Humans in Games
Studio Startup Hub
Everything you need to launch your indie studio — checklist, full cost model with taxes & overheads, projections, market intelligence, and a resource library.
50+Checklist Tasks
7Tax Regimes
3Revenue Scenarios
15+Resources
PDFExport Ready
Pre-Launch Checklist
Full Cost Model
Project Scope
Office & Overheads
Tools & Software (per year)
Custom Cost Lines
Add any extra costs — freelancers, licensing, music, etc.
Team Headcount & Salaries
Set headcount per seniority tier. Edit any role name or hint by clicking on it. Override salary by typing directly.
✏️ Click category name to rename · + Add category · ✕ Delete category
Marketing, QA & Launch
Quick Summary
£0
Total Budget Required
Full P&L Breakdown
Click each section to expand
Profit Projections
Model revenue against your dev budget across three scenarios. Set your assumptions, then explore the chart and explainers below.
Revenue Assumptions
Scenario Results
ROI & Break-even
Revenue vs Cost — Three Scenarios
Grouped bars show revenue components against your total dev budget. The cost line is your break-even target. Hover bars for exact values.
🐻 Bear Case — What it means
The pessimistic scenario. Your game underperforms — weak wishlist conversion, limited press coverage, niche appeal, or a crowded launch window.
Use this as your floor: if even the bear case is profitable, your studio is in a strong position. If not, it tells you how much external funding or publisher support you'd need to survive a bad launch.
Use this as your floor: if even the bear case is profitable, your studio is in a strong position. If not, it tells you how much external funding or publisher support you'd need to survive a bad launch.
📊 Base Case — What it means
Your realistic, planned scenario. Set this to the sales volume you'd need to justify the project — ideally backed by wishlist data, comparable title research (use the Market tab), and your marketing reach.
The base case is what you present to publishers, investors, or your own board. It should be achievable without everything going perfectly.
The base case is what you present to publishers, investors, or your own board. It should be achievable without everything going perfectly.
🚀 Bull Case — What it means
The upside scenario. Everything clicks — a viral moment, a big streamer picks it up, or the genre explodes. This is not your plan, it's your upside ceiling.
Use it to model how much runway a breakout success could fund for your next project, and to stress-test whether your cost structure would scale with that success.
Use it to model how much runway a breakout success could fund for your next project, and to stress-test whether your cost structure would scale with that success.
How the numbers are calculated
Net revenue per unit
Game Price × (1 − Platform Cut%)
e.g. £14.99 × 0.70 = £10.49
Gross game revenue
Units Sold × Net per unit
before DLC
Total revenue
Gross × (1 + DLC%)
DLC uplift is a % of base revenue
Post-launch cost
Monthly Costs × Months to Track
ongoing staff, servers, patches
Profit / Loss
Total Revenue − Dev Budget − Post-launch Cost
Dev Budget comes from the Cost Calculator
ROI
(Profit ÷ Dev Budget) × 100
return on investment as a percentage
Break-even units
⌈(Dev Budget + Post-launch Cost) ÷ (Net/unit × (1+DLC%))⌉
minimum sales to recover all costs
Market Overview
Add comparable games to benchmark your price and sales targets. Paste a Steam App ID to pre-fill from SteamSpy.
Your Game
Comparable Games
| Title | Price | Owners est. | Reviews | Score |
|---|
Market Intelligence
Add comparable games above to generate benchmarks.
Resource Library