How are games funded?

How are games funded?

Harry Ravenswood (Lead Designer, Kuju Entertainment) gives expert video advice on: What is a developer and what do they do?; What are 'easter eggs'?; Why do developers put easter eggs in games? and more...

Games are funded in a number of different ways. If you are lucky enough to be a developer with some money behind you, you can develop your games with your own money and that usually means you've got complete credit control. For a lot of studios, independent studios, it's kind of work for hire, so you'll either pitch for work to the publisher or the publisher will come to you if they have worked with you in the past and say, "We've got this game, we'd like it to make it for you and the budget is this." You've got the other ones, the big, big companies who are both publishers and developers at once, who can internally fund themselves as well. There's also increasingly going to be some money provided by governments around the world. I know at home in Australia, there are small amounts of money for small start-ups to fund games. That sort of thing seems to be happening a bit more as well.