Correct price for a 3D virtual tour?

News & General Discussion
1

Hi guys,

I have a really serious question for you: how you can define the correct price for a 3D virtual tour in a 1000 square meters shop with 200 product to show?

I think that one of the hardest things in software development is to make the estimates.

What are the methods that you use to solve this problem?

I am really interested in your feedback.

Regards,
Kenshin

2

The way to determine price is to:

  1. Break the project down into as many tasks as possible:
    a. Modeling1) model 5 different types of chair, etc.b. Texturing…
    c. Lighting…
    etc. The more you can break it down the better.

  2. Assign a time to each task in man-hours.

  3. Add a factor of uncertainty to each task’s estimate based on how comfortable you are with the estimate. Things like having never done a similar task before, or a vague description of what is needed by the client increase the uncertainty factor. My factors are usually 1.5 and 2.0. Things almost always take me way longer than I estimate.

  4. Assign an hourly rate to your work. This can be done by a combination of what you need to make and the “going rate” in the industry for this type of work. “Going rates” vary wildly, especially in a global marketplace… so I wouldn’t spend too much energy on finding a going rate. There are lots of books and probably articles on the net to help you determine what hourly rate you need to charge to be financially successful. Once you factor in everything (vacatiion time, reallistic billable hours per day, retirement funding), it will be MUCH higher than you expected.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

3

Hello Shawn,

in general I use this system and then I tottally agree with you but…

Here is the problem!

For me, often to acquire the customer is necessary to propose a price significantly lower than that calculated or sometime I have not enough input data for a detailed calculation.

Looking at this presentation I found an interesting idea about how to estimate a serious game price:
http://www.slideshare.net/Succubuscomm/how-much-is-a-good-serious-game-costing

What do you think about that? :slight_smile:

I wonder if is possible to do something similar for a virtual tour or a product configurator application.

Kenshin

4

I would not trust it. Too many magic numbers… how did they arrive at those? Why should they work for me with my expenses and income needs?

If you are counting on this business to provide food and shelter for you and your family, you really need to make a detailed estimate of your time (and expenses). It is a lot of work to make a good estimate! Many companies factor this time into the price, too.

If you are trying to beat competitors with a lower price, you may consider lowering your hourly rate (that is a separate can of worms). But be honest with yourself about the time. Once you have the project, your time seems to become much more important than it was during the bidding process :wink:

5

Words of wisdom!