http://kotaku.com/5037392/jonathan-blow-says-he-spent-180000-on-braid

Jonathan Blow Says He Spent $180,000 On Braid

You like Braid? We like Braid. Loads of people like Braid, in fact, as it's doing all kinds of excellent things to the Xbox Live Arcade sales charts at the moment. Yet creator Jonathan Blow isn't busting out the high-fives and popped corks just yet: he said earlier in the week the game still had some selling to do to get him out of the red. Seemed an odd thing to say at the time, but now we know why: Braid's told the Wall Street Journal that he sunk an estimated $180,000 of his own money - over a three year period - into the project, which if true makes it surely not just one of the most expensive indie projects of all time, but one of the ballsiest.

Time Out of Mind [WSJ, via GameSetWatch]

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Lotta money for an indie game, and that's his OWN money.

Doesn't mention what other money he could have spent.

Discuss.

I don't know, but I think he said that just so it could get more recognition in the indie community, and maybe some more advertising.

I have yet to buy this game by the way...

Same, I didn't buy it yet.
I'm planning to though.

so then he made good money from it

So an Indie developer put a lot of time and money in to a brilliant and original game?


I think it's every 360 owner's duty to buy it.

I think he gets a fair share of money from MS though, isn't there a timed exclusive contract?

 Could be the other way around, aren't there publishing/licensing fees a developer has to pay in order for his game to appear on a console?

So what does it take for an indie developer to be profitable on X-Box Live nowadays? He's released an original and well-made product using a crew of two, and yet he says he's still in the red!

JB gets 70% of every dollar spend on Braid. Which is just above $10 per sale on the X360.

Also, he spent $180,000 of his own money - he borrowed quite a bit to produce the game. Actual costs (what he needs to make back to get a profit) is closer to $500,000.

Fortunately, the game has already brought in close to $1,000,000 for him already, and is growing. So he has certainly made a decent bit of cash off of his hard work, and investment.

Noname - he said he was in the red, last time I checked, about 8 days ago, when the game sold around 28,500 copies. It's over 80,000 copies now.

Good to hear that then. The last I remember was the "I'm still broke" comment; glad to hear that this has paid off for him.