I sold my car for over $11K and used most of it on my game.
I have spent maybe 100 or 200 bucks on various third-party game assets and tools over the years, and my build server costs me 6 bucks a month. I work on my games in my spare time while working a full-time job, so I do not have any labour to factor in.
This is going to get me insulted again but you should look at your failed crowdfunding campaign and seriously consider how much more money you want to throw into your project. You're extremely unlikely to recuperate that cost, to be honest, and if you do not have income outside of your game, you could end up in a very nasty financial situation.
I'm glad you posted this, because it goes to show a fundamental difference between you and I. As an artist, I want good art. Even if I do not get my investment back, good art is worth every penny. I cannot sleep if I made something that isn't my best. So video games, music, art, books, whatever I do is about my work as an artist, not money or finances.
Right now, I do not have a strong internet presence, no matter what I produce. I just posted this video about my music, and it has no views.
But I don't care right now, because I am happy with the music I produced . Such is the case of a starving artist. The art is worth it every time."As an artist, I want good art."
As an artist, I also want good art. I also want to live in a house, eat food and have access to medical care, which requires money. If you end up bankrupt and unhoused because you gambled your entire existance on a project whose success chances you vastly overestimated, you will not be happy about that.
I'd also argue that being housed, fed, medically cared to is a prerequisite for making art - especially video games. If you freeze to death under a bridge, you will not be able to make art afterwards.
If you dump 11k of money you just have lying around somewhere and don't need for anything else into your passion project, that is one thing. But from what you describe, it sounds like you do not have any income stream and are selling off vital items because it is your only way of funding your passion project, and that is a dangerous path.
Not to pile onto the diversion, but there are some concerning comments in this thread.
I know as a perpetually starving artist with an idealistic lean that working on creative projects while physically hungry is painfully difficult. Passing out messes with the flow, you know?
I’ve had to live outside permanent housing unwillingly, and the only random human corpse I’ve seen up close was an unhoused man who froze to death.
Being poor in the US, where I live is dangerous. Rich people here aren’t arrested for existing in public or hanging around their (one and only) home (when they have one). The rich are rarely killed waiting around in jail for months for a slow and unjust trial. But that happens to the poor at distressingly high rates.
Anyhow, with $11k, I’d repair my bathroom and food garden in hopes it will all endure the next weather disaster, replace my digital drawing devices and switch to solar, or I would take a much needed medical vacation to get the healthcare I’ve had to put off for years.
Your situation might be very different. If you had an extra car and no need to avoid the brink of your destruction, then it’s great that you’re helping with the cashflow to other artists. I hope your game development goes well.
But also… I’d like to point out that quality and cost are not equivalent.
To answer your question: I haven’t put in any money to my games. The cost has been whatever the increase in the power bill has been since I started running animation and audio tests late at night. That’s paid by my spouse’s hard labor while struggle to come out of chronic disability.
Actually, I feel bad about that… the extra energy use….
Just the cost of RPG Maker MZ...
and used most of it on my game
You seem to draw your assets yourself. And do all the other things. What did you spend it on? If you just spent it on living expenses, that does not count as having it invested in the game. You are not a professional coder that could have spent the time freelancing. Nor are you the kind of artist that does commissions. So you are not "hiring" yourself.
Also, your game does not work. It's just a black screen with music. A little yellow thing on the top.
I suggest you join a few game jams and try making small functional games as per rules of the respective jam. Try out the craft of game making. You might be an artist, but would you think the singer of the soundtrack of movie would be qualified to direct a movie, just because that singer is an artist?