u/Karzov

Hey all,

A bit about me: I'm a business school student who's heading into investment banking this summer and for full-time 2027. I intend to use my banking wage & bonuses to fund early production of a game.

What I bring to the table:

• Early funding (around $150k through the next year, staggered. Around $75k available immediately summer, which is when I foresee things will start).
• Investors and VC networks through my banking role, very good knowledge around tax incentives, grants, and talking the 'VC speak'. Already have contacts with publishers and a VC. We just need to get the pitch deck and all that.
• Mentor programmer who did RDR & GTA IV who can come along as consultant to help guide process
• Writing skills ~ written a dozen screenplays and two novels. Numerous screenplays have ranked top 15% in Oscar's screenwriting contest -- not great but at least not too shabby. The story is somewhat done, the scripts for demo + trailer are done~~.

The goal: a third person dark fantasy RPG

We are not building a game. We will be building the pitch package for a game (UE5). The goal is to stretch every dollar as far as it gets. This means we do not build out any character or concept outside of that which is required for demo / vertical slice and any eventual gifs. What this means:

• We are done in a year~~ and then it's either funding through my connections / publisher or the project is over.
• The ideal target for me is to have two who join for equity share and then I'll hire as we need people down the line using my own funds. I might agree to some equity and some salary...all depending).

Example how I see it:

• Demo / VS needs around 3 custom characters. The rest are metahumans with custom attires, hair, facial features. As I have spoken with concept artists etc, I understand one character may take 40 hours to design (with strong art direction). This leads to a total cost of around $1000 per character (if not part of start-up team). Combine that with environmental art, plus key character arts outside of demo but required for pitch, I'm looking at anything between $10-20k. I believe exceptionally strong art direction & concept art will trickle down and serve as a superbly important basis, hence a lot of $$ going here.
• Using top rates at Fiverr to base salary estimates (not hiring from there), one custom character may cost $2000 per; that means $6000 for three custom characters. Assets for the metahumans characters can be marketplace for the pitch or customized, but will be relatively cheap. Lastly, custom environment work will simply be a modular dungeon~ type style, can be a mix of custom and marketplace assets (unsure full cost).
• Animation will be done with mocap (I'll purchase suit) but will also need to hire for contract animator to do certain creatures etc...and one who is good at mocap cleanup. Suit will be around $3000 + contract basis for creature anim + mocap cleanup + hired mocap professionals for combat capture etc.
• Biggest unknowns: gameplay programmer #hours to get this demo ready & general refining work.

What I've learned from my networking:

• Publishers have told me for third person RPGs the most important is having a strong sense of art direction in the pitch package. Combat is important but this is not a soulslike so the refinement there needn't be 100%.
• Programming mentor told me for the purposes of vertical slice / demo, the programming needn't be perfect. It is completely ok to have a bungled mess of spaghetti so long as the output looks good. When you're 'creating the concept package' it is less about modular programming and more about just creating a facade that looks pretty.

I am still networking and reaching out to people interested in game dev & industry professionals to learn from their side. I hope this post proves out that I'm not only serious about this, but actively learning and trying to position myself as a value-add despite not being a programmer or artist.

If you got all the way down here, thanks for taking the time!