Realistic Server-Budget Discussion

[Wildcard]

Hi!
Im thinking about opening a server. I have $1000- to play with.
I was wondering what your opinion on startup capital should be?

Lets say you want to open a server with custom plugins, two gamemodes only.
Will $1000 be enough to cover all startup expenses presumed you use non-exlusive builds?
What is your opinion on that?

Also, feel free mention other expenses that might be important to take in consideration!

(GOAL: 150-200 players. With forum aswell.)
Thanks!

 

[Ivan.]

Hi!
Im thinking about opening a server. I have $1000- to play with.
I was wondering what your opinion on startup capital should be?

Lets say you want to open a server with custom plugins, two gamemodes only.
Will $1000 be enough to cover all startup expenses presumed you use non-exlusive builds?
What is your opinion on that?

Also, feel free mention other expenses that might be important to take in consideration!

(GOAL: 150-200 players. With forum aswell.)
Thanks!

I am not an expert at all.
So, the custom plugins are a one-time cost and it would also depend on what exactly they are, but let's say $100 for small plugins and $200 (Will be MUCH higher) for the Game-mode Plugins. Another $100 for artwork.
So that brings it up-to around $600 remaining.
Then you'd need a few lobbies, spawns and some builds, I doubt they will cost much if they're just non-exclusive, so let's put it down to $50.

Leaves $550 for marketing, management, and hosting expenses.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Wildcard]

I am not an expert at all.
So, the custom plugins are a one-time cost and it would also depend on what exactly they are, but let's say $100 for small plugins and $200 (Will be MUCH higher) for the Game-mode Plugins. Another $100 for artwork.
So that brings it up-to around $600 remaining.
Then you'd need a few lobbies, spawns and some builds, I doubt they will cost much if they're just non-exclusive, so let's put it down to $50.

Leaves $550 for marketing, management, and hosting expenses.

What are your thoughts?

Sounds good. I mean $550 left for marketing and server expenses is good. But does 300$ get you far with plugin development?
And how much will server-bills be, if youre gonna run 100-200 players. Dedicated server is what I need isnt it?

 

[Ivan.]

Sounds good. I mean $550 left for marketing and server expenses is good. But does 300$ get you far with plugin development?
And how much will server-bills be, if youre gonna run 100-200 players. Dedicated server is what I need isnt it?

How many servers do you intend to have? Shared hosting could be more cost efficient if it's just one server.

For plugin development, it depends.. $300 for a Hypixel Skyblock Experience is not reasonable nor realistic.

 

[Wildcard]

Servers:
Hub, Game1 5servers to start, Game2 5servers to start.
Yeah, no Im not looking for a Hypixel experience.
To start with, Im just trying to build a server with scalability

 

[Ivan.]

Servers:
Hub, Game1 5servers to start, Game2 5servers to start.
Yeah, no Im not looking for a Hypixel experience.
To start with, Im just trying to build a server with scalability

Would be best to go with a Dedi or VPS then.

 

[CAMOU]

Hey,

not sure how you are planning to get 100-200 players with a marketing budget of $550, but unless you are super famous somewhere I don't think that is realistic at all.. You may be able to achieve those player counts with a few hundred more but even that would just be short term, since I assume most players you would bring in through youtuber / streamer deals. If you want a consistent playerbase that will cost a lot more and will be a lot harder to acheive.

So if you are looking to do a fun minecraft server and don't care about player counts or revenue - $1000 will be fine for sure.
If you are looking to start a serious business around it, I doubt you will get any far in quick time by putting in $1000.
The only chance you got at this point is having a really dope custom server and running it for several years to hopefully build a small consistent playerbase. If that's your goal it might even make sense to don't invest any money into marketing as that will most likely kill your dreams anyways.

 

[Wildcard]

Hey,

not sure how you are planning to get 100-200 players with a marketing budget of $300, but unless you are super famous somewhere I don't think that is realistic at all.. You may be able to achieve those player counts with a few hundred more but even that would just be short term, since I assume most players you would bring in through youtuber / streamer deals. If you want a consistent playerbase that will cost a lot more and will be a lot harder to acheive.

So if you are looking to do a fun minecraft server and don't care about player counts or revenue - $1000 will be fine for sure.
If you are looking to start a serious business around it, I doubt you will get any far in quick time by putting in $1000.
The only chance you got at this point is having a really dope custom server and running it for several years to hopefully build a small consistent playerbase. If that's your goal it might even make sense to don't invest any money into marketing as that will most likely kill your dreams anyways.

I never said $300 for marketing. I asked if 300$ will get me far with plugin development

 

[Ivan.]

You absolutely will not get anywhere close to 150-200 players without exclusive builds, players like new experiences they don't want to join a server and see the same old builds they have already seen before.

I don't think the average 10 year old will have seen Oddysey Builds' $10 Spawn..

 

[Ivan.]

Lastly, even $1,000 for marketing isn't anywhere close to enough money to market your server these days. I would say the bare minimum you can get away with is $2,000, but wanting 150-200 players you'll need thousands more.

Do you mean $1000/month..? Or is it just not based on time?

 

[Wildcard]

I would highly disagree with the statements above. I do not think that $1,000 is anywhere near enough to start up a server nowadays especially getting 150-200 players.
The reason is, depending on what game modes you do there are going to be thousands of other servers that have the exact same things. You have to be unique nowadays to maintain any sort of player base.

Onto the next point, you mention "non-exclusive" builds. You absolutely will not get anywhere close to 150-200 players without exclusive builds, players like new experiences they don't want to join a server and see the same old builds they have already seen before.

Hosting depends on what you go with if it is a dedicated server... The MINIMUM would be $100/month and that's for a very crappy and questionable one.

Custom plugins, depending on how many you want and the functions of these plugins. If it's a small little 10 features plugin then it's not going to be too expensive, but if it's a whole skyblock core or something like that... It would be $500+. Almost all developers charge by the hour, so keep that in mind.

Lastly, even $1,000 for marketing isn't anywhere close to enough money to market your server these days. I would say the bare minimum you can get away with is $2,000, but wanting 150-200 players you'll need thousands more.

This isn't to discourage you or hate on you, you asked for people's thoughts and I wanted to be as transparent and real as possible.

Yeah, I dont mind. Its exactly what I asked for.
But I think you're taking it a bit too far. I think it is quite possible to achieve a decent number of players, "cheaply" with the right market strategy and knowledge.

On the other hand, I think it can be hard with non-exclusive builds.

 

[Wildcard]

You said youre creating a network, 2k spent from earlier this year until now, I mean, Is that with everything custom?

 

[Ivan.]

Depends how the user decides to market.

How can you just say it would cost $1000 for marketing if you have no details from the user?

 

[Ivan.]

Based on the player base they are wanting?

They did not specify that information either, unless I missed it.

 

[Jokull]

I mean, you can easily get players if you create content for the network yourself and use tiktok and youtube to build up your network on social media which will save you a ton of money but it's a slow approach but once you start getting decent views and a few viral videos, you can easily hit a ton of players daily so I think 1000$ is a good amount of money for stuff if you don't go for exclusive builds right away but rather work yourself up to that.