Hi there.

I am currently a new member to the forums so hello to you all and its a pleasure to be apart of this site! I did not see an intro place on the forums (I scanned the forums for a place for intro's but did not see one, I also could be blind and may get some flame for that one), so I thought I would state it here along with an topic that I would like to get some opinions on.

This may be a very general broad question, but with a budget of $100,000.00, what kind of outcome do you think I could get? Currently I have been working on a project with another artist and in all honesty I need funding to get this project through the door. It will be a fighter but as you know every developer says his or hers will be different, but for now I wanted to let you know what type of game it would be. Now I know I do not have enough to make an out of this world game with the funding I have but in my mind I think I could get a lot for what I have and take me pretty far- per say. I am in the process of looking for a team etc. etc. but I thought I would drop by and hear your opinions.

Thank you for your time and looking forward to discussing this,

With a budget of $100K an experienced team could make a mobile phone game or a facebook game.

Thank you for the response! So making the game for the PC would not cut it?

You'll have to go into more detail. What does your question "the game for the PC" mean? What does "cut it" mean?

Of course you can make a game for the PC for under $100K. But what is it you are asking EXACTLY? What is your REAL question? You haven't asked it clearly.

The key issue for indies is to find a space that isn't already ruled by Triple A games from mega publishers. For $100,000 you are unlikely to be able to make a shooter to compete with Call of Duty or a brawler that competes with Street Fighter. So, if by "Fighter" you mean Teken VI and the like then it is unlikely that you will have much success, unless you can come up with some revolutionary new gameplay technique none of the others have used before.

There is also the issue that certain genres do a lot better on particular formats. Fighting games have always sold much better on console (they play better with a console controller) than on PC. If you can only develop for PC you should really choose a genre that suits the PC platform and (as above) isn't dominated by big budget triple A games.

I apologize, I was not clear on my exact question. What I meant to ask was if it was possible to assemble a pretty good team and make an video game with nice quality to it. I do agree that I would be taking an huge gamble on making and "Brawler" or "Fighter" as I call it, seeing it would be on the PC console. I am unable to develop for the 360 or PS3 because, well, I do not have the money and my budget is $100,000.00. What I do know is that I do have a setup that is off the wall for the "fighting" genre. I understand that most developers become ambitious and shoot for the stars, say that their idea is like no other. I also understand that I would have hardly any room to compete while making this game against the giants of Street Fighter and others alike. I believe though that what I am about to create will be different enough to entice the entire fighting genre and pull in other audiences as well.

I apologize, I was not clear on my exact question. What I meant to ask was if it was possible to assemble a pretty good team and make an video game with nice quality to it.

It is still a very vague description of your product. You are missing the three critical factors in determining development cost.



Look at games that are similar in size and scope. Obviously you won't find an exact match, but come up with several that are similar size and scope. These are your comparable products.

Find the game credits for those comparable products and look at how many people were required. Was it three people, or thirty, or three hundred? That's your first value: approximate people.

Then do a little research to estimate how long it took them to make it. Was it five weeks, or five months, or five years? That's your second value: approximate time.

Figure out where you want to have the game made. It is expensive to hire people in downtown NYC or LA or the Bay Area. Assuming you stay in the US, suburbia is much cheaper than big cities, often by half the cost. Further, it is less expensive to hire people in urban India, and again much less expensive to hire workers in metro Zimbabwe. I'm assuming you want to be local to be involved in the process, but that's up to you. That's your third value: approximate salary.

Now multiply the three values, people * salary * time, and that's your approximate development cost.

You will need this number in the upcoming steps.

I believe though that what I am about to create will be different enough to entice the entire fighting genre and pull in other audiences as well.[/quote]

Very good.

This becomes part of your market research. You need to come up with an accurate number of people who are likely to want to play your game, then figure out how many you can convert to money. Do you have millions of people who will honestly want to play it, or is it just a few tens of thousands? That's your target market.

Now that you know the cost of a product, and you know who may want to use the product, you need to figure out how to drive them to the product. You'll need to figure out how much marketing you will need to do in order to generate enough interest to become leads and eventually sales (or active players if you are going for ad revenue). If you have no brand recognition this cost will probably exceed development costs. This is your marketing plan and marketing cost.

Then you'll need to figure out how much each sale costs you if you go with various plans; customers can be very expensive to find but are relatively inexpensive to retain, so you'll probably want to plan on multiple games to encourage repeat business. This lets you figure out how much money to spend and where to spend it.

Now you've got enough information to start planning rough revenue and expense information.

This will become a critical part of your business plan, which will be required if you intend to actually recover the costs of your investment.

I apologize, I was not clear on my exact question. What I meant to ask was if it was possible to assemble a pretty good team and make an video game with nice quality to it. I do agree that I would be taking an huge gamble on making and "Brawler" or "Fighter" as I call it, seeing it would be on the PC console. I am unable to develop for the 360 or PS3 because, well, I do not have the money and my budget is $100,000.00. What I do know is that I do have a setup that is off the wall for the "fighting" genre. I understand that most developers become ambitious and shoot for the stars, say that their idea is like no other. I also understand that I would have hardly any room to compete while making this game against the giants of Street Fighter and others alike. I believe though that what I am about to create will be different enough to entice the entire fighting genre and pull in other audiences as well.

Basically $100,000 isn't that much, Most AAA fighters these days use motion capture to get more realistic animations for example, (While you can afford to do the same on your budget it will eat up a fairly decent chunk of it, especially if you intend to hire proper martial artists for the job rather than let your programmers punch and kick for you).

$100.000 is enough to hire 2-3 developers for one year depending on their experience (you might be able to afford 4 if you go with college dropouts), a year really isn't that much time to make a game though so to have something finished before you run out of money you need to keep things fairly simple. (a Fighter game can be both simple and fun, since you're not saying much about what you have in mind its hard to know if its feasible or not)

$100.000 is enough to hire 2-3 developers for one year depending on their experience (you might be able to afford 4 if you go with college dropouts), a year really isn't that much time to make a game though so to have something finished before you run out of money you need to keep things fairly simple. (a Fighter game can be both simple and fun, since you're not saying much about what you have in mind its hard to know if its feasible or not)

No way will you get 2 - 3 developers for one year on a $100k budget unless you find volunteers or convince them to work for royalties or equity. Personally, I've had horrible luck with the latter. You might get lucky and find two decent entry level programmers working for $50k/year each. Designers and artists less depending on experience. Where you're based will have a huge impact as well, and working remote is a LOT harder than most people expect.

That said, if you scope your project right and work smart, you can definitely make an amazing indie game for $100k - possibly even make a profit.

SIDE NOTE: By the way, if the entire $100k is your own money, I'd seriously consider spreading the risk a little by finding more investors unless you can afford to lose it all with a smile. Making games will rarely make you rich.

[quote name='SimonForsman' timestamp='1301888128' post='4794040']
$100.000 is enough to hire 2-3 developers for one year depending on their experience (you might be able to afford 4 if you go with college dropouts), a year really isn't that much time to make a game though so to have something finished before you run out of money you need to keep things fairly simple. (a Fighter game can be both simple and fun, since you're not saying much about what you have in mind its hard to know if its feasible or not)

No way will you get 2 - 3 developers for one year on a $100k budget unless you find volunteers or convince them to work for royalties or equity. Personally, I've had horrible luck with the latter. You might get lucky and find two decent entry level programmers working for $50k/year each. Designers and artists less depending on experience. Where you're based will have a huge impact as well, and working remote is a LOT harder than most people expect.

That said, if you scope your project right and work smart, you can definitely make an amazing indie game for $100k - possibly even make a profit.

SIDE NOTE: By the way, if the entire $100k is your own money, I'd seriously consider spreading the risk a little by finding more investors unless you can afford to lose it all with a smile. Making games will rarely make you rich.
[/quote]

I was basing it on swedish salaries and $1 being equal to 7.50 sek (looks like the dollar has dropped alot in value recently though as its only worth 6.20 now) so i guess entry level salaries are closer to $60k here now (Entry level is what he has to aim at), i didn't count on the employer fees though (which would bring the cost of hiring someone for an entry level position in Sweden up to around $80k per year), so yeah, getting 2-3 would be impossible, i just did the math on what one could expect to earn here if you took a job just out of highschool and it'd hit $50k per year for the employer when all the fees and taxes are included. (Taxes are far lower in the US though but i guess employers normally add in alot of other benefits such as medical insurance etc).

But i guess given those costs the best way forward is for the OP to do most of the work himself and buy/license the artwork/sound/music he needs rather than hire people to create it for him. (rigged 3D models can be very cheap if you don't need exclusivity for example)