I'm updating my Invoice to make it look more like it belongs to a graphic designer. Nothing crazy, just type work.
Does anyone have any experience doing taxes for freelance work? All my freelanced comes from big companies and they do it for me and send me a W2 at the end of the year. I don't know how to handle small clients.
I've done it a bit- but since I'm dumb with accounting, I'm probably not the person to ask about it.
I know you should set up an EFTPS account with the IRS, then you need to make estimated tax payments on a quarterly basis (see: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Self-Employed). I'm assuming here that you're working as an individual and haven't incorporated (which may be better for some reason, though I couldn't tell you why exactly.)
Basically, you need to calculate your income tax, and then the self-employment tax on top of that. You also need to do the same with your state's tax board- at least in California there's a similar online system for this. You fill this out once every 3 months (there's a set date per quarter you have to do this by), and it draws it directly from your bank account (you can probably do this via check as well?).
My problem was not knowing how to factor in deductions, or how to deal with the unevenness of the income over time (if you've got a good sense of how much money you'll make over the course of the year, it'll be a lot easier to figure out your tax bracket and such, and factor in things accordingly- if you're getting payments unevenly and you don't know what the situation is going to be week to week, it becomes more difficult to judge what you should be doing)...I just vastly overpaid by not factoring in deductions at all just to make sure I wasn't underpaying (the IRS scares me so I just want to keep them happy and off my back), and then got a fairly large return when I did my income taxes at the end of the year.
This is almost certainly not the way to go, so having an actual accountant who knows what they're doing to help you with this stuff is probably recommended. (Trying to do this all myself was a part of why I haaaaaaated freelance work. I don't know how people that do freelance as a career manage it.)
Yuuuup. Like I said, probably want to get an accountant to deal with it if you can. You'll still probably want to cry when you need to send the money in, but at least you won't have to cry through just trying to figure out how much to send in.
Just got an email saying they had a security breach. Luckily no credit card info was taken but they apparently did get emails, mailing addresses and all that fun stuff.
Time to start trying to pay for things exclusively with livestock. Let's see you hack a chicken, you bastards.
NappuccinoSurveyor of Things and StuffRegistered Userregular
Things feel better today. Massive Thanks to prosp for listening to my ramblings the other day. It helped a lot and . . . things seem to be going well now.
I'm sure it's one of those ironic/satirical/post-modern statements that just happens to be identical to the usual thoughtless horseshit that permeates the industry.
I really hope the mediocre philosophy graduates they pay over at PR come up with some real convoluted shit this time
I mean, really reach in there, guys; I want to see Sartre or Adorno or something
my money's on them going with, "Oh that design is because she's empowered. She has the largest patch of exposed skin in TronLand to show how confident and self-assured she is, even though everyone is apparently made out of polygons and stardust in the virtual reality game universe anyway"
my money's on them going with, "Oh that design is because she's empowered. She has the largest patch of exposed skin in TronLand to show how confident and self-assured she is, even though everyone is apparently made out of polygons and stardust in the virtual reality game universe anyway"
My theory is going to be they're going to say 'it's supposed to be like one of weird costumes that some diva performers wear on stage', being a music game and all...of course, ignoring that those costumes are themselves dumb and sexist. Also ignoring that the other characters don't appear to be following that convention either, otherwise the male characters would mostly just be wearing t-shirts and jeans instead of some weird cosplay shit.
Also the Capcom thing just seems sort of dumb, just from a practical standpoint- if they don't have the money to make an alternate love story or whatever to make a female protagonist work (and that element is that important to the story that it can't be removed (unlikely, but just taking their statement at face value)), it'd probably make more sense to just take out the ability to choose different characters entirely and say, 'This epic tale is specifically about the character of Dungeon Bill here.' Less PR backlash and you've saved some money on making a handful of alternate character models.
Well, here's the really damning thing about Deep Down. It is going to be a free-to-play game with character customization and procedurally generated levels.
edit: to be clear, I mean that individual character storytelling in the game is wildly unlikely to be worth half a moment's thought anyway and makes for a very flimsy excuse for being so exclusionary.
And today Irrational Games, makers of Bioshock, cut staff to 15 to form a more lithe, agile vehicle for Levine's visions. Urrrrrrrgggghhhh http://www.irrationalgames.com/
to make up for my arghness here is a rad retro-style sci-fi painting by the majestic Ian McQue
And today Irrational Games, makers of Bioshock, cut staff to 15 to form a more lithe, agile vehicle for Levine's visions. Urrrrrrrgggghhhh http://www.irrationalgames.com/
I find the implied idea that those people being laid off have absolutely no ability to generate revenue for Take Two without Ken Levine personally holding their hand the whole time to be completely ridiculous. Let him do his own thing and put those people to work on something else for fuck's sake. 150 people who made a couple of the more successful games of the last generation suddenly have no value because you take away one dude? Bullshit.
Layoffs because there's no money to go around are shitty enough...but laying off people because of what seems on face value like a, "YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT ME!" ego-trip seems even shittier.
yeah all the "but hey our next project is going to be SO EXCITING" seems so scummy and insensitive. I understand the desire to give an explanation to the layoffs, but just keep it factual and hold back on the hype-driving promotional speak for one fucking press release, you know?
It worked for some sites too, they got distracted by the shiny and put up articles going "ooooooh new Ken Levine project... and some people got fired or something whatever"
Irrational was an "auteur" studio built around Ken Levine. The layoffs are Take Two saying that their principal interest in the studio was Ken. If Take Two felt that Irrational could realistically continue to make profitable games without Ken they probably wouldn't have fired everyone.
To call it an ego-trip makes it sound like it was Ken who decided that his studio would be hopelessly lost without his vision. I would be shocked if Ken actually had anywhere near that much power, to be able to unilaterally fire the whole company, if he were so inclined.
Fair enough, the situation certainly in reality was probably more complicated than it comes across in the press release- but nevertheless the messaging here paints him a pretty poor light, whether he deserves it or not. Surely a standard 'business is tough I dunno what to tell ya, we're sorry we have to do this" PR message would come across better, but they decided to set him up as taking the blame for this shitty decision.
It doesn't change the fact that someone in power in the organization had the shitty idea that Levine was so vastly more important the numerous people that actually built his games, that they could simply be dismissed with little loss- and I take issue with that, regardless of who is holding that opinion.
So so harsh. People with mortgages, people with lives, people who've moved their family there in order to work, I know the industry is a volatile place but it's such a hard pill to swallow.
Are there any other studios in the area anymore or will everyone be forced to move out west?
There's not many big studios around here, unfortunately.
The only "bigger names" I can think of are Turbine (which just had layoffs), Harmonix (which just had layoffs a few months ago), Rockstar New England, Demiurge...
I'm not sure when this was last updated but it has been a handy site for me in the past. There are a handful of indie and small-team groups here, but yeah...the more often this happens, the fewer options anybody has in this area...a lot of people I know have had to move to California or find work freelancing, or find work in another industry entirely.
Maybe I should pick up Rosetta Stone for Mandarin and get a job at a Chinese outsource house now to beat the rush, if I want to be able to keep doing art for a living.
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Does anyone have any experience doing taxes for freelance work? All my freelanced comes from big companies and they do it for me and send me a W2 at the end of the year. I don't know how to handle small clients.
I know you should set up an EFTPS account with the IRS, then you need to make estimated tax payments on a quarterly basis (see: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Self-Employed). I'm assuming here that you're working as an individual and haven't incorporated (which may be better for some reason, though I couldn't tell you why exactly.)
Basically, you need to calculate your income tax, and then the self-employment tax on top of that. You also need to do the same with your state's tax board- at least in California there's a similar online system for this. You fill this out once every 3 months (there's a set date per quarter you have to do this by), and it draws it directly from your bank account (you can probably do this via check as well?).
My problem was not knowing how to factor in deductions, or how to deal with the unevenness of the income over time (if you've got a good sense of how much money you'll make over the course of the year, it'll be a lot easier to figure out your tax bracket and such, and factor in things accordingly- if you're getting payments unevenly and you don't know what the situation is going to be week to week, it becomes more difficult to judge what you should be doing)...I just vastly overpaid by not factoring in deductions at all just to make sure I wasn't underpaying (the IRS scares me so I just want to keep them happy and off my back), and then got a fairly large return when I did my income taxes at the end of the year.
This is almost certainly not the way to go, so having an actual accountant who knows what they're doing to help you with this stuff is probably recommended. (Trying to do this all myself was a part of why I haaaaaaated freelance work. I don't know how people that do freelance as a career manage it.)
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Yuuuup. Like I said, probably want to get an accountant to deal with it if you can. You'll still probably want to cry when you need to send the money in, but at least you won't have to cry through just trying to figure out how much to send in.
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Just like my actual love.
Just got an email saying they had a security breach. Luckily no credit card info was taken but they apparently did get emails, mailing addresses and all that fun stuff.
Time to start trying to pay for things exclusively with livestock. Let's see you hack a chicken, you bastards.
http://ohnotheydidnt.livejournal.com/85328766.html
(Specifically the one that is less blue where you can see both of black widow's super uneven arms and where nick fury is apparently a very tiny man)
and then Capcom said you can't be a female character in their procedurally generated Dark-Souls-Alike because of story
what the fuck, game industry
Like Kill la Kill or anything Kojima does.
I mean, really reach in there, guys; I want to see Sartre or Adorno or something
My theory is going to be they're going to say 'it's supposed to be like one of weird costumes that some diva performers wear on stage', being a music game and all...of course, ignoring that those costumes are themselves dumb and sexist. Also ignoring that the other characters don't appear to be following that convention either, otherwise the male characters would mostly just be wearing t-shirts and jeans instead of some weird cosplay shit.
Also the Capcom thing just seems sort of dumb, just from a practical standpoint- if they don't have the money to make an alternate love story or whatever to make a female protagonist work (and that element is that important to the story that it can't be removed (unlikely, but just taking their statement at face value)), it'd probably make more sense to just take out the ability to choose different characters entirely and say, 'This epic tale is specifically about the character of Dungeon Bill here.' Less PR backlash and you've saved some money on making a handful of alternate character models.
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edit: to be clear, I mean that individual character storytelling in the game is wildly unlikely to be worth half a moment's thought anyway and makes for a very flimsy excuse for being so exclusionary.
http://www.irrationalgames.com/
to make up for my arghness here is a rad retro-style sci-fi painting by the majestic Ian McQue
I find the implied idea that those people being laid off have absolutely no ability to generate revenue for Take Two without Ken Levine personally holding their hand the whole time to be completely ridiculous. Let him do his own thing and put those people to work on something else for fuck's sake. 150 people who made a couple of the more successful games of the last generation suddenly have no value because you take away one dude? Bullshit.
Layoffs because there's no money to go around are shitty enough...but laying off people because of what seems on face value like a, "YOU ARE NOTHING WITHOUT ME!" ego-trip seems even shittier.
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It worked for some sites too, they got distracted by the shiny and put up articles going "ooooooh new Ken Levine project... and some people got fired or something whatever"
To call it an ego-trip makes it sound like it was Ken who decided that his studio would be hopelessly lost without his vision. I would be shocked if Ken actually had anywhere near that much power, to be able to unilaterally fire the whole company, if he were so inclined.
It doesn't change the fact that someone in power in the organization had the shitty idea that Levine was so vastly more important the numerous people that actually built his games, that they could simply be dismissed with little loss- and I take issue with that, regardless of who is holding that opinion.
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Are there any other studios in the area anymore or will everyone be forced to move out west?
The only "bigger names" I can think of are Turbine (which just had layoffs), Harmonix (which just had layoffs a few months ago), Rockstar New England, Demiurge...
I'm not sure when this was last updated but it has been a handy site for me in the past. There are a handful of indie and small-team groups here, but yeah...the more often this happens, the fewer options anybody has in this area...a lot of people I know have had to move to California or find work freelancing, or find work in another industry entirely.
You uh, you feelin okay?
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Guys!
Why you so ugly?