Is it possible to develop a 3D "point and click adventure game" (think of Life is Strange, Syberia (the last two ones who are in 3D), Detroit Become human (with way less of production value of course), the newer Sherlock Holmes games... Etc. I think you get the picture.

Game Characteristics:

• 3D "point and click adventure"(like Life is Strange, Syberia, Detroit Become Human, Sherlock Holmes games...) etc.
• Unreal Engine
• "Deduction mechanism" (like in all new "detective" adventure games (agatha christie poirot games, Sherlock Holmes etc.), otherwise pretty much standard adventure games mechanisms, nothing special, no "extra hard to develop" game mechanisms planned...
• PC platform (steam)
• 8 hours of gameplay (approximately)
• Really no real "story or choice" branching at all (NO "Detroit become human", NO "Dark pictures Anthalogy"), rather a linear experience.
• Heavy useage of various bought "pre-made" assets (3D, "code" etc.) to speed up and "cheapen" development
• Fully english voice acted (of course)

6 people payed full time (experienced people (at least one title shipped)) + externists (sound, music, voice acting, translation etc.) , 12 months of development

1. One programmer (not just blueprints) experienced in Unreal Engine
2. One Level Designer in Unreal engine. - Im not sure about this, but he might partially be also doing "3D Generalists stuff" because im not sure he needs 12 months for the work, i think he should be able to finish all the "maps" (locations) sooner than 12 months... But im not sure about this point...(any map makers out there...?)
3. One 3D Animator ( we will use Mocap and probably Facial capture as well, so he will have way less work because of this) i assume that he should finish the work in half the time (6 months instead of 12, so the remaining 6 months im planning to use him as a 3D generalist (or hire dedicated 3D generalist instead of him for the remaining 2nd 6 months of development).
4. 1st 3D Graphic Designer - Character Artist specialization - We will use "easier" solutions for characters -Metahuman, Character Creator etc. Im not planning to sculpt a lot of characters from "nothing"/beggining. The same goes for clothing. We will try to use "easier" "pre-made" solutions, but some brand new work in Marvelous Designer will be probably still needed. Still again, im somewhat "confident" he can finish all the characters because of this sooner than in 12 months, so in the "free time", im planning to use him also as a "3D generalist"...
5. 2nd 3D Graphic Designer - "Generalist" (Props, Enviroments etc.)
6. 3rd 3D Graphic Designer - "Generalist" - myself. Although because i will be doing all the other stuff around the project , im planning I might be able to allocate only like 50% of my time (at most, probably even less) to 3D graphics itself...

So 6 "experienced" (at least one title shipped i would like from them to have) people, full time, 12 months...

Its HARD to predict of course but according to me, it COULD and SHOULD be possible/doable to make this game...?

2 things im a bit worried:

1st) Is only one programmer sufficient...? But again, we are talking about basically a "point and click adventure" (in 3D) ... I just cannot see why one (experienced) programmer that can buy/use all the "code" from unreal engine marketplace he wants, should have a problem with that... Im not building the next AI (ChatGPT), im building a "frickin" "point and click adventure" game (basically) in 3D...

2nd) Im not sure if I have enough of 3D graphic designers... I have one dedicated Generalist, then me (0,5x time generalist), thats "1 and a half" (1,5) 3D generalist... Than i have a dedicated 3D character artists... I really assume that he should be able to finish with all the character stuff way sooner than in 12 months and thus should help with 3D generalist stuff. The same goes for the 3D animator... Im not sure about the Unreal Engine Level/map editor guy though... He might need all those 12 months...?

So... whats your experience, tips, predictions, oppinions... Do you think its a reasonable number of people (6 full time guys) and development time (12 months) for such game...?

(Also if anybody has any links, articles etc. about how much time each game genre takes to develop, or simply some writtings/info in this direction i would be glad to read it, i wasnt able to find much (nothing really) in this specific issue of gamedev)...?

Thanks

Trying to picture the production quality - Steam quality? Nintendo quality? And the depth of the game, how many puzzles - you say 8 hours of gameplay. And the experience level of this 6-member team, are they all experienced vets with experience together as a team on similar games previously, because that would be the only way it could be done in one year.

In a year, it's unlikely a 6-person team can make a reasonably high visual quality 3D mocap game that an experienced player would complete in 8 hours, in just 12 months. If the team is raw, the learning curve could add another year to the overall project length. The evil triangle says the game can't be cheap and done on time (within a year, in this case) and also good ("good" encompassing depth, features, visual quality, and especially, the fun). One programmer is almost never enough. I don't think one animator is enough, either. You indicate a level designer, but no game designer / puzzle designer, and no narrative designer. You also didn't list a project manager or any QA.

I won't dig too much into rough estimation (because the correct term is - It depends - and Tom Sloper did already do a brief analysis). I'll just add a note about one thing:

Ricki80 said:
1st) Is only one programmer sufficient...? But again, we are talking about basically a "point and click adventure" (in 3D) ... I just cannot see why one (experienced) programmer that can buy/use all the "code" from unreal engine marketplace he wants, should have a problem with that... Im not building the next AI (ChatGPT), im building a "frickin" "point and click adventure" game (basically) in 3D..

Using custom code from various marketplaces (from dozens or hundreds of different developers) and stitch it together is often a development nightmare (and as a matter of fact - can be a licensing nightmare too - as the code there might have various licenses per-file (one LGPL or proprietary license you overlook and you might be in big trouble … not to mention this decision can't be made by a programmer, but by lawyer and manager based on programmer's request)).

From all - development and legal and management - points of view, this is a terribly bad decision. Most experienced programmers will give you a NO at this.

I notice you have no dpt leads or management folks, that might be an issue.

Knowing weather the above team composition and description is sufficient is a tough call.

you say “full time” you mean at least 40 hours a week?

The question isn't really if it can be done the question is can you afford the cost for the specified dev time?

if and when it takes longer then estimated, which I guarantee you it will most likely take.

Map out the hours and the budget you have, make a spreadsheet and see how long you can fund development.

scope to that.

@Tom Sloper So you think its rather not possible… 24 Months for dev is what you suggest?

@Vilem Otte thanks, i didnt realize the possible license problems, didnt know about this, thanks for bringing it up. Yeah i would have to speak with programmer on this, if he would like, i would buy them, if not then not. It would be mostly his decision.

Ricki80 said:

@Tom Sloper So you think its rather not possible… 24 Months for dev is what you suggest?

I said it depends. If your team is raw, inexperienced, hasn't worked together before, then yes, 2 years or even longer. Assuming you can even keep such a team together all that time.

All of this is true.

Repeating the oft-cited triangle, you can choose two of cost, quality, and time.

There absolutely are people who could turn out what you asked for, in the time you want. But if you have to ask, then you can't afford them. If you could afford them, you could also afford a bigger, experienced team and would not be asking.

Location matters, but for a quick “back of the envelope” estimate you have a million dollars for your workers. (US or western European wages for experienced developers is about $15000/month employer cost times 6 people times 12 months = 1.08 million.) Look at what other similar-sized team can do with a million dollar budget.

It also says nothing about what you plan to do once you build your project. Usually big products spend as much money or more on marketing. Your million dollar project should probably have 1.5 million in marketing to make sure you get a profit.

If you really do have the money for such a project, the first people to hire is the experienced project lead, who will help hire the rest and discuss ways to cut the scope to match your funds.

What you really need is a narrative designer and a puzzle designer. That's the hard part: writing an interesting story, writing interesting puzzles that fit into the story, and (this is important) making sure that the protagonist doesn't have any other options that you're not willing to give to the player, because few things are as frustrating in an adventure game as not being able to use a perfectly sensible solution to a puzzle because it's not the solution that the designer envisioned.

Once you have a complete design document with a complete storyboard and script for the game, the rest should be straightforward. You should know exactly what assets you need, so you can either multiply the (measured) time it takes to create one asset by the number of assets you need to get the time you need, or you divide the amount of time you have by the number of assets you need to get the time budget for creating each asset. Then double the time needed or halve the time budget for each asset to account for the inevitable mess-ups. If you want to be finished in one year, schedule for six months.