So what is revshare? Why is it so controversial? Why are you getting hate on Reddit for looking for team members to aid your revshare project? I’ve had to grapple with all of these questions, both from me leading a revshare project and my own terrible experiences with working under revshare.

For the laypeople, revshare is the payment method where you pay your team members based upon a percentage of your game’s profits. You do not pay them a wage or rates per commission, you pay them after the game is released. Sounds like a gamble to you? Good, because ultimately revshare, especially when it’s being led by an upstart game developer, is a big gamble. And for you upstarts reading my blogs, don’t worry. I’m not here to blame or shame you. I have no right, because my first project was a revshare venture. And it flopped.

So we’ve established that it’s a gamble, but I’d like to expand on why. You have a dream, you know what you want out of your game, and if you’re smart, you have everything you have about your game jotted down into a Game Design Document. If you don’t, I’d highly suggest you do this before advertising your magnum opus. But let’s say you did your homework and have everything ready to go. Good job teacher’s pet, but your game is still a huge gamble. Ever heard the phrase “life’s a bitch”? Yeah, even the most well constructed indie projects can collapse in a moment. And I got a story to prove it!

So in one of my projects, I was writing for revshare and life couldn’t be better! My best buddy was coding, I had another writer backing me up, we had a marketing director, and we had voice actors; all pouring their hearts into the game. So I had just finished a 11k word draft for a dungeon. It was hot garbage, but so were most first drafts and the lead writer was going to edit it. Well, that’s what we were going to do, until the director read the unpolished turd and left comments, most of them telling me to remove things. Now obviously this was their project, but when people aren’t getting paid (yet) and see this happening, it might rub them the wrong way. It did for me, because I busted my ass to get that out in a week. Not only that, it wasn't ready. By this point, we had set up a system for writing and editing chapters before sending them to our director. However our directing is hard work. I still struggle to lead, and I can empathize with her mistakes. So I decided to air my frustrations while looking for a compromise.

I was not successful. Oh well, the stuff they wanted removed was minor, albeit several rewrites were needed. But it was their game and I signed up for it. So I went about my day like normal until the other writer sent me screenshots of the director venting about me. This wasn’t a meltdown filled with cuss words thrown at me, but apparently I made the director cry. Now I know this is a “he said, she said” issue, but I’m ready to bank my reputation on promising that I was professional, courteous, and non-aggressive in our conversation. Don’t worry reader, there’s a deeper reason for this. Turns out, our director had been overworking themself. I’m talking about no sleep, no self care, and not managing to balance out their director life from their job. So classic burnout. If only it ended there…

In the director’s rant, they brought up stopping development and dropping the project overall. Even though this was the compassion fatigue talking, this did not sit well in the discord. Remember, these people aren’t getting paid (yet). And when the director told everyone about what was on their mind, several of us, myself included, jumped ship. To hear that your hard work might amount to nothing is soul crushing. And while I could empathize with the director, I didn’t want to work under someone who I couldn’t talk with. If I’m being honest, I was pissed. Their comments made about me weren’t offensive, but I didn’t appreciate this being said behind my back after I wrote 11k words for them, for free! 

Again, I wish it ended there… It wasn’t just the burnout that caused the director to explode. Unfortunately on top of all of the exhaustion, the director lost their friend to suicide. No one knew about this til two weeks after I left…and boy did it tear me apart. The worst part in all of this, was that if the director had took time off,, no one would’ve cared. Directors need to pace themselves just as much, if not more than everyone else. Because if the director goes down, they take the entire ship with them. I’ve long forgiven the director for what they said about me, because I understood that their words were coming from stress. But I will not work for them again, at least not for revshare. My time is worth too much to be spent on a gamble. And if that director just so happens to be reading this, I hope you’re doing better and I’m sorry things ended the way they did. 

I hope this story has shed some light on why many are hesitant to work under a revshare. Directing a game is a momentous task and even the veteran designers can have issues. I’d go so far as to say not to direct games until you’ve worked under a director and finished a project. Now with that said, this blog isn’t to demonize revshare. Pursuing a dream isn’t a crime and not having the best budget is fine. Something to remember about revshare is that you gain experience regardless if the game is a success. I put that flopped project on my resume and added samples from it. Sure the game wasn’t a success, but good work is still good work. And my sound designer is currently working under Revshare. I offered to pay him, but he WANTED to work under revshare because he was having fun. No, you’re not hallucinating! There are people that’d prefer to work under eevshare to ensure that the director can finish the game. It’s a lot easier to complete a cheaper project than an expensive one. Why do you think most jam projects do not pay their team? Because it’s easier on everyone.

However, I may have discouraged a few of you from running revshare. I know I was discouraged when my first project didn’t finish. I felt like a failure as a director and a person. So I’ve taken the liberty to list several alternatives to revshare that don’t include you paying out of the ass. One thing to understand about paying people is that it doesn’t ensure that people will stick around. I paid my original artist and one car accident took his legs, arms, and himself out of drawing.. Life can still be a bitch even if you fork over the dough. Not only do you lose a team member, you also lose money… So consider all the following first.

• Make your project free - Remember when I said that cheaper projects are easier to finish then expensive ones? Well this option dials that up to eleven! By stating that this project is a hobby from the beginning, those that sign up do so understanding that they aren’t getting paid. And you know what else is free? EXP (See what I did there?)! Now making your project free means that no one gets paid. No one! If you go and try to make a profit off of these projects, you’re liable to be blacklisted by your team members. Please don’t do this, because I’ll get blamed… Another thing to consider is the scope of your project. Jam projects work because they’re short, sweet, and get free marketing when you upload them. Long term, magnum opus projects can work, but you’ll have a harder time finding members that’ll stick around for the full ride. Personally, I recommend upstarts take this approach first and aim for a short term project. If I had known about this, I’d probably not have a failed project haunting me every night…
• Work Swaps - This is my favorite way to work with others. Essentially you trade one service for another. My editor edits my drafts, and I edit theirs. No cash is sent, no one goes broke, and we can put each others’ projects in our portfolios! Look into your own skills when considering this approach. If you’re an artist, draw for someone. If you’re a coder, code. If you don’t think you have any skills to offer, perhaps it’s time you start building one. Now like the above, this approach has its downsides. Cash is cash, and it’s more likely that people will prefer that over anything else. Another downside is that you need to have a strong trust between you and your teammate. Not only do you need to have the quality to make the trade fair, but you also need to be sure that they won’t run off on you when it’s their turn to reciprocate. And this leads into our third option.
• Make Friends - Networking is a skill that game design lives and dies by. You need it to market, to learn from other designers, and to build trust in the community. You want to know why my sound designer was nice to me? Because I had his concerns at heart. My editor trusts me to work swap because they not only know I’m capable, but because we were two peas in a pod in that RevShare disaster.  If you’re nice to others, they might pay you back. It’s not a hard rule I’d expect from everyone, but people hate feeling indebted to others. If someone did something for me, I have to do something back. It’s a matter of morality and reputation. Now I’m not saying to go around and kiss everyone’s ass, but to engage and vibe with the community. Whether it be on Twitter, Discord, or god forbid Reddit, interacting with others is a form of marketing, learning, and building trust. Regardless of which approach you decide, I highly recommend you try to make friends.

I hope this blog has shed some light into revshare as a whole. I decided to write this because someone tried to pitch their Revshare project to me when I was marketing my services. I saw my younger self, and I’m now twenty-siz as of writing this blog. If anything, I hope that the newer game devs reading this have more insight than I did. It can be a hard and thankless path to follow, but I have no regrets. While I made mistakes, they taught me well and even led to me writing this blog. We all have to start somewhere after all, and I know that I’m not the only one who has made mistakes in my career. And neither will you be. Keep fighting the good fight, and yes; Revsharing is Caring! If you enjoyed this blog, please leave a comment down below and tell me how awesome I am. 

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