Hello all,

Thanks for making such a rich forum available for us to learn from and participate in. I need your feedback and I appreciate all the help I can get.

What I want to do:

• I aspire to create a game for the community. I have some ideas about the storyline. I am considering to hire/contract a team to work for me to develop the game.

What I can do:

• Work with the a development / art team to create a game that almost matches my vision
• Create a high level story line and draft dialogues
• Fund the game (not starting from zero)

What I can't do:

• Program
• Draw art

Concerns:

Geographic barriers, as I am located in the middle-east. I am not sure if long distance communication is effective.

Legal disputes on things like intellectual properties.

I have absolutely no clue how to get started. I e-mailed a few game development studios located in the Philippines as I assumed they would probably be more cost effective but got no response so far. Any advice? This forums seems like an amazing citadel with lots of information and I even not sure if I am posting in the right place!

Thanks again.

Note: I do not intend to start a business or make profit from this first experience. But keeping costs optimized is strategic choice I want to make for the time being.

have some ideas about the storyline. I am considering to hire/contract a team to work for me to develop the game.

...

I e-mailed a few game development studios located in the Philippines as I assumed they would probably be more cost effective but got no response so far. Any advice?

Yes, pay better.

Expect to pay around $5K USD to $15K USD per developer month, depending on the location of the world. Philippines is a good start, development costs are on the lower end.

For a very small game with rapid turn around -- on the scale of a tiny phone game -- expect around 5 devs * 3 months = 15 developer months, around $75,000 USD in an inexpensive country. Have it developed in the US or UK or more expensive areas for a quarter million USD or so.

For a small PC game -- normally considered "shovel-ware" -- expect to spend around $3MM to $10MM USD in an inexpensive country like Philippines. In the US or UK expect anywhere from $10MM to $20MM.

That is just development cost. Marketing is usually that same amount of money, and distribution costs are usually the same cost again.

Thanks. Wow, I didn't think that would be the range for a PC game! Does include other costs like art, music tracks and sound effects?

Yes, that is generally for all developers; programmers, animators, modelers, sound, and anyone else involved.

The number serves well for quick calculations. The $5K, $10K, or $15K is more than most individual salary since it also accounts for support costs (the IT people, HR people, front desk, lawyer time) and for equipment (development machines, Internet, mail, lights, etc). Calculating detailed budgets is time consuming, but running quick numbers of the number of developers of all disciplines, times the number of months, is straightforward.

I e-mailed a few game development studios located in the Philippines ... but got no response so far. Any advice?

Emailing will not get you far. You need to call. On the telephone. Another problem is if you admitted in the email that you've never done this before. You want to sound like a serious business partner, not like a hapless newbie.

Note: I do not intend to start a business or make profit from this first experience.

Then why are you spending so much money? What are you hoping to achieve with your first game?

If you could program, I would say that you can program it yourself using stand-ins and get artists on board. But you can't.

I'd suggest to join a mod team which makes total conversions (i.e. a full game which is tied to a specific propriety engine). No investor would invest in something until they have a solid marketing plan and IRR. But the IRR of a free game is zero. Depending on what your vision is, I know of a few teams who would welcome good writers with open arms.