writing at most game studios already, where writing is very dry and distanced from acting out what you've written, so a voice actor can, you know, actually read your writing before they get it on the day. Sometimes you really do just have to read your voice dialogue out loud yourself, and realize, this sentence is a trip hazard. Doing that together as writers really helps make more honest, emotionally resonant dialogue. The coders also express some issues in communication and siloing, because they are only having voice chats when I am around to conduct them. It would be fixed if we had another programmer manager, just for them, instead of me running the whole show plus artists. They do use Notion and our own wiki, plus discord, but the frequency and depth of communication is lessened by the remote nature of the job. That doesn't happen as much in person, but paradoxically, the in-person meetings are a nightmare. Whiteboards can just be shared over Draw.io or Figma or whatever you want to use.

[@Anubis1101]

Yea it's much harder to plan in-person meetings now, especially convincing people to show up. With all the companies unilaterally pushing for RTO, I feel there's too much pushback against in-person stuff.

[@BigAbuelaEnergy]

Hiya Tim! As an instructional designer that works on eLearning and developing in-person training, I’m inspired by game design principles like effective tutorialization and the potential of tabletop style role play to improve engagement in content that’s usually the bane of any workplace - it’s an exciting place to be since most corporate training stinks. On the topic of the business logistical side of things, I’m curious about your experience with how training is incorporated into game development workplaces - think onboarding, on the job training, coaching, workshops, and/or corporate mandated training (in eLearning and/or classroom settings). As much as I’m curious to learn what may have qualified as “not bad” in that genre, I’d be just as open to your critical thoughts on training experiences, too. Cheers and thanks for offering some of your little gray cells to us up-and-comers!

[@CainOnGames]

I am not sure I can address training, since I have never received training in a work setting. I learned coding on my own and also academically, but everything I learned about management, production, and design was hard-won by doing it on the job.

[@BigAbuelaEnergy]

That’s fascinating…but not altogether surprising. I’m used to much more structure applied to things like succession planning, performance enhancement, or training and mentorship. In its worst form it probably just translates to HR meddling, but we aspire to bake more mentor/employee empowerment into those systems. I’ve not spent time in games industry, but I can say for most other private (and public) industries, high value candidates are considering clear lanes for advancement and skills growth in prospective workplaces, but if I think about it that selective dynamic is probably the inverse in games industry. For that matter, formal training takes time, and it’s never sounded like that’s something that’s exactly abundant in game dev.

[@tslfrontman]

Great video Tim, I didn't expect it to be so comprehensive 👌 Would you be able to do a video on making a rulebook for an RPG? I'm currently stuck with a Googledoc like a textbook and I want to make it presentable and printable from home. Thanks again!

[@SaberVS7]

Hello Tim - I'm curious as to your thoughts on the matters of "Pageantry" or "Prestige" in the industry, particularly the matter of "Awards Shows" which there's been a lot of discourse online about in recent years. I just saw an article in my feed recently concerning a studio that has had to start sending a rotating roster of developers/management to shows as they were receiving invitations to shows so often it was disrupting day-to-day development work. How valuable do you consider(ed) shows/events like this as a matter concerning professionalism and networking, vs the "awards" themselves?

[@felicianofrontado3134]

Fun Friday suggestion: what would the best type of dogmeat (dog breed) to have in Fallout's Wasteland ? Golden Retriever, Rottweiler ? Daschund 🐶 ?

[@anonvideo738]

Do you think trioka could have worked if you had someone dedicated to just doing all the business tasks, so you, Anderson and Boyarski could just focus on making games? I think you already spilled the beans on who sued you in another video (I think it was the trails of temple of elemental evil video, or maybe the arcanum development timeline vid).

[@635574]

Could you go into what do publishers do for games and who and when should get a publisher? Or who shouldn't?

[@NotoriousROZ]

Hey Tim! I have a question about programming. I've mentioned a few times in your comments that I'm working on some Unity prototypes (what you'd call "demos"), and found it a really gratifying experience. I learned some basics of C#, the Unity API, and the Unity editor itself. I've been getting those ingrained into my mind by trying to make whatever strikes my fancy out of them and learn new skills. (Right now I'm building Fallout New Vegas' character creator and dialogue systems into a text-based RPG system, just for my own amusement. I've learned a lot with this method (thankfully, I'm a hands on learner), but I am a little concerned that I'm not learning the difference between the Unity API and what's actually a part of the C# language, and was thinking I should do at least a little bit of practice specific to programming on the side. I want to focus on narrative design overall, so I don't know if I need to be an expert in coding. But I know learning some more would definitely be a boon to these projects I've been working on. So the short version / TL;DLR of this comment is: Do you have any recommendations for leaning a new programming language in terms of resources or methods? Or is it better to just focus my attention on developing my own prototypes in the engine and keep learning that way? Also, how much programming would recommend someone learn if they're interested in Narrative design?

[@CainOnGames]

I wouldn't worry too much about HOW you are learning a language. Just the fact that you are learning it puts you ahead of a majority of people. No matter how you learn a language, it's going to be part of a larger system, either an engine or an OS or both, so you will learning that language in that system. It's all good. As for learning programming to do narrative design, I approve of that but it is not necessary. Most narrative designers I know cannot code.

[@NotoriousROZ]

@@CainOnGames That's reassuring to hear! I've tried to learn basic coding a few times and I've always failed to get past that barrier to entry. Most I've learned in previous attempts is HTML and some basic Java. Now I'm writing c# code from scratch and debugging it myself (for the most part, I turn to Reddit when I'm stuck but I keep trying to figure it out for myself while waiting for responses). It's nice to know that coding doesn't have to be my primary focus. I'm going to keep learning more for these personal demos I'm building. Plus, since I'm playing around with the idea of narrative design as a path for myself, it'd be nice to have another skill on my resume other than my writing credentials / portfolio. Thanks for your quick response, I hope you're having a wonderful day ^_^

[@alexanderchurakov2641]

Hi Tim! Thanks to you I also started writings notes on my game development career. Do you have any advice on how to approach it better, without getting tired too soon. Is it important to stick to only fact or is it also important to express feeling and emotions in the notes? Should I write every day or only when something worthwhile happens? What’s the main difference between writing these notes and a diary?

[@_ok8362]

I’m also interested in this! I keep random screenshots, and builds, but your notes seem like a great idea

[@CainOnGames]

Have you seen my two videos about my notes? Here’s part 2, which links to part 1. About My Notes, Part 2 kzbin.info/www/bejne/roWpXouAipZma6s

[@alexanderchurakov2641]

@@CainOnGames I'll check it out, thanks!

[@dolphinz0436]

Tim first of all love the video but i wonder if you can answer one of my questions. How did you decide the perspective for your games? When i look at games you have done like fallout which was in third person and games like outerworld which was in first. They are both incredible games but they make the player look at the world in completely different ways. I was wondering what was your thought process with something as simple as what viewpoint a player will see the world in and if it even matters at all?

[@SiriusMined]

Yes, wires are still used.

[@LordPlebulus]

Awesome video! What is your experience with pitching games as an employee? Did you ever feel hesitant about pitching ideas since the company would own it and might hand it off to another team? Is that one of the reasons you started Troika to retain ownership of your games?

[@CainOnGames]

It never bothered me too much back then (it does somewhat now, seeing where some of my IPs went). But we never retained IP ownership at Troika. It's hard to negotiate that when you are asking for full funding.

[@JamesLatimer]

E&O insurance hasn't gotten any cheaper, as the owner of my company tells me.

[@likwidmocean]

I cosign your advice on taking advice from people who have never done a thing. However, you're a big school guy, so how do you square that circle? Makes me think of that old movie "Back to School' with Dangerfield, when he's in business class.

[@GlebMichal]

Hi Tim. How can we identify risky areas when using popular solutions to design specific features? It seems like there's no way to avoid such lawsuits. For example, if we're developing an MMORPG, there are countless mechanics that have all been used before. Thank you.

[@AlucardNoir]

I have an unrelated question that was spurred by YT recommending your month old Git Gud video. Why do game devs make mid game content as post game DLC and post game content islands? For example I'm currently playing Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous (because the Russians at Owlcat still think Dostoevsky is alive and Pathfinder: Crusade would have been too short - that or Pizo actually named their module that) and I bought the game post all DLC coming out. But looking at the DLC that came out, part of it is added to the base game requiring a second or third playthrough of a game that can easily get to 100 hours just with the base game, and the other are post game content islands. Some are incorporated into the game padding it's run time, but some are content island parallel to the end of the base game that need to be done seperatly, but which might have minor effects on the baseline game via an import. My question is why not just make a stand alone expansion then? Both Fallout 2 and New Vegas were basically that for Fallout 1 and 3 respectively. Why make DLC most people are not going to play, let alone buy when you can make a stand alone expansion or a new game? Has Blizzard corrupted gamers so much with their base game equaling expansions for Starcraft and Warcraft 3 so much gamers can't play a game unless it comes with expansions? Has Bethesdan's horse armour made it imposible to develop a game without at least 1 $5 mictrotransaction attached to it? Have publishers ruined gaming to such an extent devs need DLC to even approach finishing their game like it was the case for Tyranny? I never finished The Outer Wilds because when I was just outside that door to start the final sequence I decided I'd go do the DLC content I had missed and lost interest in the game. But that's just one such game I never finished that you happen to have worked on. But the truth is most gamers do not finish most games they buy. The aforementioned Pathfinder WotR? 33% of people that bought it on Steam never got the finished the tutorial achievement. 66% never finished act 2 of a 6 act game where act 4 is short and act 6 is basically the epilogue. Under these conditions why make DLC most people are never going to play to see, let alone buy? Why not double down of the people that liked your game and make a stand alone expansion set in the same universe? Most of Pathfinder WotR is based on the base Owlcat developed for Pathfidner Kingmaker, their previous game. You yourself made Fallout 2 in a slightly modified version of the Fallout 1 engine. Frozen Throne and Brood War could have been their own games, done in the same engines. Why not just make a new game from all the pieces that got cut from the old game and the content that would have been DLC? If they're going to be post end game content and in game islands that will have almost no impact of the base game, why not push it one step further? Sorry for the wall of text. Hope you didn't find this too personal or an atack.

[@CainOnGames]

Some contracts specify that DLC is to be made. Many players like and even expect DLC. So that’s why DLC is made. As for the decision of where to add new content, that problem is similar to the problems making sequels. How do you figure what most players did in their games so as to maximize new content availability? Most people do not finish games, so putting all of the new content at the end is a bad idea. Also, putting new content throughout the game encourages replayability.

[@AlucardNoir]

@@CainOnGames Ok, fallow up question then. 1. Do you think Fallout 2 and New Vegas would have sold better or worse had they been DLC released today - assuming 1 and 3 were also released today? 2. Do you think Fallout 1 and 3 would have made more money that 1&2 and 3&New Vegas combined had 2 and New Vegas been DLC expansions sold both separately AND as season passes at launch? (sad to say but this is probably the most pertinent question) 3. Most people don't finish games - that is something that we can both easily verify thanks to public achievements on platforms like Steam. What we can't do is see how many people buy DLC so here's a question from someone on the outside to someone on the inside, do DLCs sell well enough on their own to justify more being made... or does most money from DLC come in the form of season passes sold at launch or pre-launch? And if the latter... does it matter when the content within is places story wise? 4. In your professional opinion, what sold better, Baldur's gate and Icewind dale as separate products or Pillar and it's under the castle dungeon dlc? And depending on the answer, would a modern icewind dale be worth developing? or should present day CRPG developers like Obsidian(assuming Obsidian will make more pillars after Avowed fails), Owlcat and Larian give up on dungeon DLCs in favour of more story DLC?

[@CainOnGames]

@@AlucardNoir I am not sure about estimating sales. I have always been bad at that, and from the data of my own games, there seems to be little correlation between quality (as measured by review scores) and sales numbers. Some games just hit at the right time and for the right people. As for sequels vs DLCs, publishers are the ones who usually ask for DLC. It's part of the initial contract, and the DLC can be viewed as a tool for bolstering sales of the base game, since it's required to run the DLC. Sequels usually require a new contract, but they can be stand alone games and don't always bolster the sales of the previous one. In fact, sometimes they cannibalize the sales, when players think "why should I play a three year old game when I could play the newest one?".

[@AlucardNoir]

@@CainOnGames Fair's fair. In a world where stock brokers lose millions predicting the stock market, someone coming out and saying he won't try being an oracle even when he has your experience should be considered a breath of fresh air. That being said, I don't agree with the publishers on that DLC policy. When's the last time you taught it necessary to buy a base game for the DLC or expansion? when's the last expansion that was so good you had to recommend people buy the base game just so they could play it? I will give you sales cannibalization though. I would have never recommended people play Caesar I or II after III came out, and I was always more into Age of Mythology but is that cannibalization argument always true? Did people not buy Fallout 1 anymore because 2 came out 1 year later? Would they just avoid Shadowrun Returns because Dragonfall came out 1 year later, and then avoid both because Hong Kong came out a year after that? I'm in the New Vegas over 3 camp, but if the games are made by the same people, and come out within a year of one another would there really be sales cannibalization? Would Dragon Age Awakening have cannibalized the sales of Origins had it been it's sequel as opposed to the action RPG we got in II? If the sequels is close enough to the original game play wise, and comes quickly enough I think they'd bolster each others sales. Or at least that's my uninformed opinion. But you'd know better based on your own experience and you're probably right if the sequel takes 3-5 years to make.

[@commandershepard6238]

Love listening to you talk while doing chores. Anyways I have a question, how do you deal with fans in public or at conventions when they ask for an autograph or photo?

[@Anubis1101]

As low as the bar is today, would you ever consider releasing an indie game yourself? Say if you had a really good side-project going and managed to get it to a workable state in your free time, would you ever consider just dropping it on Steam or something?

[@CainOnGames]

Perhaps. Another drop in the well.

[@Ifinishedyoutube]

So often we get data of extreme failures and we get all of the data, unrefined, of extreme successes. This is a chance to give us the mundane data. The mundane is the most useful and the most intimate. Intimacy comes from the mundane.

[@berkkarsi]

Would you re-open Troika if you were to only work on games and not managing the company? Thanks for replying on my previous question :)

[@vega7865]

How do u think "working remote" might affect a lot of these new-business costs? Will productivity be such a big tradeoff so as to save not do it

[@Postal0311]

How did Troika handle manage the growing number of employees. Did you have to create a level of middle management or team leads?

[@CainOnGames]

Troika never grew big enough to need middle management. It's maximum size was 35 people.

[@Postal0311]

@@CainOnGames Current company I am at has about half that and is having to put together middle management to handle the problems that have arised. I can only guess that Troika either has such great employees, or such great upper management that middle management was unnecessary. The places I have worked, after about dozen people, middle management because a necessary evil. I'd love to try working at a larger company organized enough to not need them.

[@CaptTerrific]

12:00 just when I couldnt take any more discussion of taxes (and I've worked for two Big 4 firms), this lovely creature shows up to occupy my attention :D

[@CainOnGames]

Oh, I thought you meant me

[@CaptTerrific]

@@CainOnGames You're a close second

[@imcharming4808]

Oooof big 4. RIP your work/life balance.

[@r3m1]

Hey Tim, what's your take on remote staff vs having the team work in an office? Do you have a preference? pros and cons, etc.

[@CainOnGames]

I do have some pros and cons about remote work, and I think that some people won't like some of my cons. It's a polarizing topic, with some people on each side not wanting to hear anything from the other side. I'll put something together. Thanks for the question.

[@keyboardcowboy6078]

Are publishers worth it anymore for indie studios?

[@spudd86]

Would "E&O" also cover things like "your uninstaller has a big and deletes the whole hard drive"?

[@CainOnGames]

I don't know, but luckily that never happened with one of my games so I never had to find out.

[@TheStowAway594]

In my experience no one gives medical anymore. Unless you work for the government, railroad, or a few others, it's not very prevalent anymore. Almost everyone I know pays for themselves now, and it seems like most business have gone to independent contractors, because having employees especially if it's over 10 gets really expensive really fast. It's not doable for most smaller businesses.

[@mandisaw]

Nah, plenty of US private employers offer medical - that was a key requirement of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Some Red States got rid of the mandate, but most other places kept it in place. Companies that do business nationwide just have it as a policy across the company. In some States, even part-time employees get health coverage, over some number of hours/pay-period. And yeah, in unionized industries, including the public-sector, we still get medical, dental, vision, life, the works. Plus a pension & lifetime medical in retirement (on top of SocSec & Medicare). If none of the jobs where you are offer health insurance, then you ought to complain to your State gov't, or look into joining/forming a union.

[@mandisaw]

@@lrinfi Again, that's either small employers (under 50 employees), and/or States where they explicitly got rid of Federal/ACA guidelines. Employer-paid premiums are the norm for FT jobs at midsize or large companies in quite a lot of States. You might see different in PT or contract work, or in an industry/company with crappy retention, but that's a different issue. I'm public-sector now, but at all my past jobs, and among all the full-time employees I know/have known, never had to cover our own insurance. Northeast Corridor region is way too competitive a job market to get away with that - folks would just work for a competitor instead. Besides, States here already require employers to pay for a bunch of other worker-related insurance, it's just figured into the labor overhead.

[@John-i6m8k]

Thumbnail screams, "Lemme tell ya something".

[@lloyd011721]

43 years? thats crazy

[@Chugnut28]

Hi Tim, I can’t become a member for some reason?

[@CainOnGames]

Can you be more specific?

[@Chugnut28]

@@CainOnGames there’s no option to join on your page for me. Where there should be a join button there’s nothing

[@CainOnGames]

@Chugnut28 if you are on the KZbin app on an iOS device, this is a known issue with Apple and the KZbin app. Try using a browser on that device.

[@Pedone_Rosso]

If I'll ever have a company with employees, they will have to embrace the green economy: everybody on bicycle. (No parking spaces needed!) Jokes aside, I only wanted to point out that the fiscal system related to employees costs can be wildly different depending on the country you're opening your company in. Here in Italy, for example, the company pays ALL the taxes for their employees, but there's no need for health insurance whatsoever (it's a public healthcare system, so those fiscal taxes you give to the government in stead of each of your employees basically cover that aspect, so to speak). On another note, there might be quite a few more laws for workers' job protection on this side of the Atlantic, so the "cost" of an unproductive employee might be very different to take into account: at times it might be less expensive, on the short term, not to fire them at all, and just to try to find different ways to make them productive in some way. Thanks for your videos! p.s. (aka the "I do have a bit of experience about these things" section) I had (was?) a company once, a one man company with 2 co-financiers and no employees. And I also was an employee myself in several different kinds of businesses, and with several wildly different kinds of contracts (i.e. I've been directly employed by the company I was actually working at, but also an employee of an external workers' provider company, and a member of a cooperative that provided workers, and a sort of freelance external collaborator, and also an "apprentice" at one point ages ago, which was a special kind of young underpaid worker...)

[@SecondFinale]

Wow, just learned an LLC doesn't usually protect personal assets in IP infringement cases.

[@mandisaw]

Do you have a source for that? There are exceptions to LLC & Corporate liability protection, which can vary by State (or country). In the US, most of the exclusions have to do with criminal activities, willful negligence, injuries/death, that sort of thing. Not a lawyer, but I've not heard of copyright infringement being one of those exclusions. Patent/trademark could be different though 🤔

[@theburntcrumpet8371]

Tim. I know you're a fan of baking. Ever baked your own crumpets?

[@CainOnGames]

I have not.

[@dropkickpherby6994]

Anyone truly serious about making a game company *write this all down somewhere* Part of AAA advantage is they have this set up already and they Know that.

[@dominikdalek]

Tangential but banking system in US so one of the most primitive entities I had displeasure of interfacing with. It is stone age compared to most of Europe (Germany excluded).

[@w_3ird0h]

Hi Tim, it's us, everyone.

[@Criatives.]

😮

[@pirateguitarrr]

3:44 The less qualified people are the more they feel like preaching about something on the internet, usually.

[@lukusridley]

These kinds of discussions always make me want to revolt against the existence of material and social realities. Why do we have to think about THINGS and STUFF... it is an outrage. But also essential and things like the published demanding you pay 1/3 of the value of a contract in specialised insurance is absolutely insane - and perhaps more important that you simply going "get real" got them to back down!

[@mogo-wc7xw]

hey tim, I'm the owner of microsoft bill gates. you are doing everything wrong on a more serious note, is there anything that you orginally designed to do something in a game that most players abused/used incorrectly?

[@VagrantFrontier]

I hate this side!

[@user-zp8kj2cl9g]

You can tell this isn't Tim's field of expertise by the way he stumbles with his own words here.