Quote:
Originally Posted by Kopper911
A couple of questions ask I do?
- How big of a team would it take?
- If said team was formed how long would it take to be marketable at all? (Donations for small bonuses in a private + costume server, possibly start a kickstarter or something similar or is there any legal issues with that idea?)
- How much money and time would it take (mainly because I have a friend who was talking to me about financing a small game/possible game development that he can invest some money into.. which made me question this)?
- Do we as a community want something like this?
Personally being a guy who remembers when FB and SSing was actually playable in events I think a start over with more user input would be amazing, different classes but I'd hate to drag my friend into my personal desires for the game. I'm sure he, as an investor, would want to see a gain in either the community or profit.. I'm sure he'd rather see a huge fan base with an income that can manage the servers than one person just sitting there SSing Pheasants like I find myself doing so often these days.
If you have any answers and I don't see your reply on here make sure to PM me ^.^
I'd like to get this info so I can get back to my friend about it.
Also any estimates on development costs or at least a cost that would be needed up front, would be great to know from someone who has knowledge of such projects.
Thanks for your time!
Simply,
-Me
|
To create a stable and well rounded client/server you'd want 1-3 solid programmers and generally budget 4-6 months of development time to get something to a remotely playable level (think pre-alpha play testing)
To create enough art assets for a single character class, a single map and a few basic enemies/npcs you'd want a small graphics development team of 2-5 people working on 3d models, texturing, animation and game integration. You would again be budgeting 2-4 months to create enough art assets for a single character class with a couple basic monsters. Not anywhere near a full game but something actually able to be tested properly.
In terms of money, it costs nothing to develop a game but it's hard to attract talented help and keep them interested for long enough to make such a project actually 'work'. If you're buying the art assets or actually hiring staff to work on the project then you're talking many, many thousands of dollars.
The number of man hours to take a character concept all the way to a playable in game asset with full art assets (significant item sets, animations, etc) is absolutely mind boggling.
Sounds are generally low priority during development but you'd still want a sound engineer working on creating compelling sound effects that fit with the feel of the game being designed and helping really 'tell the story'. Sound is a huge part of the game and cannot be ignored but from a development standpoint is often left for later (once there's something to actually 'see')
TL: DR
Creating a fully custom game with quality assets is a process of many months before you have anything remotely testable. It's not something easily accomplished by a single person and is usually best to find 4-6 people willing to work for free because the game concept is just that good. If you're all on the same page, all donating efforts and all of the understanding that it's a long term project then you'll get much further than you would otherwise.