Kz3r0
Arcane
- Joined
- May 28, 2008
- Messages
- 27,017
After seeing the wild variety of sums requested by people on Kickstarter I was wondering how much would cost making a proper game, meaning not of the rpgmaker variety.
Here some of my guesses, feel free to correct me:
Time of Development
After some heated discussion in other threads and seeing the time that takes to many Indies to produce something I estimate that a three years development cycle is the right time, not too low, nor 'eternal'.
Creating the Studio
Considering that the first thing that many successful Kickstartes do is establishing a company and renting an office I decided to start from the ground up, the currency or reference is the euro, I know that probably in USA is lower, without mentioning non first world countries.
Legal fees, Insurances, Licensing etc 10K?
Rent for three years, let's say 1K monthly, bills, furniture etc 45K?
Hardware, I know that graphic stations are quite expensive and to test every configuration requires machines so let' say 10K?.
Staff
Now, even two or three guys crew said that they will hire more people for completing the game so here I am aiming for the effective number of members needed.
A Lead Designer, the guy with the ideas coordinating other people's work.
A Writer, having ideas is not enough to deliver them in the proper way.
A concept Artist, I don't think that you can really skip this one for a proper game.
A Graphic Programmer
An Engine Programmer
A Musician
Now, it's possible that some artist can be programmers too, but considering that we are talking about a proper work and that just one programmer is clearly not enough I think that six people is the minimum required number even if the specific roles are different, just for one platform mind you, no ports considered.
Now give them a pay, by Italian standards let' say 1K, not the lowest pay but surely not the pay of a professional, for three years, without bonuses and incentives we have 216K
Reassuming
Creating the studio 65K
Staff 216K
Grand total 281K
Seems that our friend Zoldan was right, 300K seems the bare minimum to make an indie game.
Obviously an existing studio can cut some costs like hardware, legal fees and licenses, it's possible that the studio is of property and not rented, this means that a professional studio can cut around 50K?, too generous maybe.
So, what are your thoughts?
Here some of my guesses, feel free to correct me:
Time of Development
After some heated discussion in other threads and seeing the time that takes to many Indies to produce something I estimate that a three years development cycle is the right time, not too low, nor 'eternal'.
Creating the Studio
Considering that the first thing that many successful Kickstartes do is establishing a company and renting an office I decided to start from the ground up, the currency or reference is the euro, I know that probably in USA is lower, without mentioning non first world countries.
Legal fees, Insurances, Licensing etc 10K?
Rent for three years, let's say 1K monthly, bills, furniture etc 45K?
Hardware, I know that graphic stations are quite expensive and to test every configuration requires machines so let' say 10K?.
Staff
Now, even two or three guys crew said that they will hire more people for completing the game so here I am aiming for the effective number of members needed.
A Lead Designer, the guy with the ideas coordinating other people's work.
A Writer, having ideas is not enough to deliver them in the proper way.
A concept Artist, I don't think that you can really skip this one for a proper game.
A Graphic Programmer
An Engine Programmer
A Musician
Now, it's possible that some artist can be programmers too, but considering that we are talking about a proper work and that just one programmer is clearly not enough I think that six people is the minimum required number even if the specific roles are different, just for one platform mind you, no ports considered.
Now give them a pay, by Italian standards let' say 1K, not the lowest pay but surely not the pay of a professional, for three years, without bonuses and incentives we have 216K
Reassuming
Creating the studio 65K
Staff 216K
Grand total 281K
Seems that our friend Zoldan was right, 300K seems the bare minimum to make an indie game.
Obviously an existing studio can cut some costs like hardware, legal fees and licenses, it's possible that the studio is of property and not rented, this means that a professional studio can cut around 50K?, too generous maybe.
So, what are your thoughts?