Internal only — not for distribution
Current state
Cash in bank
£385k
Start of Jun 2026
Total raised
£419k
Pre-seed incl. £250k SEIS
Current burn
~£15k
Per month (Q2 2026)
VGEC accruing
~£12k
To date · paid 12 mo+ lag
Team of 4
19 mo
Runs out Dec-27
Team of 4 + UKGF grant
23 mo
Runs out Apr-28

UKGF grant modelled as £80k in Jul 2026. Neither scenario includes publisher raise.

Post £700k publisher raise (Q1 2027)
Cash at raise
~£948k
£700k + ~£248k pre-seed remaining
Funded through
Q2 2028
EA launch · fully covered
Buffer at launch
~£211k
Pre-seed cash preserved intact
Total VGEC (optimistic)
£223k
On full budget · paid in arrears
Funded to EA launch
Full
Production covered Q1 27→Q2 28
Post-launch buffer
~£211k
Before EA revenue begins

£700k raise covers all production (~£737k costs) without drawing on remaining pre-seed cash.

Monthly burn by phase (assumes publisher raise)
PeriodMilestone Avg / monthQuarterly
Q2 2026 (now)Pre-seed close £14,566£43,697
Q3 2026 £18,809£56,428
Q4 2026Playable Alpha £22,043£66,128
Q1 2027Publisher raise £31,307£93,920
Q2 2027 £36,368£109,104
Q3 2027 £40,118£120,354
Q4 2027 £45,535£136,604
Q1 2028 £48,035£144,104
Q2 2028EA launch £44,285£132,854
Funding plan
TrancheAmountStatusTarget
Pre-seed (incl. £250k SEIS) £419k ✓ Closed May 2026
Publisher / VC round
Min £500k — reaches launch with near-zero cash
Target £700k — reaches launch with ~£248k pre-seed intact
£500–700k In progress Q1 2027
Breakeven
Optimistic Conservative Cons. + 40% pub
Launch price £25£25£25
Avg lifetime spend (inc. DLC) £31.25£20.00£20.00
Net to studio / copy £17.19£11.00£6.60
Publisher cut (40%) £4.40
Copies to break even ~42,300 ~86,400 ~144,000
Wishlists needed (0.5 copies / WL) ~85k ~173k ~288k

Net = 55% of gross after platform fees & chargebacks. Optimistic assumes £223k VGEC. Publisher cut applies post-recoupment. WL ratio = 0.5 copies / wishlist (GameDiscoverCo mid-tier). Our target: 200k wishlists.

Audience demographics
DimensionData Source
Gender80–90%+ maleQuantic Foundry
Age25–50+Quantic Foundry
Top geography Germany (2× Steam avg), US, UK, Russia GameDiscoverCo
Primary motivations Mastery / strategy · Design & creativity · Collaboration Quantic Foundry
Pricing tolerance High — premium PC buyers, strong DLC spend Genre benchmarks
Retention Very high — hundreds of hours per player typical Genre benchmarks
Top marketing platforms for this audience
PlatformWhyPriority
YouTube Primary discovery channel for automation genre — deep-dive & let's play creators (DoshDoshington, martincitopants). German YouTube especially strong. High
Steam Wishlist page, dev updates, next fest demos. Direct line to the buying audience. High
Reddit r/factorio, r/SatisfactoryGame, r/indiegaming. Highly engaged genre communities. High
Discord Community building pre-launch. Automation genre players are heavy Discord users. Medium
Twitter / X Devlog & tech showcase — strong for reaching existing genre fans and press. Medium
TikTok / Instagram Lower fit for 25–50+ male demographic. Factory visuals can travel but not core channel. Low

Publisher marketing budget covers external campaigns from Q2 2028 EA launch. Pre-launch organic reach via dev community and closed playtests.

Salary table
RolePerson Gross / yr Cost to co / mo Starts
CTO / Lead Technical Designer Adam Toward £48,000£4,672Jan 2026
Director of Engineering Patrick Hansell £48,000£4,672Apr 2026
CEO / Lead Designer Callum Lawson £48,000£4,672Jun 2026
Art Director (to hire) £45,000£4,380Jun 2026
Gameplay Programmer (to hire) £50,000£4,867Jan 2027
UI/UX Lead (to hire) £40,000£3,893Mar 2027
Art Generalist (to hire) £38,000£3,699Mar 2027
Blended cost / head / month £4,469 full team avg

All founder salaries below market in recognition of equity. Cost to company includes employer NIC & pension.

Comparable title gross revenues
Title Release Copies (LTD) Gross revenue
Satisfactory 20207.6m $182m
Factorio 20166.4m $176m
Kerbal Space Program 20155.5m $79m
TerraTech 20181.1m$14m
Captain of Industry 2022553k$13m
Factory Town 2019385k$5.2m
Modulus Factory Automation Q1 202649.7k$1.1m

Hit case (green) = Satisfactory/Factorio tier. Baseline = Factory Town/Captain of Industry tier. Source: GameDiscoverCo.

S1 — no hires, no funding
25 mo
Runs out Jun-28
S2 — Art Lead only, no funding
19 mo
Runs out Dec-27
S3 — Art Lead + £80k Jul
23 mo
Runs out Apr-28
S4 — full plan, no funding
14 mo
Runs out Jul-27
S1: No hires, no funding S2: Art Lead, no funding S3: Art Lead + £80k S4: Full plan, no funding

Starting cash: £384,896 (post pre-seed, start of month 6). Assumes no £530k raise in all scenarios.