The game is designed to be multiplayer only (eventual aim is to have solo and duo multiplayer).
The game environments will be small (typically 50 metres by 50 metres (real life measurements)) but with an emphasis on very high quality. The plus side of this is that it’s going to be fairly simple in that map will be small and comprised of simple (but high quality) platforms with the “environment” being high quality skyboxes? Basically things you can see but not touch like in counter strike map dizzy. you’re on the top of a skyscraper can see around you but obviously its just a picture.
The level will have minimal assets (maybe 30 high textured objects).
And I’m looking to create around 3 levels with different skyboxes
Only one weapon with 3 types of ammo.
I will be looking for the objects to be interactable (pick up, use as springboards etc)
My skills are firmly within a different environment (trading/asset management/business development) so I won’t be contributing much experience in that regard (though happy to learn if it saves me a bulk of time. Will be working with another colleague as well, and probably give a combined 40 hours a week attention (After work)).
My questions are:
Are there any good guides about planning such a game (eg a list of considerations such as sound, graphics, background stuff, coding for things like multiplayer)
How would I go about speccing out the game (eg how many hours of development it likely to take?)
What sort of ballpark figure would this cost. How are costs usually split? (Current budget is firmly as a hobby so 15k euro upfront, and around 3k a month in payments).
You need to divide your game into features, split those into sub-features, then work out what kind of staff you need to work on each, then make time estimates for every person & task.
Just as an FYI, your development budget is probably going to need to be ten times as big, if not more. 3k per month doesn’t pay my salary, and I’m just one person, where you’ll probably need several.
Hi thanks for the replies, appreciate the insight. I was thinking more part time, as I certainly don’t want any full time employees!
Would it be possible (I know its a case of how long is a piece of string!) to get even a vague breakdown of where these costs would be incurred? Looking at upwork it seems there are quite a few people in the $20-$50 range with impressive experience. Say maybe $40 an hour (works out at 36 euros an hour). This gives me over 80 hours of development time a month? For the scenario I posted above, what sort of hours clocking in would you guesstimate would be needed?
Thanks again, I do appreciate the assistance from people who know their stuff!
managing a game in house with a workflow in place is already a challenge, managing it over upwork will be nightmarish i imagine and in most cases counter intuitive, you need at least one good lead fulltime to gather the data and put it all together, i can imagine upwork for maybe certain individual asset creations.
time and coordination over long distances can end up wasting more money for what you put in, just saying watch out on these factors.
to my knowledge the amount you are willing to put may only land you an early prototype for the type of game you have described.
i wouldve said it could be done if you were a dev as well, but in your case you will really need a lead generalist who understands the entire process and is also good at one thing at least.
Are you all joking on cost for a game as simple as he is wanting? I’m a generalist and been working on my own game that’s way bigger and it hasn’t cost me but around 3,000 usd. I’d be willing to build it for you by myself.
It’s not a question of simplicity. Even something as simple as pong can take hours to complete. If you are own your own, then yes, you could do it in less than an hour, but working remotely within a team, with people you don’t know… well, that can easily consume a whole bunch of hours (if you lucky). Just the time you waste in meetings and discussions … it’s a logistic nightmare.
Also, if you’re working on your own game you don’t have to pay yourself what you would otherwise expect to be paid for that kind of work. My own personal project hasn’t cost me much more than around $6k, but that doesn’t discount that my billable hours would amount to several times more than that!
