I don’t think Dave’s budget numbers are including his (and his wife’s) cost. It’s a common “mistake” when doing indie budgets. You end up working for nothing in the hopes of backend, but it’s unfair to not include your fair cost in the budget, since it’s very misleading, or it at least needs to be called out. Thimbleweed Park cost just over $1M, and that was paying most of the team far less than they could make. That also includes Gary and I making almost nothing for 2 years. It also includes ports to Xbox, PS4, Switch, iOS and Android. Plus marketing.
Once we’re done with all the ports (i.e. expenses), I’ll post a full budget for the game.