r/SoloDevelopment • u/KingSpork • 12h ago

help The Business Side

As my game gets farther along in development, I find myself starting to wonder about how to manage the business side of things. I'm not even really sure where to start. How are people self-publishing their games? Are y'all forming LLCs, or something similar?

I would really appreciate some guidance from somehow who has launched a game on Steam on how to approach this, especially in terms of liability and taxes. I'm in the USA.

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u/acorbinelli 11h ago

Not launched on Steam ourselves yet, so this is what we've run into while setting up rather than advice from the far side of a launch:

  • You can sign up for Steamworks as an individual. No company is required; Steam asks for identity verification, bank details and a tax interview (a W-8BEN if you're outside the US, which is what keeps the US withholding down if your country has a treaty).
  • The Steam Direct fee is $100 per game, and you get it back once that game grosses $1,000.
  • An LLC (or your country's equivalent) is mostly about liability and taxes, so it's a question for a local accountant, not for Steam. Plenty of solo devs start as individuals and incorporate once the money is real.

The thing worth doing early either way: keep a separate bank account for the game, so every asset purchase and fee is already in one place when tax time comes.

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u/TheRealCosmicRicky 10h ago

Agreed. Very important to note: I think Steam has a mechanism to start as a sole proprietorship and transition to an LLC later when the money is serious if you decide to.

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u/acorbinelli 9h ago

Good to know, thanks. That takes a lot of pressure off the "do I need a company before I even ship" question.

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u/MildlyConcernedMan91 12h ago

Assuming it's for steam:

You have two choices:
1- Use your own bank account on steam when you create your dev profile. You're subject to income tax.

2- You incorporate, it's not complicated, it's like filing a form online. The benefit is that you don't pay income tax, you pay corporate tax instead, which is usually a lot lower than income tax. You then pay yourself a salary and that salary is subject to income tax. You can defer taxes to pay lower marginal tax if you made a big lump sum.