So I have the vision for a simulation game that is very similar to OOTP Baseball, but with some major tweaks that I think will really make it stand out.  Essentially I am looking to create a mostly text and statistics based sports simulator, with little visual elements or gameplay, really just set your lineup and simulate, then record the statistics for historical purposes and increase or decrease player ratings based on simulated performance.  Problem is I have absolutely zero programming experience or knowledge as I am an accountant by trade.  What do you think is the best way to get started building this simulator?  

You could try and pitch the idea in the hobby projects forum and see if you can interest a programmer to join up with you.  If that's the approach, I'd recommend adding enough detail and not just give a general idea of what you want to do.  

However you're very unlikely to get anyone to help that way because most programmers either dont have the time, or if they do have the time and desire to work on a side project, they're probably already doing so.  So you're other options are to either hire a freelance programmer, or learn programming yourself.   That would be a more long-term approach, but maybe your best option.

Thanks for response.  For freelancer, where do I look to hire?  And what do I look for?

3 hours ago, Ktullu said:

Thanks for response.  For freelancer, where do I look to hire?  And what do I look for?

I dont know where the best places to look for a game developer for hire are.  I guess you could start by posting here:

https://www.gamedev.net/forums/forum/29-hobby-project-classifieds/

As far as what you look for, that depends on how big of a game you're planning, what platform you want it on, how much you're willing to spend, etc, etc.  But in any case, you will need someone who is a senior engineer type with plenty of previous experience making those types of games.  You need someone who can tell you what you need since you dont know enough to know what you need yourself.

Making a game is expensive, making a good game with the expected units is even more expensive. I could tell from experience that a small team (Programmer, Game Design, Artist) will have a budget of at least 200.000$ depending on the technology and platform. Even those "simple" looking/playing simulation games as Bus/Fire Truck/Police/Whatever Simulator have this dependent on size of the team and development time. A single freelancer might cost round about 58.000$ for the regular development time of 6 months for small games.

You will not only need a programmer but also artists and maybe paying a license fee for the software your game is shipped with. Under this lower budget rates this will mostly be Unity 3D (again as from experience in the Indie market).

So getting you into programming would be the most promising option as long as you dont have the finances for hire

2 hours ago, Shaarigan said:

 A single freelancer might cost round about 58.000$ for the regular development time of 6 months for small games.

I suppose it depends on who/what/where that freelancer is and how much experience they have.  But, I would expect to pay much more than this, especially if I wanted someone good.

And if you're hiring just one person to start with, someone who will be your lead in the project and be reliable in telling you what you need to do and pay for, then that person will be expensive since you need a person with a lot of experience and you're paying contractor rates.

But, yeah, getting a game made is expensive.

29 minutes ago, 0r0d said:

But, I would expect to pay much more than this, especially if I wanted someone good.

I would expect that this depends on the location and country you hire from. Game development scene might be a different one in America than in Europe where very small budgets matter when you are not part of a big studio. Sadly!

34 minutes ago, Shaarigan said:

I would expect that this depends on the location and country you hire from. Game development scene might be a different one in America than in Europe where very small budgets matter when you are not part of a big studio. Sadly!

True, I'm thinking of what it'd cost in the U.S.  Maybe in Europe you can find such a person for that amount... I dont know.

14 hours ago, Ktullu said:

So I have the vision for a simulation game that is very similar to OOTP Baseball, but with some major tweaks that I think will really make it stand out.  Essentially I am looking to create a mostly text and statistics based sports simulator, with little visual elements or gameplay, really just set your lineup and simulate, then record the statistics for historical purposes and increase or decrease player ratings based on simulated performance.  Problem is I have absolutely zero programming experience or knowledge as I am an accountant by trade.  What do you think is the best way to get started building this simulator?  

This is a very doable project. The most time consuming part would be getting all the formulas together, and stats for every roster. I've made such simulations before, and they're a lot of fun!

If it's not very graphic intensive, you could build this entire application to run with PHP/Javascript, and have an online component where people play against other teams. I would actually love to work on such a project, but I have little time sadly.

interesting, thanks for all the feedback.  The freelancer funding isn't necessarily prohibitive but I'll take a look at Unity 3D first to see what I'm dealing with