Hello, I have multiple ideas of game that i would like to make but i don’t know how to program, so it is very difficult for me to estimate the cost of programing a game. If you can help me with that it would be great
Thats just an open question that nobody can answer if you dont provide more details about the scope of the game and more info about the project. Areyou making a game that should beat the next gta 6 or are you aiming for some small indi game…
How long is a piece of string?
Also, I want to buy a car, but I don’t know how much a car cost, could you help me?
If there is a specific other game that has the same scope and level of quality as the game you want, you may be able to find the development team size, timeline, and budget, by looking in various industry news sources.
Then you can assume that, if you find experienced developers to help you, your game will have approximately the same cost, with the same scope and timeline.
Note that indie games typically are made as passion/hobby projects, where one or a few main developers pours a lot of sweat equity into the game; if you are not able to do that, paying salaries to compensate for that sweat equity will frequently have a significant multiplier cost.
Making a game is only part programming. At least it is art (unless it’s CLI), programming, sound, level design, music, story writing, dialog writing, gameplay design, testing, translation, marketing, customer support, file / version / backup / security (all sysadmin stuff), music.
If you’re just getting started you are probably better of hiring people unless you are a quick learner, because most of these skills take months to years to master.
per hour rate differ per job type and location, could be anywhere from a few euros to a few hundreds of euros an hour.
If you’re willing to do it all on your own, investments are very very low, just an internet connection to learn and a computer to work on. This doesn’t cover proper testing on X machines, backups or such costs but those are very managable on a low income. The investment then is your sanity and time, lots and lots of time.
This mod I made took about 3 years to create I think, although I kept adding content and I’m still giving support 5 years later:
ZoneExpanded - Road To The North mod for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat - Mod DB
Patching and customer support takes time as well, no way around it. Those are usually costs you make after development and stay as long as your product lives.
If the game you have in mind is much much simpler, say the average 3 euro mobile game with a few widgets to play in then you might be able to do it in weeks / months but again only if you have the proper experience. Else it will look and feel like average garbage which is nothing but damage to your name and further costs, if it’s even seen by the community at all.
If you need / want to start a business for the game you will make investments there as well even if you work alone. Initial costs may be low but you will get extra costs in time and money to do the administration, manage insurances, set up legal documents, get legal support etc.