Hi. I’m obviously new to the forums, but this is not what the thread is mainly about.
Questions about Unity :
How easy is it to collaborate on game projects here ?
How much is it typically going to cost to make a game on here, if you plan to release it commercially ?
Welcome to the forums…
1.) Collaboration IMO has a low chance of success… since everyone is working for free eventually somebody will get bored and pack up for greener pastures.
If you have the drive and determination, and don’t mind swapping in and out new team members then go for it, but it won’t be easy.
2.) How long is a piece of string.
This forum can help you find people to collaborate with, but it doesn’t facilitate the collaboration beyond that. There’s no private forums or project trackers.
Unity itself doesn’t have any collaboration stuff in the free version. You’d have to buy the addon for that, and it’s rather expensive. You can still use Git and Dropbox, though there are some caveats there to be aware of, such as when 2 people work on the same thing at the same time.
As for cost, you could spend nothing and release a game commercially on Windows and OSX. There are features in pro that you’d want, but you don’t need them. For mobile, you’d need the appropriate addon(s). Prices are on the store.
No game ever costs nothing. You should always factor in your hourly rate as a ‘cost’ towards the game’s development, in lieu of work you could rather be doing to bring in income.
If you’re running a business, I agree.
If you’re doing a hobby, I disagree completely. You should never consider your time spent as lost money when enjoying your hobbies, friends, family, or other non-work activities.
It is quite hard to get collaborators because most people are doing their own stuff, also any long project is likely to fail when more important things (like life) interfere.
As to cost, that really depends. What game do you want to do? If you can give the genre such as FPS, RTS, HOG it might be possible to give a ball park figure.