Development Costs for Mid lvl hardware titles?

[jpr27]

Not sure I posted this in the right area so if I should move it please let me know.

I was hoping could give me a breakdown on costs for small development teams.
(Say for GBA and low lvl 3d development titles)

Im looking for salarie range for artists, programmers, writers, etc.
I do have information on hardware and software for development so I'm only looking for the team wage ranges. (West Coast rates). If anyone could give me some firgures (with supporting information or sites) that gives good estimates I would appreciate it.

JP

 

[ihamoitc2005]

Time

Not sure I posted this in the right area so if I should move it please let me know.

I was hoping could give me a breakdown on costs for small development teams.
(Say for GBA and low lvl 3d development titles)

Im looking for salarie range for artists, programmers, writers, etc.
I do have information on hardware and software for development so I'm only looking for the team wage ranges. (West Coast rates). If anyone could give me some firgures (with supporting information or sites) that gives good estimates I would appreciate it.

JP

Also important is type of project, performance requirement, and completion date. Without this it is difficult to make projection for cost. You can build basic application for GBA for $250k in 1 year not including hardware and software license or other expenses like space, computers, etc. If you have high performance requirement for software then cost can increase very fast. Most important aspect is fine planning. If you do not have good plans then you will be "over-budget" and miss deadlines. If you do not have experience for making fine plans then double total budget and hope for good luck. This is my "2 cents".

 

[jpr27]

I guess I was looking for a more generalized breakdown although your $250k does bring in some perspective.

I was looking for say a game coder requires x $ salary
Or a graphics artist requires x $ a yr types scenerio.

I know the scale does go up as the technology your dealing with goes up but then again I'm refering again back to say GBA, or low lvl 3d technologies.

P.S. This is in the early stages where some of the things you have mentioned have been put into place its just a matter of nailing down projected costs and time (and assembling talent). Again anyone in the know that could direct me to such information would be greatly appreciated.

JP

 

[MrWibble]

I guess I was looking for a more generalized breakdown although your $250k does bring in some perspective.

I was looking for say a game coder requires x $ salary
Or a graphics artist requires x $ a yr types scenerio.

I know the scale does go up as the technology your dealing with goes up but then again I'm refering again back to say GBA, or low lvl 3d technologies.

P.S. This is in the early stages where some of the things you have mentioned have been put into place its just a matter of nailing down projected costs and time (and assembling talent). Again anyone in the know that could direct me to such information would be greatly appreciated.

JP

If you just want to know salaries, check out job adverts and see what the typical range seems to be in a given area. It'll vary a little bit depending on where you are and what skillset is required.

On top of that you need office space (varies enormously according to location), equipment, software licenses, and all the other normal business running costs like insurance and electricity.

I think that if you just want to run a modest sized development team in a reasonable but not hideously expensive locale, you can just take the teams overall cost in salary and double that as a ballpark figure.

Not being in the US I wouldn't like to guess at how much you're looking at locally, but over here the US is frequently spoken of like some kind of promised land when it comes to wages and working environment. I'm not sure it's all that different really though, except for the weather (in most areas) and space. In the US I could probably park a car in my expansive private office (and I'd need to own one to drive the 500 miles to work from my mansion in the country) - meanwhile in the UK I can barely fit a small cardboard box under my tiny desk and at the end of the day I have to sleep in it. Fortunately your current president has seen to it that no-one actually wants to move to the US anymore, so it's all swings and roundabouts really..

 

[archie4oz]

Fortunately your current president has seen to it that no-one actually wants to move to the US anymore, so it's all swings and roundabouts really..

Hehe, and is making me want to move away...

Not being in the US I wouldn't like to guess at how much you're looking at locally, but over here the US is frequently spoken of like some kind of promised land when it comes to wages and working environment. I'm not sure it's all that different really though, except for the weather (in most areas) and space.

You'd be right about it not being different (or at least that much)... The offices are probably are bigger and the salaries might be a bit higher but that's about it.

 

[ERP]

Not sure I posted this in the right area so if I should move it please let me know.

I was hoping could give me a breakdown on costs for small development teams.
(Say for GBA and low lvl 3d development titles)

Im looking for salarie range for artists, programmers, writers, etc.
I do have information on hardware and software for development so I'm only looking for the team wage ranges. (West Coast rates). If anyone could give me some firgures (with supporting information or sites) that gives good estimates I would appreciate it.

JP

Take a typical salaries (look in the job adverts) double it (for overhead) and multiply by number of people amd by the time to completion, it'll get you pretty close.

If you want to actually set up a company then you need to look at initial costs aswell.

 

[jpr27]

Thanks for the info. Pretty much everything but personel is already accounted for but salaries definately seem to vary depending on area (states). Nothing I like more then crunching numbers lol Man I should of started this back when a 5-10 person team could develop a title

 

[seismologist]

is there good money to be made in game development or are you just doing it for fun?

 

[MrWibble]

is there good money to be made in game development or are you just doing it for fun?

I, like I suspect of most people in the industry, have entertained ideas of having my own development company at some point.

Fortunately, unlike some, I'm not completely and utterly insane. So I still have a roof over my head, and food to eat.

I think these days the best business plan would involve getting half-way through development of something before being bought by EA.

Seriously though, it's not impossible, but I think it's very tough. I'd have to be very sure of the team, the project, and the money (i.e. have some solid investment up-front and not rely on monthly payments from a publisher) before I'd stop laughing long enough to consider it.

These days I think the smarter money would be in outsourcing or middleware - though I guess if you want to set yourself up as a smaller outfit doing ports and bad licenses as someone elses bitch, then that's always been a viable business. I just don't see the latter as the kind of thing someone would want to do deliberately...

 

[ERP]

There's still money to be made doing outsource work, conversions etc. It's not a lot but it can be profitable, just don't get caught up in the "just doing it to finance an original title" thing, because I've seen 1 project pull otherwise successful companies down the tubes.

There is money in Cell phone games although you have to have the right business model.

I think these days to make money in the games industry, it can't be something you love (the games that is rather than the money) you have to be pragmatic about it and for a lot of us that's hard.

 

[nelg]

is there good money to be made in game development or are you just doing it for fun?

But look at what might happen to you.
http://mediacast.sun.com/share/ChrisM/BeAGameDesigner.mpg