In the last week, there have been a few questions surfacing about where the funding is allocated for Astride’s game development. While this is a fairly easy question, the answer is not so straightforward. We will be doing our best to explain how much it takes to run a game company and where the funds are allocated.
In April 2022, the Kickstarter campaign was finished. Our initial goal was €30,000 euros and the goal was met and exceeded. Now, we live in Norway and Norway has taxes. While the total Kickstarter sum was at €44,000 euros, €15,000 of this went straight to taxes.
For our stretch goals, we listed the €30,000 goal for developing Astride with the current team and 50% FTE until the start of 2023. FTE stands for full-time equivalent and is a unit that indicates the workload of an employed person. However, this does not mean that we would be working 50%. This means that we are getting paid 50%. The work hours have been beyond 100% FTE.
These €30,000 euros would go solely into equity for future funding. In May 2022, we received our first funding from Norsk Filminstitutt. We received €50,000 euros and this was going to fund our development until November of 2022. However, to receive grants, a minimum of 25% equity is required. And thus, €12,500 euros of the Kickstarter funding was used. This was stated in an announcement made in May 2022. As the original plan was to release Astride to early access in December 2022, this would, in theory, be enough. But as you all know, we decided to postpone the release by 6 months.
What happens when a company requests a postponement of a development phase is this; the time limit is exceeded but there are no further funds provided. This means that we had 6 months of unfunded development ahead of us. Thankfully, we had saved Patreon and Kickstarter funds as a safety net, and we were able to get by on this. All of the developers saw a decline in wages. We went from working 50% FTE and down to 25% FTE. Keep in mind the workload has still been at 100%.
The last year has been difficult, not only in development but in living. While we will not go into details about each member’s living costs, the whole team has been living well below the poverty line since the beginning of the development. This is to underline that we are not running off with any money or misplacing it. We are incredibly careful with how the funding is spent.
While it is understandable that there are worries as to where the funding has gone, keep in mind that budgets are required for acquiring government funding. Down to a single cent, every wage, purchase, or fee is planned and in our budget along with a Gantt diagram. The budget has to be accepted by the government funding and is to be strictly followed. If there was something that didn’t make sense in the budget, they would have rejected it instantly.
A few months ago, we were happy to announce that we had not only received one, but two grants for one development phase that will last out in the year 2023. Østnorsk Filmsenter and Norsk Filminstitutt came together in granting a total funding of €100,000 euros. As for the required equity, at least 25% of the total funding was covered on our side. That’s another €25,000 euros that we are paying for this period of funding.
In addition to funding equity, running a company requires insurance, employment taxes, revisors, office rent at Hamar Game Collective (where we are also provided with guidance and are in a space with other game companies at our disposal), pension, software licensing, and much more. All of the equipment we are currently using is private equipment. Computers, pen tablets, and other office supplies are all private-owned. We have in addition been bringing in a couple of freelance artists to help with the development.
We hope this helps clarify how the funds we have received have been utilized and how passionate we are about this project. Just like you, we are determined to see the game through to completion, and we will give our best effort to surpass your expectations. Your continued support means the world to us. Thank you so much.
