It seems like fairly often on various forums I run into people claiming that you can't make a game without a large sum of money (like $100,000) to hire a team and start a studio. I fail to understand where this logic comes from. I mean, the indie scene is known for it's innovative gameplay. I've bought several indie games that didn't have the nicest artwork, or the benefit of several programmers, that were very fun and made by one person (with maybe some of the artwork contracted). Why does just sitting down and making games seem to be something that isn't advised as much anymore? Just something that has been bugging me, and i'm curious to see what the answers are.

It is possible, just not easy. Don't be discouraged by others.

I don't think very many people claim that making an indie game costs alot of money. Or at least I haven't noticed it.

People constantly stress that making an MMO costs alot of money, because it does.

I was talking with someone at school last week about this. I agree with you, the industry has gotten to serious and been overtaken by people with money and power. The main factors I see high costs are the following:


>MMOs
-soo much content, quality assurance, servers

>Marketing
-high costs for advertisement
-paying for shelf space

>Uber sophisticated engines
-Unreal Engine (Gears of War), although I dont see how once you have bump mapping and HDR, why you would have to do it from scratch from engine 2 to 3.


As far as starting a company well you should rethink that 100,000 sum, because that is totally relevant. A quick look:

-People need to be paid, unless everyone has a job already that they can live off of during the development of a game.
-If your just some people with no families that can live on your own, then I would say like 15,000 to 20,000 is a manageable salary (I could live off even less, like 10,000), but remember this is all within a group of people that feel this studio is a life goal/accomplishment to them.
-If you have a CS degree or whatever, you can make more than 20,000.
-Cost to publish it idependently, or however.


A quick look at some simple games that have made lots of money that I think any hardcore amateur could make:

>Katamri Damacy (spell check)
-Hardly any artwork that would take more than one artist
-Not an insane engine

>Guitar hero 1 and 2
-Wow, if they needed more than 3 programmers for this game (unless of a small dev time), then I don't know.
-Same engine from 1 and 2
-70.00 game, we all know that controller is only worth like 1.00, hell I even thought about making death metal hero for pc secretly to show I could do it.

All mario games
-Again artwork
-Reusable artwork from game to game (mario party, super smash bros, super strikers)
-Simple games like Super Strikers
-Seriously under today's uber graphics and everything else, this game is almost a crime that it's still making lots of money (it's incredible and awesome).

Was just searching for number of people on dev teams for some games:


Mr. DRILLER: Drill Spirits, a group of 17 people
Tales of Symphonia, a group of 17 people
Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean, a group of 16 people
Ridge Racer 6, a group of 16 people
Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament, a group of 15 people
Soulcalibur III, a group of 15 people
We Love Katamari, a group of 15 people
Breakdown, a group of 15 people
Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, a group of 14 people
Tales of Legendia, a group of 13 people
Tekken 5, a group of 12 people
Point Blank DS, a group of 12 people
Namco Museum Battle Collection, a group of 12 people
Xenosaga: Episode I - Der Wille zur Macht, a group of 11 people
Dead to Rights II, a group of 11 people
Pac-Pix, a group of 11 people
Xenosaga: Episode II - Jenseits von Gut und Böse, a group of 11 people
Xenosaga: Episode III - Also Sprach Zarathustra, a group of 10 people
kill.switch, a group of 10 people
Spawn: Armageddon, a group of 10 people
Rebelstar: Tactical Command, a group of 9 people
Pac-Man World 3, a group of 9 people
Atomic Betty, a group of 8 people
SoulCalibur II, a group of 8 people
I-Ninja, a group of 8 people

Well, I think that it is just because most people aren't willing to work full time for free. I could see a game being expensive if trying to produce a AAA title that competes with the next Halo or Gears of War (seeing as someone mentioned it), simply because of the cost of the middleware - the engines and all the fancy tools that are required to properly feed them. Anyway, I think my point is that most people want to make money, not break-even. Working on a "passion project" in your spare time is all great and dandy, but when it comes time to put food on the table for a wife and kids, things change. Don't get me wrong - if I had the opportunity to work on an indie game full time and have all my living expenses paid (plus a little to play around with) I would be very tempted to do it.*



*Not havinig a wife or kids yet, I wouldn't be worried about supporting them.

On these forums the only times I have seen people say that is if
A:
It’s a MMORPG
B:
Its a mid sized game but the person in question doesn’t have and isn’t willing to learn any relevant skills

A skilled experienced lead programmer in the industry can get $100K a year fairly easily (more if they leave the industry) in the USA. If you need someone like that for your team, you obviously need to find the money.

Yes, but what I am saying is that *YOU* are the lead developer, therefore you don't need a salary. You're just working off of your other job funds, or your savings. And it's not like VS .NET pro costs that much, or a few other softwares like TrueSpace for modeling.

Making games can cost a lot of money. It does not have to, and whatever has led you to believe that has led you astray. It depends entirely on what you're trying to do; the scope of the project, the number and type of people working on it, et cetera, et cetera.