For example, just to get a small team together, probably with an average pay reward once the job is done, and make a demo with the combat system and other, important features of the game implemented, and then seek investments from other companys/businesses so you can pay future team members to make the rest of the game?
This would be for a rather large scale MMORPG.
Also, what's a rough average, in your opinion, on how much a large scale MMORPG with many dungeons, enemies, boss fights, skills, items, etc. would cost? I suppose it would just depend on how many team members you end up hiring?

Also, what's a rough average, in your opinion, on how much a large scale MMORPG with many dungeons, enemies, boss fights, skills, items, etc. would cost? I suppose it would just depend on how many team members you end up hiring?

It depends on what quality bar you're trying to hit.

Blizzard spent spent ~$100 million for World of Warcraft:
http://online.wsj.co...=googlenews_wsj

EA has reportedly spent ~$300 million on the new Star Wars MMO:
http://swtor.gamingf...er-300-million/


As for the rest of your question, a demo is definitely a decent way to increase your chances of getting published. MMOs are unique, however, and the bigger challenge you will have is convincing publishers that you have a team who can actually deliver an MMO (significantly, what are the credentials of your networking team and what MMOs or other large scale infrastructures have they previously delivered).

-me

For example, just to get a small team together, probably with an average pay reward once the job is done, and make a demo with the combat system and other, important features of the game implemented, and then seek investments from other companys/businesses so you can pay future team members to make the rest of the game?

Yes this is done quite a bit, but someone with talent in business development should have probably written up a complete business plan before starting such a project (the demo by itself won't convince investors).
Even veteran companies make demos to pitch for investment.

Also, what's a rough average, in your opinion, on how much a large scale MMORPG with many dungeons, enemies, boss fights, skills, items, etc. would cost? I suppose it would just depend on how many team members you end up hiring?[/quote]So incredibly expensive that only a handful of companies could possibly afford to attempt it.

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate it!

How much do companies usually invest and how much do they expect in return? Is the large amount of expense because the games are just hard labor to make because of their quality graphics and placed in a large world (World of Warcraft)?
I imagine Blizzard has more money than the president could ask for, having millions of players paying $20/month or whatever to play their games, plus they've probably sold their 4/5 different expansions quite a few times...just an irrelevant thought.

Once you make a demo, what's next? Sending it to companies and 'selling' the idea? Posting it publically somewhere?

How much would it cost to make a 3D demo with a combat system (it's only a little similar, but imagine Zelda, if that helps), and would it work if it's just you fighting a 'boss' in a circular stage, or would it be best to make a small dungeon?

Sorry, but I have a fresh flow of questions...

Any more help would be appreciated and thanks for your replies!

Didn't somebody else just ask this exact question recently?
BTW, this is a BUSINESS question. Moved.

Didn't somebody else just ask this exact question recently?

Yes, I thought so. GHMP, back out to the Business topics listing, and scroll down to "Starting a new company" by "FoxyGrandpa13"
Exact same question (asking if it's common). See the answers he got.

All I see are a bunch of faded replies, leaving links to books...I think they're yours, but it's hard to tell.
No, just kidding, the funny thing is I'd actually read that post a few days ago, when it had only a few less replies (I think, it's hard to tell since there could've been a few invisible replies I hadn't seen).
Maybe I even got the idea of a demo from that post and just forgot he'd asked about it...?

Sadly, I couldn't find answers to the questions I'd asked in the replies to this thread.

Yes, everything you ask is common to TRY.
And as I told the 13-year-old grandpa, it's common to fail.

Instead of asking if it's common, ask something that'll advance your knowledge in the direction you want it to go. What is it you're really trying to find out?

Well, maybe a more appropriately worded bout of questions would be:

"Is it a realistic approach towards success to make a demo and ask for investments?"

"Have any existing successful games been lead to their success by making a demo - in other words, is it even worth trying?"

"How do gaming companies make their first game if they don't get investments - especially if their first game requires millions?"

I guess I just don't understand how gaming companies got there in the first place, making games like World of Warcraft. Blizzard had Warcraft and Starcraft before WoW, but those two were pretty large games, too, and I doubt if they were cheap to develop (though I'm not sure if Warcraft and Warcraft II would also require a large budget).

The "massively multiplayer" part is where it becomes nasty and prohibitively expensive.

You can have a small persistent world pretty easily. There isn't much of a difference between supporting 4 or 10 or 32 concurrent players. A single dedicated machine with a good hosting plan should be able to handle the processing and data requirements. Games with low bandwidth and little server work, like text based MUDs, have been around for a long time.

Once you get into the hundreds of concurrent users, or thousands, or tens of thousands, the situation changes dramatically.

Even at a hundred or so concurrent players you're going to need a small cluster of machines that are running a wide range of software, and some hefty Internet connections.



Game companies get to making the multi-million dollar games by starting small. They may start with just 2-3 people on a hobby team, or the studio owner may get extra mortgages on their home to fund it. Then they need to be profitable. As they become profitable they grow. As they grow they can negotiate bigger publishing deals, hire more people, hopefully succeed and become more profitable, grow some more, etc.