What is a Video Game Developer?

A video game developer specializes in creating and programming all areas of a video game’s creative aspects. Game production necessitates coding expertise, as well as creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

The terms “video game developer” and “video game programmer” are sometimes used interchangeably to refer to the person who writes the game code that allows the video game to work. Game development is also occasionally used as a catch-all word for anybody creating a video game, such as game artists, sound designers, and testers.

Video game developers produce and program games for various video game platforms, either alone or in groups. As you continue to read, you learn more about the multiple hats that a game developer wears.

Game creators stay up with the latest technologies and trends as the video game business grows. Game creators are typically drawn to work because they enjoy playing video games. Programming, creating graphics or music, and game design are all employment functions that go under the umbrella phrase “video game developer.” As a result, game developers might have a wide range of professional titles and responsibilities.

Game Designer

The writer who designs the game’s significant concepts, storyline, and overall feel or mood is known as the game designer. Obstacles to overcome, puzzles to complete, and foes to defeat are all created by designers. Designers of video games must also consider the game’s practical aspects, such as making it appropriate for the target age group and ensuring that it is marketable and unique.

Artist

Video game artists create graphics for video games. They design the game’s backdrops, characters, and items, combining them into a single animated environment. A video game artist must create realistic proportions and shadows for people to believe in the game. Artists require creativity since they frequently create fascinating monsters based on real-life animals.

Sound Designer

Without soundtracks and sound effects, games would lose a lot of their drive and mood. As a character races through a timed game activity, background music adds to the spooky sensation of a haunted forest or the fear of impending catastrophe. The sound designer must develop unique ways to create noise effects, such as enhancing the sound of an orange being crushed to imitate a squished figure.

Programmer

Programmers convert concepts into computer-readable codes. They alter graphics and noises using various computer languages to make games operate more smoothly. They write computer rules to make the world and characters more lifelike.

Video game developers may participate in various stages of video game production depending on the size of the studio. Still, they are primarily responsible for creating a playable version of the game using computer code. Game programmers give ideas in a physical form. They provide a robust foundation for the game to function by programming the game world—mechanics, graphics, and artificial intelligence (AI) behavior—and ensuring that all programming features align with the video game designer’s standards.

Video game developers may participate in various stages of video game production depending on the size of the studio. Still, they are primarily responsible for creating a playable version of the game using computer code. Game programmers give ideas in a physical form. They provide a robust foundation for the game to function by programming the game world—mechanics, graphics, and artificial intelligence (AI) behavior—and ensuring that all programming features align with the video game designer’s standards.

HOW TO BILL FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT

Three prices strategies:

Prices per hour 

Prices everyday 

Fixed-price jobs

A developer-for-hire generally rates him or herself by the hour. They work one hour, they make money one hour. Everyday prices are comparable; other than that, you have a day rate instead of a per-hour cost.

In both instances, you generally offer your customer a price quote of just what does it cost? Time a task is most likely to take. Relying on just how you established your agreement with a customer, they pay you for every hour you work or pay you a fixed price for the finished job.

Everyday prices are more standard for much shorter jobs, as well as more usual amongst elderly programmers.

Prices on your every day have a benefit over prices on your per hour. When you offer a customer an hour-by-hour approximate of a task, they’re likely to cherry-pick hrs and concern you on every bit of information of a job. Everyday prices provide you a little bit more margin for mistakes, also.

What is up with fixed-price jobs? As the call suggests, the rate of a fixed-price job is set. Unlike per-hour payment, a customer understands what they’re most likely to pay. Logically, you had placed the rate on a task if you recognized what you are most likely to develop!

A benefit of a fixed-price job is that one could very closely safely secure the extent of the job. When a customer includes new needs in the center of the job, you can inform them it is out-of-scope and defer the choice on that particular function throughout the career. 

There is a 4th means of prices jobs: value-based prices, instead of cost-based fees. You establish your rate based upon the worth of the job for the customer.

Reflect on your factor for beginning freelancing, to begin with. 

HOW TO INVOICE FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT SERVICES

Being a developer entails a variety of jobs, ranging from mobile app creation to game production. Because your clients may not realize how much effort goes into your work, be sure to break out your freelance services to know what they’re paying for.

Invoicing is rarely as straightforward as taking a customer’s credit card or another form of payment over the internet. To keep correct accounting records, you must follow specific local rules and regulations.

Businesses also have internal systems in place to keep their accounts payable in order. By putting the correct information in your invoices, you can be paid faster and develop confidence and rapport with your clients. Here are some essential components to include:

You should provide a complete description of each service you provide. It will serve as a reminder to your client of the work completed at that time. You could, for example, include:

 Project Name – Include the project’s identifying name, such as “Mobile FinTech App” or “iOS App.” It is also good to include some project specifics so that you and your clients know what it’s about when looking over old invoices.

Quantity – This is the number of deliverables in the invoice. Most projects will have several smaller packages along the way. For instance, you might charge for three bug fixes and one app architecture mock-up. Listing the quantity would help avoid confusion about costs.

Hourly Rate — Include your hourly rate in your invoice if you charge by the hour. Any other time-based costs, such as day rates, are the same.

 Subtotal – This is the invoice’s total amount before any additional fees or taxes are applied.

Total Amount – If you do not include taxes or VAT in your invoices, the total amount will equal the subtotal.

Detailed service information will save time and effort of searching through past conversations for the information they require.

Each invoice you send out should be assigned a specific number. Don’t use the same number twice. Start with one as your first invoice if you’re unsure. You should also avoid leaving any gaps or spaces in the invoice number.

Use a developer invoice generator to make a list of your most frequently used services, which you can copy and paste into your invoice.

HOW MUCH TO BILL FOR GAME DEVELOPMENT

As a freelance game developer, how much should I charge for making a game?

Any freelance engineering or software development should be billed by the hour. Your level of experience and knowledge determines your ability to charge a certain amount to sell yourself. In the United States, $25 per hour is a low wage for a programmer to accept as an employee. $15 per hour would be a ridiculous “must be living with his parents” deal.

It also relies on your government’s approach to freelance taxation. Self-employment income in the United States is heavily taxed compared to pay from a firm; therefore, you inflate what would otherwise be a respectable hourly rate to make up the difference. If I want to make $25 per hour, I’ll have to charge $40-45 per hour. I’m not sure how much of this pertains to you or your position, but it’s a significant component in this case.

If I assume you’re a novice with no experience and are willing to accept $15 per hour, it appears that 150 pounds will get you 14 hours of work. It took almost two days to give birth! Wow, they’re putting their money down for this one!

It’s entirely up to you, mate; perhaps the experience and having a project under your belt, to begin with, trumps the financial gain. That could be especially true if the company you’re considering is small, and you know they can’t afford to pay a programmer that much for full-time work; in that instance, you might be able to make up for it in goodwill. But goodwill doesn’t pay the bills, and if this job lasts longer than a week, I won’t bother with it.

What is a Social Media Influencer?

Supposing you own a brand, knowing who an influencer is and what they can do for your business is impressive!

 

Over the past decade, the activities on the internet via social media platforms, websites, podcasts have increased tremendously. Besides that, over three-quarters of the world is an active member online. So have you thought of what this could mean? You could practically reach millions of people at a go.

 

Who is an influencer? An influencer is a person who can influence potential buyers to purchase a product by recommending these items. 

 

An influencer is a figurehead in a particular niche, recognized widely for their knowledge, creativity, and relevance, and who has the power to affect the purchasing decisions of others. They always have a large number of following, as well as engagements.

 

An influencer rises high over decades, amassing a large following due to the content they produce on their online space. They build a reputation and a profitable brand for themselves and are known as social media celebrities.

 

The amount of influencers available has risen to a large community — fantastic, right? These influencers not only have a large following but can drive organic traffic to your sites, especially if they’ve got the audience you need.

 

It’s a whole lot like creating ads, but the benefits you can get from knowing/working with an influencer can bring out the miracle your business is waiting for. An influencer can bring out your brand and position you at the frontline of your potential customers.

 

Here we go! We’ve got various ways influencers are grouped, and it’s relevant that you know these:

 

1. We’ve got the Influencers known by their NUMBERS: These influencers are known by how many people they can reach and the number of followed they’ve called. Please take a look at them below cause you’re going to need to know them.

 

The Nano-influencers: 1,000–10,000 followers

The Micro-influencers: 10,000–50,000 followers

The Mid-tier influencers: 50,000–500,000 followers

The Macro-influencers: 500,000–1,000,000 followers

The Mega-influencers: 1,000,000+ followers

 

1. Niche Influencers: Experts and professionals followed primarily because of what they convey, their rich content on particular topics like health, entertainment, business, facts, fashion, and how far their influence on that topic reaches. They are lords in their fields since they are based on specific niches and not generic. They are knowledgeable Influencers.

 

Under these types of Niche influencers, we have others who influence just as massively;

 

•  Bloggers: Influencers of this nature own blogs, create amazing content, and have intimate relationships with their fans and supporters. They aren’t rigid, and their sites are usually welcoming and inviting. These sort of influencers already have an idea of what their audience needs. You can reach their audience through guest posts, sponsored posts, or even affiliate marketing, whereby your blogger receives commissions for sales made.

• Podcasters:  They deal with audio messages and have almost replaced the traditional radio on a large scale. Podcasters have large followers in their thousands to whom they can promote your products, as long as it is relevant to their audience. 

• YouTubers: Have you checked your YouTube recently? The influencers on YouTube are growing in their millions! Why? They pass information and value through visual means and soon are known as authority figures. Most of them are niche-based, like those who deal in hair growth, maths tutoring, IT. So figuring out which of these influencers has the audience you need shouldn’t be so hard after all!

How to Bill for Influencer Work

 

A big challenge many brands go through is figuring out which influencer would be the best to collaborate with —and how to go about this journey.

 

Guess what? It’s not as hectic as you think, though it would imply you know what you’re looking for.

 

There are factors to consider before deciding on how to Bill an influencer to work for you.

 

1. Know that not all Influencers have the same number of followership: Yup! Therefore, some influencers are new to the game and are still growing their followers; and some know their game well (which means it’s hard to get them to work with you if the return they’ll get isn’t much. 

 

So you figure this out, would you want to work with someone who has 10,000 followers or someone who has 1,000,000 followers. It all depends on your budget, and of course, this lets you know that each influencer comes with different price tags.

 

1. Engagement rate: This is tricky because the number of followers an influencer has doesn’t count here. An Influencer may have 300,000 followers and have 13,000 active engagements on their content, and another influencer could have 600,900 followers and have about 10,000 media engagements. You’ve got to look at this factor before you begin your campaign with an Influencer, as this would determine how much your budget is. Based on the influencer’s engagements, you need to know how many among the audience would be likely to be interested in your offer.

• Exclusivity: The influencer you decide to work with should not promote another business similar to yours when your business campaign is running on the social media platform. Yeah, Influencers’ integrity counts a lot in this aspect, so you should strike a deal! 

• How long would your campaign run: Knowing how long you’re going to work with an Influencer and the lifespan of your posts would determine how much you should be billed. Would your brand content run for days, weeks, or months? Decide that before you let out the cash. 

How To Invoice Influencers Work

 

To get paid, keep track of all your earnings for tax purposes. Marketers work with dozens, if not hundreds, of influencers to regularly reach their goals and objectives. It’s not unusual for payments to be late or forgotten, so both tracking and sending invoices are equally vital. 

 

Your invoices are to be written as soon as possible. No matter how often a business or influencer platform tells you not to send invoices, it would be best if you always did so. 

 

It would be best for you to download a workable invoice template from online sources; However, Excel or Google sheets are used to keep track of a few invoices if you’re only mailing a small number of them. But first, you should send your invoice after you’ve decided what you want and have done all your negotiations.

 

So how do you set up an influencers invoice?

 

1. Date of invoice: Documentation helps you keep track of payment dates, including taxes and future reference points.

• Your complete name/ Contact information: Your basic information should be well detailed in your invoice, such as your name, your business name, your email, social media contacts, and possibly an office address.

• Your client’s information: Your invoice can’t be complete without including the recipient information as well. Your client’s full name and email are critical.

• Job description (brand/business campaigns): What your post, blog content, product review is all about and how long the drive is supposed to run on the Influencer platform need to be considered.

 

1. Sum of budget: Total amount of money to be paid should be written towards the end of the invoice

• The terms of payment & Payment methods: How long before the influencer receives payments and on what conditions. Depending on the agreement, payment methods include preference to PayPal, credit cards, cash transfers, commissions, etc.

How Much to Bill for Influencers Work

 

There are several types of Influencers, with each of them having various needs to be met. Just as not all influencers are generic, billing them depends on how many results they can bring to the table. Based on their growth and reach, this is how much most influencers get paid for their services. 

 

• Nano-influencers: $10–$100 per post
• Micro-influencers: $100–$500 per post
• Mid-tier influencers: $500–$5,000 per post
• Macro-influencers: $5,000–$10,000 per post
• Mega-influencers: $10,000+ per post
• Celebrities(mega plus!): Payment made to them varies, but there’s hardly any amount they can’t be paid since their influence is widespread.

 

Influencers make good use of their influence to earn —which is their right! Below are lists of payments influencers receive on various social media platforms from teams/owners that want to promote their businesses.

 

• TikTok: $25 per post / 1,000 followers

 

• Instagram:  $10 per post / 1,000 followers, $250-$750 per 1,000 engagements

 

• Facebook:  $25 per post / 1,000 followers

 

• YouTube:  $20 per video / 1,000 subscribers, $50-$100 per 1,000 video views

 

• Snapchat:  $10 per post / 1,000 followers

 

• Twitter:  $2 per post / 1,000 followers

 

• Blog:  $60 per post / 1,000 unique visitors

 

Payments made to Influencers on Twitter based on their followers;

 

• Nano-influencers: $2–$20 per post
• Micro-influencers: $20–$100 per post
• Mid-tier influencers: $100–$1,000 per post
• Macro-influencers: $1,000–$2,000 per post
• Mega-influencers: $2,000+ per post

 

Estimated payments made to Facebook Influencers based on their followers;

 

• Nano-influencers: $25–$250 per post
• Micro-influencers: $250–$1,250 per post
• Mid-tier influencers: $1,250–$12,500 per post
• Macro-influencers: $12,500–$25,000 per post
• Mega-influencers: $25,000+ per post

 

Of course, besides being paid based on their followership alone, these influencers are paid based on how influential they can persuade their followers to buy.

 

Besides cash, other ways to pay an influencer are;

 

1. You are giving them huge discounts or free products if they purchase a product from your business (primarily Nano-influencers to Mid-tier influencers).

 

1. You are allowing influencers to participate in events hosted by your business to build more popularity and gain more followership.

 

1. Pay commissions(as in affiliate marketing) where Influencers get 10-40% of the profit from each sale made through them.

 

What is a Social Media Brand Ambassador?

A Social Media Ambassador is someone with a wide-reaching following on social media networks. A company or organization employs such a person to help advance its product to that following/circle. As a Social Media Brand Ambassador, you are expected to represent the company positively at functions and events and perform demonstrations when necessary. You are helping out with content creation for the company’s social media platform. You will also help promote the product through your social media accounts and word to mouth marketing.

Most companies feel more comfortable with people that are certified in communications or marketing or related fields. Sometimes, a diploma will suffice. Aside from your qualifications, an excellent writing and speaking skill is vital for you to possess. Working knowledge of social media platforms and tools and having a friendly, approachable, and outgoing personality is necessary for you as a Social Media Brand Ambassador.

Building your own personal social media following and branding is crucial as the extent of your following attracts companies to you. Unlike s social media brand ambassadors, an Influencer usually works for the short term and is often easy to reach.

While a social media brand Ambassador is committed to saying and doing what the company requires, getting an influencer to say just what you want them to say can be challenging. They eventually get paid. Although, initial promotion and branding for the company and its products are done for free in some instances. It is to build the trust of the company and its followers. Since most of the target is via social media, the major challenge is creating a unique presence on social media platforms and attracting the attention of relevant companies. You can achieve this by picking out compelling content and building a niche that pulls attention to it.

A Social Media Brand Ambassador will help create more awareness and increase visibility for you and your product by spreading information to existing audiences. They are also great in increasing sales as they can encourage visitors to become paying clients.

In negative feedback, a social media brand Ambassador can help give quick responses to your brand and spread positive information about your product. You might not necessarily lookout for a famous person or celebrity. Someone with an active and large following on social media and good with communication is of great importance. Such a person must also be familiar with your brand and how you operate. It is because you should be able to positively showcase your products, build good reviews, and respond politely to negative feedback.

How to bill for social media brand ambassador’s work?

Lots of brands are faced with the challenge of how they should manage to pay their Brand Ambassadors. Paying social media brand ambassadors for their hard work can be done in several ways, which is presented to them, and a decision is made on what works best for you and them. Such means of payment plans are usually easy and quick to handle.

PayPal: With PayPal, sending and receiving money is simple, and it also offers financial protection. Fortunately, almost everyone has a PayPal account. Thus, sorting out brand ambassadors through PayPal is helpful and convenient as they can receive directly, and your accountant can also confirm easily via the login. Contracts are included before choosing this method as a billing plan; the brand ambassador carried long to show honest business dealings.

Gift Cards: It is a great way to compensate for the work done by your social media brand ambassador because you can give them exactly what they want without much stress. An advantage of this is that it doesn’t have to be a physical gift card, as most online shops provide digital gift cards that are used.

Most brands send ambassadors gift cards to their stores so they can pick out anything they want. It can double as a campaign strategy where you send a gift card to the Ambassador to use on your site monthly. They, in turn, order items they want, and they publicize such purchases on their social media platforms.

How to invoice for social media brand ambassador’s work?

It is always safe to have a clear-cut invoice with detailed information. It is because the work is not that of an official employee, so to say and to be on the safer side – this is highly important. And it helps to avoid crises regarding work expectations and payment plans, even after the whole project. This is a legally acceptable document between the social media brand ambassador and the company. It should cover everything from your job description, payment plans, and your employees (if any).

 A standard contract for a Social Media Brand Ambassador is to be included:

• Clear identification of all parties involved with specified roles.
• The exact scope of work is expected from you clearly and spelled out.
• Expected time of delivery of work with deadlines.
• Conditions for termination or cancellation of the contract should be spelled out. And other factors as you seem fit.

Spreadsheets: an organized system is usually vital when you have to manage the payments of several brand ambassadors.  Spreadsheets are an excellent means to achieve this.  Making use of your most reliable employee will be essential to handle this because it entails regular maintenance. The advantage of this billing method is that layout payment plans can be made for each ambassador month-to-month. It is usually recommended to start with fields in your spreadsheet like ambassador name, payment method, type of post with number included, Confirmation that agreed content is posted, Whether or not payment has been sent and received. This information in a spreadsheet makes it easy to track all of the ambassadors for your product and the payments you owe them.

Influencer Marketing Platforms: As good as the above billing methods are, sometimes it’s better to let someone else handle it. Ambassador’s marketing platforms can communicate and compensate with ambassadors, so you don’t have to deal with them directly. Research is necessary to see which marketing platform works for you, as different media handle payment to ambassadors differently.

Ensure prompt payment in dealing with your ambassadors to avoid a bad reputation for not paying up when the campaign is over. 

How much to bill for social media brand ambassador’s work?

Social media brand ambassador has grown to be one of the most efficient means to reach the target audience on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Tik Tok, and others.

Although it is quite challenging working with brand ambassadors, this is due to the varying cost, which is dependent on your industry, the aim of your campaign, and your target audience. Details like where and when posts are made, the occurrence of their position, and the price and when to pay social media ambassadors present a challenge to those new to working with this form of marketing. 

How Much Do Influencers Charge Per Post? The social media brand Ambassadors Post is a form of advertisement. Although social media Ambassadors don’t publicly share their prices, a rough estimate can be given for some media platforms as follows:

• Ambassadors have a price of 25$/1000 following
• Instagram has10$/1000 followers
• YouTube has an estimated price of20$/1000 following

 Factors that can determine the pricing for social media brand Ambassadors. Ambassadors charge differs but usually takes into consideration several factors, which include: 

• Total number of following and fans the Ambassador has
• The engagement  their posts generate regularly
• The fit of the advertisement with their brand and following
• The intended number of posts you want as a company
• The format of the post, whether an audio, video, or image form
• The effort needed to be put in by the Ambassador for the work to be done efficiently

Will the advertisement be promoted only on the Ambassador’s social media accounts, or will you use it in other capacities? Irrespective of the social media brand Ambassador’s rates, it’s vital to look at them from a purely financial point of view- the same way you will view an ad placement.

Asking yourself these questions will guide you:

• What’s the prospective reach?
• What is the ROI?
• Are they a good match for your product?
• How beneficial is their audience? Is it the same as your target customers?

Knowing the ROI, how does that compare to other advertising methods?  What would it cost you to produce those same results using another strategy? You should be able to relate freely with the Brand Ambassador to ask for their price range. 

• What works have they done for similar brands and products? 
• The number of views, likes, and comments their previous posts generate? 
• The number of engaged followers they usually have daily, and what are the population specifics of those followers?

In social media brand marketing, it is crucial to get sufficient data needed to evaluate the Ambassadors and ascertain their worth.

Some social media brand ambassadors may charge nothing at all. Especially if they are a fan of your brand and already have a large social media following. It might be possible for you to reach an agreement with them, where you give them free products, and they offer free publicity for your brand.

At least there should be some motivation to encourage them.  Exclusive or fast access to new products can be an excellent incentive for such Ambassadors.