We have never billed by the hour, and we are not going to start. Here is the reasoning, because it affects how a project actually runs rather than just how the invoice looks.

Hourly billing punishes the wrong person

Under an hourly model, every question you ask costs you money. So you stop asking. You batch up your feedback, you let small things slide, and you find out at the end that a thing you did not mention in week two is now expensive to change.

Meanwhile the studio has a quiet incentive to take longer. Nobody sets out to pad an estimate, but when speed costs you revenue, speed stops being a priority.

A fixed price moves the risk

When we quote a number, we are taking on the risk that the work runs long. That is the right way round. We are the ones who can estimate it, because we have done it a hundred times. You cannot, because you have done it once.

It also means the scoping conversation has to be real. We ask harder questions up front, because we are the ones carrying the consequence of getting it wrong.

What it requires from both sides

A fixed price only works if the scope is genuinely fixed. That means:

• We write down what is included, in specifics, before anyone starts.
• You tell us early if something is missing from that list.
• Changes outside the scope get their own number, agreed before we do them.

That last point is where studios usually go soft and then resent it. We would rather name the number, let you decide, and keep the relationship straight.