The file is a design document for the proposed changes for my game. They have links to the mockup as well.
I am trying to create a lean design without compromising too much depth. My goal is balance between cost-effectiveness and gameplay depth.
I would like feedback from game devs that have already finished a few projects with Unity.
Thank you for your time.
conjures a kettle of popped corn
infinity dollars.
I like that you even started a design document but you need to break down tasks and break down what you actually want to get a price of how much something will cost. You basically just gave a small description of your game and asked “how much dev time will this take, how much art, and how many resources” that’s unrealistic.
Put the project up on freelancer.com and see what kind of bids you get. Either that or post it here in the Commercial section. Very few people here are going to go through a whole game design document and lay out a price. That’s a ton of work, going over everything, calculating costs, etc. for a job that might not even be on the table.
OK I don’t think your design document gives an overview of the game mechanics or art style, these nuts and bolts are the thing that allow people to estimate development times. Ideally you would provide an overview of the game mechanics/rules, unit types and variety of units and their art styles. 2D/3D isometric ect.
This information would then allow people to think about how many meshes/animations/textures/graphics/sound effects/music tracks and scripts are needed to make the game. Also as these components of your game require different skills you should in theory ask people with relevant skills to give you an estimate, e.g. programmers, graphics artist, 3d modelling/animators, sfx artists/musicians.
Another useful way to design is to build use cases, this is where you put the user hat on and think about what you would have to do to play the game.
Or you could use an iterative approach and prototype towards your desired game. You have to realise that it sometimes takes an iterative and playful prototyping approach to maximise the fun in your game.
However I think with the modern UI in unity 4.6+ you could probably get a basic prototype of your game working in a few days, ideally you would refine that over a week or two then you would have a better understanding of what would be needed to complete your game.
Does the game already exist somewhere in some form that we can see?
Or, what progress have you made in the 4 years since your successful kickstarter for this project? And if you’ve been working on it for this long why is your design document only 600 words?
This feels bizarre.
I never asked how much art or resources. Those are things i’ll take care of myself.
A straightforward mobile game along these lines would be $50k as a rough estimation - I’m assuming a standard level of bells and whistles as the GDD is very basic. This number can change depending on the exact features needed, the level of polish etc. Of course, this number gets a game made and into the store, getting players to play it, improving it etc all adds up as well.
To reduce cost it comes down to two things:
Well you gave us a vague question, and you’ve basically answered some parts of your question…
You know
Art Resources = $0
Now finish the rest…
Yu r a Jean yes.
Spot on. There’s a lot of work that goes in between “having a description of the thing” and “having a time and cost estimate to build the thing”. No professional will start on that work without some serious validation that there’s money on the table at the other side.
I discussed in the document why it wasn’t necessary to disclose all of the game mechanics, rules, unit types, variety of units and art style. These are things i will take care of myself. Simple place holders will do.
I already have an artist and audio engineer. This document is for programming only.
I have a web demo for it hosted in the server of the contractor that created it, but it went down on the 4th. He said he would have it up again by Wednesday.
Here’s a report of the progress from the last 4 years. I’m now where the report ended. I now have a lucrative job to fund the development of the game, but i have had delays because i haven’t found a reliable and responsible contractor to do the programming. Every other member of the team is on board; the artist and an audio engineer. There has been lots of time wasted with programmers from freelancer sites that take on the project, complete one milestone, get paid and then move on to pick the low-hanging fruit in some other project. I have learned that the design can affect cost and development time, which is why i decided to make a few changes to the design document in an attempt to make it leaner, more cost effective and faster to develop (like taking out the AI, Friend List, etc).
I’m already taking care of the bells and whistles (assuming you speak of game materials, units, art, UI, audio, etc) and i will take care of the polish later. I just need an estimate for this game engine and not anything extra aside from what it’s in the design document.
Just put it on Elance or Freelancer, and take a look at the bid.
Then multiply that by 50 and you have the actual cost of getting it finished.
You’ll need to add a bit more if you expect it to actually get to market.
And add a little more if they want to market it in any meaningful way.
I just had a quick look at your GDD, and it’s not enough for a programmer to know what you expect from them. If a potential client handed this to me at work I’d consider it a great start for workshopping the idea further. If this is what you’ve been using as a spec for hiring programmers, though, I can understand why you’ve not managed to get anything useful out of them - anyone with significant experience should have helped you flesh this out before getting started.
Then as a general rule of thumb expect between $10k and $20k for programming. Bells and whistles include the assets you talked about, but also many small ‘must haves’ clients tend to ask for - like facebook login, high scores, IAP, achievements etc.
The best thing you can do to bring that cost down is:
A) Really work out exactly what you need - build storyboards - lots of them - and go over them like they are the real app.
B) Work with a quality developer and use their expertise to prioritise functionality:
(Thanks XKCD)
I’d also note there’s a big difference between ‘having assets’ and ‘having usable assets that empower your programmer’. If you don’t manage that process well, it can cost a fortune.
munches popcorn
So far, so good. I’m waiting for the crazy twist, though.
Ok, so what is it missing? What do you recommend i do?
The app doesn’t include any of that except IAP. I’m looking to know how much is it to create the game engine as it is, but i do know that i will need to pay for many iterations and additions, but right now i just want to know how much would it cost me to get the core version off the ground.
I did do the story board, then i used the panels to create the mock up and then put links to it in the design document.
Do you know how/where to find these mythical beasts known as “quality developers”?
I love this.
How can i manage that process well?
10k to 20k for what’s in the design document?
I don’t think so. It looks like it is as basic and minimalist as possible so he has a base to work off and I don’t see 10k to 20k worth of programming in that.
Of course it’s not very detailed so I can’t really give a quote, but generally when I see things like this it’s easy to get the idea of what the person is trying to accomplish and what they expect.
Content on the other hand for a game like this, yeah, that’s going to cost.
Looking through your game design doc, it’s just some simple ideas with no real info that a developer would need to know. Assuming you have the rest of the info available, you should really be sharing that in this thread since you’re asking how much it will all cost. Without knowing the details, it’s absolutely impossible to come up with an accurate cost for what you’re looking for.