Fallout,Arcanum, Baldur's gate, planning assets

[Sauteed_Onion]

I can't remember who it was, but I remember reading here some time ago that it can be upwards of $10,000 for a serious not used by anyone else A1-5 - E tile set. And upon thinking about it, I can understand why, the massive work and time investment someone puts into a never seen before tile set (every pixel fresh from the artist etc) that could be several months of solid 8 hour days work not even taking into consideration that the end result could be something the potential customer decides doesn't fit the bill. Some people may be able to slam something together quicker, some way longer, but $10,000 for several months of solid work that may need revision etc starts to make sense especially if it isn't released on like steam or rpg maker web stores and is solely for use in your games etc starts making a little more sense.

As far as the 3D games go though, I'm not familiar with the work involved there on an intimate level, but with all the modern goodies out there, probably would be quite a bit cheaper to go that route. Something about pixel work to me ages better also. I've gone back and played some of those games I thought were uber amazing max graphics yomomma like Vampire the Masquerade Redemption for the pc and like cringed in horror at the abomination it is. Yikes! the hands! AHH!!

I can still go back and enjoy dragon warrior 3 though.

 

[teeobi]

Right. I'd suggest you create the game first. Use placeholders until you got a significant portion of the game made and are committed to that game. Reason I suggest it is otherwise you will spend $$$$$$$ commissioning art and other things only to learn you don't need it anymore. In fact, we had a forum member who posted when I was new that they blew $10,000 on art for a game that they ended up not needing.

Even using placeholders and such I'm probably down $200 - $500 on extras that didn't get used in the end, so it is not completely avoidable.

@Sauteed_Onion : Yep. I had to take some things I wanted to do for this game and table them for my next game, else it was going to turn into the next Duke Nukem forever and take 13 years or so to make and release. I'm still going to be close to 5 in the end as a result of delays and working while making the game too.

Okay placeholders. Plain blank boxes or sprites.

I do that alot.

But once the game goes into the art and visual side... how does the sprite correlate with the gameplay? And story?

Or is it like mushroomcake28 says.. it does not have a solid correlation?

I am trying to draw scenes, characters and covers and music for it but i don't know the limit of the game at all. Only the duration and ppssible actions in the game.

 

[Elissiaro]

But once the game goes into the art and visual side... how does the sprite correlate with the gameplay? And story?

It all depends on you and your choices. You might decide you only need 1 tree sprite for your game, or you need 20.
You can have the entire game take place in one house if you want. Or you can have an entire world.
You might need 10 generic NPCs to spread out, or you decide all 50 or whatever NPCs should be unique. Heck you can have a game without NPCs at all.
You might need 5 spells, or hundreds.

It's all up to the you.

 

[Kes]

I still think you are going about this the wrong way.

When your game is complete, how many maps do you have? Does each map (or group of maps if there is more than one map for a location) need a separate music track? From there you work out how many BGM tracks you need as a basis. Add title music, game over track, anything special for atmosphere e.g. a cut scene and so on to arrive at the total number of tracks you need. You cannot calculate that out in advance.
Do you want custom SEs and MEs? Again, wait until you have finished so that you know precisely how many you're going to have to do and which ones.
To customise the skill animations in battle, you could do these as you go along, as long as you are sure you are going to use that skill. Otherwise, again wait until the end.
The same applies to every element. Trying to work out in advance is an approach doomed to failure.

As others have said - use placeholders and replace them with the final thing when the game is certain to be completed and you know exactly and precisely what you want.

 

[teeobi]

It all depends on you and your choices. You might decide you only need 1 tree sprite for your game, or you need 20.
You can have the entire game take place in one house if you want. Or you can have an entire world.
You might need 10 generic NPCs to spread out, or you decide all 50 or whatever NPCs should be unique. Heck you can have a game without NPCs at all.
You might need 5 spells, or hundreds.

It's all up to the you.

NO.
that's too scary confusing.

 

[mlogan]

It’s too scary confusing to make decisions about your game?

 

[teeobi]

It’s too scary confusing to make decisions about your game?

hahaha, sorry, english is not my first language but that doesn't sound too funny.

too scary because it's way too many and unmanaged. as according to the statement before.

i certainly don't have infinite resource to do 50 sprites for nothing.
So i need a better cause to limit the asset amount.

 

[bgillisp]

That's why you make the game first, using the sprites that come with it as a placeholder. Which one doesn't matter. It could be the maid if you want, or it could be everyone is a slime. Then once you are done, then see how many sprites you need and go from there.

The only other option is to go through the generator and make like 1000 sprites first, then name them and keep track of which is used in a spreadsheet where so you don't reuse them. Take your pick.

 

[teeobi]

I see.. seems very open to manage the data in timely precision.

Thank you.

I think this count as solved.

 

[Mordridakon]

I can't remember who it was, but I remember reading here some time ago that it can be upwards of $10,000 for a serious not used by anyone else A1-5 - E tile set.

I question putting that kind of money into an RPG MAKER RPG just for a tileset.
Why do so many self-published books have bad editing? Because good editing costs thousands of dollars and chances are the author is not going to make the money back so its not worth putting in the investment. Same logic here.
I'd wager that most RPG MAKER commercial games are lucky if they make back their development costs, much less turn a profit(this is true of most entertainment). And if the game is not commercial, are you a millionaire because that's some serious money you just burned.
This is my perspective anyway. If you're making your dream game and have the money to burn, maybe its worth it to you. But to me, the Return On Investment would be so low, it wouldn't be worth it.