It is an interesting idea though, just in theory, how practical is it to travel somewhere where food, rent and internet are much cheaper then in California and work from there? I mean not for Lab Zero, but just hypothetically speaking, if someone decide to move to cheaper American region or to some low cost easy-to-get-to country, how much can said person save and how plausible it is?
Assuming someone is willing to leave their entire friend group, leave their family, and that their significant other is also willing to move with them...and that they are willing to make the choice to live in Montana or wherever specifically because it's cheaper, ignoring all the other factors that contribute to an enjoyment of life?
(That's a lot to assume.)
According to
this random site, it's about 20% cheaper to live in Montana than in LA.
However, that actually has no effect on the cost of the game. (^.^)
About salaries and the cost of the project, to paraphrase a PM I sent someone else before:
-begin rant-
YOU SEE THIS?
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/2014/09/05/GAMA14_ACG_SalarySurvey_F.pdf
You see how the average salary across ALL ENGINEERS is $93,000/year? Yeah, that's not just LA, that's industry-wide.
You see how ALL the average salaries for engineers with 6+ years of experience are over $100k/year? That's industry-wide also.
You know what I made on Skullgirls? Less than $40k/year. Less than $35k/year, even. UNDER HALF the ENTIRE INDUSTRY average and WAY UNDER a THIRD of what I COULD be making as someone with team lead experience and over 10 years of game development experience. I am not going to be making even close to $100k, $93k, etc, on Indivisible. I'm taking a MASSIVE PAY CUT just to work on this project.
And if you want to dig deeper there is the "$10,000 per man-month" thing, which essentially says, as a rule of thumb, "estimate that total costs to the studio for any project will be about $10,000 per person, per month". You can look that up all over
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/128224/Opinion_10000_Is_The_Magic_Number.php
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/Davi...business_Shovel_Knight_Planning_and_Sales.php
etc.
If you use that figure alone, our cost is about $3.5m. NOTHING TO DO WTIH LOS ANGELES AT ALL.
-end rant-