Price concept art commissions for indie devs by deliverable type and rendering level, not by the client's stated budget. Set a base rate per character, prop, or environment concept — estimated hours × your target hourly rate — then charge separately for extra revision rounds, rush turnaround, and any usage-rights transfer the developer needs for their game. Custom Work lets you offer clearly scoped commissions and services: you set the price, the scope and the delivery time, and followers submit a brief and pay before you start.
The client pool is large and skewed toward small teams. SteamDB's release tracker recorded 21,320 new games released on Steam in 2025, against a cumulative catalog of 122,064 titles (SteamDB, Game Release Summary by Year). SteamDB's tag view records 10,784 of the games released on Steam in 2025 as carrying the Indie tag (SteamDB, Indie releases by year). GDC's 2026 State of the Game Industry survey of over 2,300 industry professionals found that 62% of respondents work at a game company or studio, and 45% of those work at independent studios — more than at AAA (31%), AA (18%), or co-development studios (6%) (2026 State of the Game Industry). Those independent buyers are small teams: the same GDC report found that 77% of respondents at indie studios less than five years old work somewhere with fewer than 20 employees, and 11% work by themselves (2026 State of the Game Industry). If "what do you charge?" keeps landing in your DMs, publish a fixed concept-art price list so each inquiry does not become a fresh negotiation.
How should you price concept art commissions for indie devs?
Price a concept art commission by deliverable, rendering level, fixed scope, rush delivery, and usage rights. For Custom Work, delivery is one-time, so any requested changes are a new, separately priced order. The base formula is estimated hours × target hourly rate. Indie developers should see the same published menu as any other buyer — a transparent price list, not a discount because a studio calls itself "indie."
Base price = estimated hours × target hourly rate
To turn a salary figure into an hourly anchor, use the same convention the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics uses. BLS states the rule plainly:
"Annual wages have been calculated by multiplying the hourly mean wage by a 'year-round, full-time' hours figure of 2,080 hours." — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Table 1.
The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a median annual wage of $102,030 as of May 2025 for special effects artists and animators — the closest official wage category to game concept art work (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). The $102,030 BLS median divided by the BLS 2,080-hour convention works out to about $49.05 per hour for a salaried employee.
The $49.05 salaried-equivalent hourly figure is a labor-market anchor, not a freelance rate. A salaried animator's employer absorbs software licenses, hardware, health coverage, payroll taxes, and every unbilled hour spent on briefs, invoices, and revisions. A self-employed concept artist carries all of it, so freelance target rates are normally set above the salaried-equivalent figure. Carrying those costs is the norm in this occupation: the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook lists self-employed workers as the single largest employer category for special effects artists and animators, at 63%. The worked examples below use $60/hour as an illustrative target rate — pick your own number and the arithmetic still holds.
What should a concept art price matrix look like?
A price matrix crosses deliverable type against rendering level so a developer can self-serve a quote without messaging you. The concept art price matrix below is a worked model, not a market survey: hour estimates are illustrative ranges, and every price is those hours times an example $60/hour rate. Change the rate and every cell moves with it.
The example rate deliberately sits above the salaried benchmark: $60/hour exceeds the $49.05 hourly equivalent of the $102,030 median annual wage the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for special effects artists and animators as of May 2025 (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook).
Assumptions for every cell: one subject per piece; the developer supplies a written brief and references; you make one final delivery as a flat PNG/JPG at 300 DPI; internal reference use is included; wider rights and rush work are priced separately; requested changes require a new order.
| Deliverable | Rough sketch | Line art | Flat color | Full render |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Character concept (single) | 1–2 h · $60–$120 | 3–5 h · $180–$300 | 5–8 h · $300–$480 | 10–16 h · $600–$960 |
| Prop / asset concept | 0.5–1 h · $30–$60 | 1–3 h · $60–$180 | 3–5 h · $180–$300 | 5–9 h · $300–$540 |
| Environment / biome concept | 1–3 h · $60–$180 | 4–6 h · $240–$360 | 6–10 h · $360–$600 | 12–20 h · $720–$1,200 |
| Marketing key art | 2–4 h · $120–$240 | 5–8 h · $300–$480 | 9–14 h · $540–$840 | 18–30 h · $1,080–$1,800 |
Price every add-on off the same hourly base used in the matrix. The add-on schedule below is illustrative, not a surveyed market standard, so adjust the percentages to your own queue:
| Add-on | Example charge | Why it is separate |
|---|---|---|
| Requested change after delivery | 1 h at rate = $60, billed per order | Custom Work is one delivery, so each change is its own priced order rather than free scope |
| Rush (delivered in half your standard delivery time) | +50% of base | Displaces other booked work |
| Each additional character in the same piece | +75% of the single-character price | Nearly a second deliverable, minus setup |
| In-game commercial license, one shipped title | +25% of base | Wider use than internal reference |
| Marketing / store-page use | +25% of base | Public-facing exposure beyond the build |
| Full copyright assignment (signed writing) | +100% of base | You give up all future reuse of the piece |
What does a worked concept art quote actually look like?
A worked quote turns the matrix into one number a developer can approve. Take the hours, multiply by the rate, add the scoped extras, then subtract platform and card-processing fees so you know your real take-home. Two examples at the illustrative $60/hour rate — one full commission, one small asset job — show the whole calculation end to end.
Example 1 — rushed hero character, full render, in-game license. Estimated 12 hours × $60 = $720 base. One separately ordered change after delivery: +$60 at the example one-hour rate. Rush delivery time at +50% of base: +$360. In-game commercial license for one shipped title at +25% of base: +$180. Total: $1,320.
On Brillay, the 8% platform fee for work (tips and goals carry 5%) means a $1,320 order carries a $105.60 platform fee, leaving $1,214.40 (pricing). Using Stripe's published US online-card rate only as an estimate, card processing would be about $38.58 on a $1,320 payment, leaving roughly $1,176; the actual Stripe fee can vary.
Example 2 — prop set, flat color, standard delivery. Estimated 4 hours × $60 = $240 base, with an internal reference license and the scope limited to the listed deliverable. Total: $240, a $19.20 Brillay platform fee, and $7.26 in Stripe processing at the published US rate — about $214 net.
Fixed per-transaction costs weigh more heavily on small orders: Stripe's $0.30 flat component is 0.02% of a $1,320 commission but 0.125% of a $240 one, and the same fixed overhead applies to your own brief-reading and invoicing time. A published minimum order size, rather than a $15 sketch tier, is how a commission menu absorbs that fixed overhead.
What concept art deliverables do indie devs actually commission?
Indie concept art briefs generally sort into four buckets: a character concept, a prop or asset concept, an environment or background concept, and marketing key art. Those four buckets are a pricing framing, not a surveyed industry taxonomy. Each bucket carries a different scope and delivery time, so one flat rate underprices the heaviest work. A studio that needs in-engine tile sheets rather than illustrated concepts is really asking for a different deliverable — see how to scope and price a pixel art tileset commission for that adjacent case.
| Deliverable | Typical scope | Reference needed from dev |
|---|---|---|
| Character concept | One character, front view or a small set of angles, base color pass | Brief, references, gameplay role |
| Prop / asset concept | A weapon, vehicle, item, or UI icon set | Style guide, size/function notes |
| Environment / key art | A background, level mood piece, or biome concept | Mood references, level layout notes |
| Marketing key art | A polished hero image for a store page or announcement | Final characters/assets, target composition |
Marketing key art is the one bucket with hard external specs attached to it. Valve's Steamworks documentation lists a 1232 × 706 px main capsule and a 920 × 430 px header capsule as required store graphical assets for every Steam store page (Steamworks Documentation — Graphical Assets). The same Steamworks documentation lists a 462 × 174 px small capsule as a third required store graphical asset, from which Valve auto-generates the 120 × 45 px and 184 × 69 px variants (Steamworks Documentation — Standard Store Assets). Ask a developer for the target capsule dimensions before quoting key art, because a store-page brief carries fixed crops that a general illustration brief does not.
Character concepts, prop concepts, environment concepts, and marketing key art require the client to send reference files and you to deliver image files, so sell them through Custom Work. When the character bucket specifically calls for a full set of angles with expression and outfit variants rather than a single illustration, price it as its own line item — see how to price a character concept sheet commission for game studios; see how it works for the full order flow.
Should indie devs get a lower rate than other clients?
No. One published price list for every buyer, regardless of team size or stated budget, is the most defensible approach. To support smaller studios, use a deliberately lower-scope starter tier — fewer characters, no color pass, one fixed deliverable — rather than an ad-hoc discount you cannot justify to the next client.
Visual-arts earnings already vary widely before any client-specific discount. The BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook reports a median annual wage of $55,290 for craft and fine artists as of May 2025 (BLS OOH — Craft and Fine Artists) — about $26.58 per hour on the BLS 2,080-hour convention, and roughly half the $102,030 median for special effects artists and animators in the same data year. The gap between those two official medians is a useful reminder that "artist rates" is not one market.
The hiring outlook argues for holding your price too. BLS projects employment of special effects artists and animators to "show little or no change from 2025 to 2035," from a base of about 51,900 jobs held in 2025, with about 4,200 openings projected each year on average over that decade (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook). In a flat market, a rate you discounted once is a rate you will be asked to hold.
Budget pressure on the buyer side is real, and it is still not something an unpriced discount fixes. GDC's 2026 State of the Game Industry report found that 35% of the 2,300-plus surveyed professionals named self-funding as the main source of funding for their games — the most common answer, ahead of publishing or project-based deals at 20%. A developer paying out of pocket needs a smaller scope, not a cheaper hour.
An indie developer's own Steam costs are published, and both of them land before any revenue arrives. Valve charges a $100 Steam Direct fee for each product a developer submits, non-refundable but recoupable in the payment made after that product reaches $1,000 in adjusted gross revenue. Valve's Steam Distribution Agreement then takes 30% of a game's earnings up to $10 million, 25% on earnings beyond $10 million, and 20% on earnings beyond $50 million. A self-funded studio is paying an artist well before either of those costs is recovered, which is an argument for scoping the commission down, not for cutting the hourly rate.
If a self-funded developer's budget genuinely does not fit your menu, a smaller, clearly scoped tier keeps the transaction transparent instead of turning it into an informal price cut.
Who owns the concept art after an indie dev pays for it?
By default the artist who creates a commissioned piece owns the copyright; payment alone transfers nothing. Under U.S. law a commissioned work becomes "work made for hire" only in narrow circumstances, and any other transfer of copyright must be in a signed writing. Define usage rights explicitly in the listing — in-game license, marketing use, or internal reference only.
The U.S. Copyright Office sets out the two situations that create a work made for hire:
"A copyrightable work is 'made for hire' in two situations: When it is created by an employee as part of the employee's regular duties [or] when a certain type of work is created as a result of an express written agreement between the creator and a party specially ordering or commissioning it." — U.S. Copyright Office, Circular 30: Works Made for Hire.
The phrase "a certain type of work" is the narrow part, and it is where a casually drafted "we'll just call it work for hire" clause can fail. A commissioned work qualifies as work made for hire only if it meets both statutory conditions in 17 U.S.C. § 101: it falls within one of exactly nine enumerated categories — a contribution to a collective work, a part of a motion picture or other audiovisual work, a translation, a supplementary work, a compilation, an instructional text, a test, answer material for a test, or an atlas — and "the parties expressly agree in a written instrument signed by them that the work shall be considered a work made for hire" (Circular 30). A signed "this is work for hire" clause on a piece that falls outside those nine categories does not make it one.
Whether a given piece of game concept art falls inside a category is fact-specific and not something to guess at in a DM — the audiovisual-work category is the one a game project might plausibly reach, but that depends on the facts of the commission, and this page is not legal advice.
There is a simpler route that does not depend on the nine categories: a written assignment or license. 17 U.S.C. § 204(a) provides that "a transfer of copyright ownership, other than by operation of law, is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed" (U.S. Copyright Office, Title 17, Chapter 2). One consequence worth knowing before you sign anything: the Copyright Office notes that the statutory termination provisions in sections 203, 304(c), and 304(d) "do not apply to works made for hire" (Circular 30) — a true work-for-hire is permanent in a way an assignment is not.
Use a fixed ladder of rights tiers so a developer picks a grant instead of negotiating one:
| Rights tier | What the developer may do | What you keep | Example add-on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal reference only | Use the piece inside the team as reference; no public release | Copyright, portfolio use, and every commercial use | Included in base price |
| In-game commercial license, one shipped title | Ship the piece inside one named game | Copyright, portfolio use, and rights for every other title | +25% of base |
| Marketing / store-page use | Use the piece in store pages, trailers, and ads for that title | Copyright and reuse outside that campaign | +25% of base |
| Full copyright assignment | Every use, in any medium, indefinitely | Only what you reserve in the signed writing, plus any statutory termination right under 17 U.S.C. § 203 | +100% of base, signed writing required |
Practically: state your default terms in the listing description ("commercial-use license for this title only" vs. "full transfer of rights"), price the wider grants as add-ons, and get any transfer in a signed writing. A separate guide on whether you need a contract to sell custom work covers how to document these terms alongside the Brillay order itself.
Is concept art a Paid Question or a custom request on Brillay?
Concept art commissions are always a custom request on Brillay, never a Paid Question. A concept art commission requires reference files from the client and an image-file delivery from you, so it belongs in Custom Work.
Use this decision table to route an incoming developer message to the right Brillay offer before quoting anything:
| Incoming developer request | Right Brillay format | Files in / files out | How it is priced |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Does this art direction read as horror?” — a written answer | Paid Questions | A follower asks one private question; you reply in writing within the window you set | Creator sets price and reply time |
| "Draw our main character at full render" | custom request | Follower attaches references; you deliver text plus files, links, audio, or video | Estimated hours × your rate, with separate fixed-price Custom Work for rush work, added scope, requested changes, or wider rights |
| "Here is $20 for the free process breakdown you posted" | Tip | No delivery required | Suggested amounts you set |
| "We want to discuss a multi-piece art contract" | Brand Collaboration Inquiry | A form collecting budget, timeline, and deliverables into a separate inbox | Not priced on the form; it routes the lead |
Every routing rule in that table comes from Brillay's own offer mechanics.
Custom Work lets clients attach up to five reference files, and you deliver text plus files of any allowed type and/or a link. You set the fixed price and delivery time, up to five days; clients pay by card as guests before you start. No monthly fee, you only pay a small platform fee when you get paid. 8% platform fee when a follower pays for work, 5% platform fee on tips and goals. Card processing is separate. Stripe pays creators out in 41 supported countries. Followers pay upfront; you can decline a request.
What should a concept art commission listing include?
A Custom Work listing should tell a developer exactly what they are paying for: the deliverable, rendering level, required references, delivery time, usage rights, and exclusions. Custom Work includes one delivery; additional changes require a new, separately priced order. Those seven fields each map to a line in the deliverable-by-rendering-level price matrix on this page, so a quote never has to be reconstructed from a DM thread.
- Deliverable type: Character, prop, environment, or key art — one listing per type keeps scope unambiguous.
- Rendering level: Rough sketch, line art, flat color, or full render.
- Reference input: What the developer must provide (brief, mood references, gameplay notes) to start the commission.
- Changes after delivery: State that Custom Work includes one final delivery and that any requested changes require a new, separately priced order.
- Delivery time: A period you can reliably meet within Brillay's 5-day cap, with your rush surcharge stated separately.
- Usage rights: Internal reference, in-game use, marketing use, or full transfer — priced as add-ons, granted in writing.
- Exclusions: What is not included, such as further variations, animation-ready line separation, or additional characters.
How to write a custom request offer walks through scoping a listing so incoming requests stay inside what was actually purchased.
What else can concept-art-focused creators sell besides commissions?
Commissions do not have to be the only priced option on your page. Tips, a Goal, and a separate brand-collaboration intake all pair well with concept art work without turning every interaction into a full commission — useful when your commission queue is closed or a developer's budget is not there yet.
- Tips: Tips let followers send a one-time thank-you, with nothing for you to deliver and no membership for them to join.
- Goals: Funding toward a defined goal, such as a new tablet, a Clip Studio Paint license, or a portfolio print run, shown with a progress bar rather than tiered rewards.
- Brand Collaboration Inquiries: A separate intake form for a studio that wants to discuss ongoing or multi-piece work, kept apart from one-off commission orders — how a freelance concept art studio should field those brand inquiries covers routing that form once it starts filling up.
- Paid feedback: A priced written review of a developer's portfolio or a candidate's game-industry art test, sold as Paid Questions rather than a full commission — see how to price paid feedback on a game industry art test.
These formats serve different purposes than a single commission, so keep the concept art listing focused on the deliverable rather than folding unrelated asks into one unclear package. Related reading: how do indie game developers make money? covers the buyer side of this relationship — how the studios commissioning your art fund their own projects.
Frequently asked questions
Concept art pricing questions cluster around six things: the rate itself, revision and rush surcharges, whether indie studios deserve a discount, which Brillay format fits a commission, who owns the finished art, and what the platform takes from the payment. Short, self-contained answers to all six follow, with the underlying primary source named in every case.
How much should I charge an indie dev for a concept art commission?
There is no single market rate to quote. Use estimated hours × your target hourly rate: at an illustrative $60/hour, a full-render single-character concept at 10–16 hours prices at $600–$960 before revision, rush, and rights add-ons. For an anchor on the rate itself, the BLS median for special effects artists and animators was $102,030 in May 2025 (BLS OOH), or about $49.05/hour on the BLS 2,080-hour convention — a salaried figure, so freelance rates typically sit above it. How much to charge for an art commission walks through the calculation in more detail.
What should I charge for extra revisions and rush jobs?
There is no published industry standard, so set your own rule and publish it. A defensible illustrative schedule is one clearly scoped final delivery, with requested changes sold as a new order at one hour of your rate ($60 in this example), plus a +50% rush price when a developer wants the work in half your usual delivery time. The point is that both are priced line items rather than free scope creep.
Should I give indie developers a discount?
Not as an informal, case-by-case cut. If you want to support smaller budgets, build a deliberately scoped starter tier — fewer poses, no color pass, a single fixed deliverable — into your published menu, so pricing stays consistent and easy to defend.
Is a concept art commission a Paid Question or a custom request?
Use Custom Work.
Who owns the art after the developer pays?
You do, by default. A commissioned work is "work made for hire" under U.S. law only if it falls within one of the nine categories listed in 17 U.S.C. § 101 and the parties sign a written instrument saying so (U.S. Copyright Office); any other transfer of copyright requires a signed writing under 17 U.S.C. § 204(a) (Title 17). State your usage-rights terms — license for this title, marketing use, full transfer, or internal reference only — directly in the listing. This is general information, not legal advice.
What does Brillay charge on a commission?
Brillay charges an 8% platform fee on Custom Work orders and 5% on tips and goals; on a $1,320 commission, the platform fee is $105.60. There is no follower minimum, and payouts run through Stripe. Card processing applies on top: Stripe's published pricing lists a typical US online-card rate of 2.9% + $0.30, or $38.58 on that same $1,320 order (Stripe pricing).
Create your free Brillay page and turn "what do you charge indie devs?" into one clear listing instead of a fresh negotiation every time.
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