Wondering about the costs of paying a team to make your game

[AlanCasanova]

I'm not sure this is the right place but, I would like to see how much people would ask for a commission:

If someone would ask you to make all the maps and all the events for a 15/20 hours game how much would you ask in terms of money obviously?

How much would you ask to make pixel art (characters, tileset ecc...) for such a project?

How much for the music? 

How much for the art (like character anime style)?

How much for make all the script works?

And so on... I was talking with some friends about how much would it costs to pay a team to make your own game without doing anything else than choose the features and create the story line and some other smaller aspects of the game and so I chose to ask here how much would it cost in your opinion to make a 15/20 hours game with almost a completely different tileset, music, takentai graphic, maps, events and maybe some small custom scripts.

 

[♥SOURCE♥]

Depends on what quality and features you're after, but I guess you will be paying for hour of work in that scenario.

 

[AlanCasanova]

Depends on what quality and features you're after, but I guess you will be paying for hour of work in that scenario.

Well we were talking about a commercial game so probably everything is supposed to have a medium-high quality, so how much do you think would be?

 

[Alexander Amnell]

To have other people make the game for you other than "storyline and few features" Much more than you'd be able to make off of selling it commercially. For instance, take the mapping. Most mapping shops that I've seen charge around 15 dollars and up per map depending on size and complexity, single scripts can easily break 100 dollars if they are complex and custom graphics that you have exclusive rights to... in all you'd be sinking several thousands into it, paying for a limited license is one thing but exclusive access custom stuff can get really expensive really quickly. I'm also not sure why you would want to have a team "create" the game for you, getting help with the things you are weak at is one thing, but unless you have delusions of a quick cash-flow by delegating work to others and selling a game (note delusions, it is important here) then I can't see how you think paying others to create "your game" would benefit you. 

 

[Shaz]

To have other people make the game for you other than "storyline and few features" Much more than you'd be able to make off of selling it commercially.

On what basis do you make this statement? If that were true, none of us would be selling our games. We are.


I've moved this thread to Commercial RPG Maker Discussion. Please be sure to post your threads in the correct forum next time. Thank you.


Take a look at existing threads in the forum.  The answer is so variable that nobody can give you an answer.


It depends on who you hire, how much they charge, and how much work you get them to do.  I've seen people who will make a resource for $20 and others who will make the same resource for $150, with little difference in quality.  The former are community members who use RPG Maker all the time, the latter are "professional" freelancers who do a wide range of art as their main income.

 

[AlanCasanova]

To have other people make the game for you other than "storyline and few features" Much more than you'd be able to make off of selling it commercially. For instance, take the mapping. Most mapping shops that I've seen charge around 15 dollars and up per map depending on size and complexity, single scripts can easily break 100 dollars if they are complex and custom graphics that you have exclusive rights to... in all you'd be sinking several thousands into it, paying for a limited license is one thing but exclusive access custom stuff can get really expensive really quickly. I'm also not sure why you would want to have a team "create" the game for you, getting help with the things you are weak at is one thing, but unless you have delusions of a quick cash-flow by delegating work to others and selling a game (note delusions, it is important here) then I can't see how you think paying others to create "your game" would benefit you. 

No benefits on it, was just a chat with friends, I'm not saying that I would ever do it, but is interesting to know (at least for me) that for example is someone have a great idea (and a deep pocket) could hire people for several thousand and then try to get the money back (and in my opinion probably more) on kickstarter or any other kind of way to make money through your project.

On what basis do you make this statement? If that were true, none of us would be selling our games. We are.

Take a look at existing threads in the forum.  The answer is so variable that nobody can give you an answer.

It depends on who you hire, how much they charge, and how much work you get them to do.  I've seen people who will make a resource for $20 and others who will make the same resource for $150, with little difference in quality.  The former are community members who use RPG Maker all the time, the latter are "professional" freelancers who do a wide range of art as their main income.

And yeah there is not a correct answer but for example I was thinking about something around one thousand but i was probably wrong, but is still interesting to know how much people would like to get paid more or less, on average I can say. 

 

[Shaz]

The only way you will find out is to tell people what you need, and get quotes.

 

[AlanCasanova]

The only way you will find out is to tell people what you need, and get quotes.

Well I don't want anything is just a senseless topic pretty much lol, but lets see... I can try to make some example:

.Cost of maps for a 15/20 hours game (how have no idea on how many would they be)

.Cost of making events for such a game

.Cost on making the dialogue 

.Cost of 10 different characters 

.Cost of tilesets about the (i don't know) roman empire? (lol)

.Cost of making a few animations with the Takentai script (probably i spelled it wrong)

.Cost of solving any little problems that may come from the scripts.

.Cost of making like 150/200 weapons sprite

And I don't know I guess that it

 

[Shaz]

See, that's all very speculative. It depends on many things about the game itself, as well as the people you are getting to do the work.

 

[AlanCasanova]

yeah it would be nice if people would say their own price for one or more of the points

Edit: obviously in an approximate way 

 

[Sharm]

If I was still doing commission work I would ask for at least 3k for an original tile set that was complete enough to make a small game with. Tile sets are spendy.

 

[AlanCasanova]

3k are 3000? right i don't get it wrong? lol

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Cost of maps for a 15/20 hours game (how have no idea on how many would they be)


--> How big is each map? Parallaxed or not? etc


.Cost of making events for such a game


--> What kind of events? how many per map?


.Cost on making the dialogue


--> How long are the dialogues? how many?


.Cost of 10 different characters


--> What style? Format?


.Cost of tilesets about the (i don't know) roman empire? (lol)


--> Can still have varying amounts, like do you want multiple city tilesets and multiple indoor tilesets


.Cost of making a few animations with the Takentai script (probably i spelled it wrong)


--> how many? animations or animation sheets? or both?


.Cost of solving any little problems that may come from the scripts.


--> depends on which scripts, how many


.Cost of making like 150/200 weapons sprite


--> style?


To me, it looks like you wanna get somebody (or different teams) to work on the whole game where you just provide the idea (so something like you're the boss, and you're gonna hire workers)... This will cost you A LOT I believe...

 

[AlanCasanova]

To me, it looks like you wanna get somebody (or different teams) to work on the whole game where you just provide the idea (so something like you're the boss, and you're gonna hire workers)... This will cost you A LOT I believe...

Well yeah you get it, this is what i was wondering about, but since i'm not planning to do that, or i'm not planning to make a game at all atm, i can't really give you an answer for your question, if you want about the style lets say I want an ancient greek/roman style for everything and for everything else i just don't know how to answer because I don't have anything to do that lol If you still would like to answer me I will appreciate!

 

[Sharm]

Yep.  Three thousand US dollars.  Like I said, tile sets aren't cheap.  That's why the tile sets sold in the store are such a good deal.

 

[AlanCasanova]

Yep.  Three thousand US dollars.  Like I said, tile sets aren't cheap.  That's why the tile sets sold in the store are such a good deal.

Yeah wow they really are I had no idea that a tileset may be so expensive!

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

Style isn't just about roman etc... I mean things like, do you want it on the same style as the RTP? Or do you want them to look like the HF pack? All of these will contribute to the price so you will need to decide on those as well...


Looking at KS projects that use RM, they seem to be "spending" at least 5 digits...


Also, specific/exclusive resources for your project will cost a lot more than any pack sold in the store...

 

[AlanCasanova]

Style isn't just about roman etc... I mean things like, do you want it on the same style as the RTP? Or do you want them to look like the HF pack? All of these will contribute to the price so you will need to decide on those as well...

Oh my bad, yeah the style should be the same as the RTP

 

[amerk]

It gets asked all the time. It really depends on the quality you are looking for, the quantity, the time it must be completed, and any contracts you have (paid upfront, paid in commission, paid with sales).

Let's start with quality. There are all sorts of styles. A simpler style doesn't mean poor quality - it could still be good quality, but because of the simplicity it might be cheaper to, say, to mimic a 16-bit style 2D game than to try something more 32-bit style (with heavy detailed parallax maps and loaded with complicated events).

And now quantity. A 15 hour game could have 10 maps, 100 maps, 900 maps. So if you're paying by the map, and you don't know how large the maps will be, or how many, how can you figure a cost? A 15 hour game could be 3/4 exploration, in which case you're paying more for the maps because you'll have lots of maps, many of which will be large. Or, it could be a few maps, but heavy on story, in which case you're paying more for somebody to write the dialogue and code in events.

Here is a link to a previous discussion of this:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/20148-need-to-know-the-average-costs-of-custom-scripts-music-and-artwork/

I'll quote myself here again, since I think it's relevant, and it will be as close to a guess as you can probably get with little to no information:

The reason people generally say "it varies" is because it depends on how much you are wanting to have customized, whether or not you want it done by a professional (who will generally charge a lot more) or an amateur (who will usually charge a lot less but may or may not have mastered the quality you want), and whether or not you want full exclusive rights and won't be used by anybody else but you (usually charged at a larger rate).
I guess first you'd need to tell us what you mean by custom. Simply replacing the entire RTP with resources found in the store and free-to-use scripts can still make it custom, but not necessarily unique, since somebody else can use the same resources. There's plenty of audio and graphic packs in the store for very low cost, and replacing the whole RTP with these might only set you back by about $100. As for scripts, Yanfly and Yumi both offer very good scripts that are free for commercial use.

If you want fully custom, unique for your game only, it depends on how much of it you want customized. As Seraph stated, a couple of sprites might set you back $50. Doing a full sheet might cost $200, and doing several of those sheets might cost $1000, and that still doesn't include scripts, tilesets/objects, or audio.

A full custom-made tileset alone (just 5 sheets A-E) might cost you $500 to $1000. Assuming you want more than just 5 sheets, that can easily go up.

I don't know the rate of audio tracks, but I'd speculate it depends on the composer, and can easily go for about $25 a track for the best composer. It depends on the composer, the length of the track, and the style.

Again, it also depends on whether the artist/composer/writer can re-sell their material, how many of each resource you need, and the quality of those resources.

Based on what I heard previously, to fully customize your game from scratch (meaning everything is made specifically for you - no RTP, no store purchases, nothing currently floating around on the net for grabs), I'm going to say a minimum of $5000, and that's probably shooting on the low end.

Also, my estimate is more for a simple 2D indie rpg, and primarily covers resources, while it assumes you are going to do the brunt end of the work (mapping, coding, eventing, writing, balancing). If you're looking for somebody to actually make your game, on top of complete new resources, you may be looking anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 on the low end. This goes up depending on higher quality, more quantity, the longer the game, the more effort needed, and whether you're going for something like an old SNES game, or something more visually appealing.

 

[AlanCasanova]

It gets asked all the time. It really depends on the quality you are looking for, the quantity, the time it must be completed, and any contracts you have (paid upfront, paid in commission, paid with sales).

Let's start with quality. There are all sorts of styles. A simpler style doesn't mean poor quality - it could still be good quality, but because of the simplicity it might be cheaper to, say, to mimic a 16-bit style 2D game than to try something more 32-bit style (with heavy detailed parallax maps and loaded with complicated events).

And now quantity. A 15 hour game could have 10 maps, 100 maps, 900 maps. So if you're paying by the map, and you don't know how large the maps will be, or how many, how can you figure a cost? A 15 hour game could be 3/4 exploration, in which case you're paying more for the maps because you'll have lots of maps, many of which will be large. Or, it could be a few maps, but heavy on story, in which case you're paying more for somebody to write the dialogue and code in events.

Here is a link to a previous discussion of this:

http://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?/topic/20148-need-to-know-the-average-costs-of-custom-scripts-music-and-artwork/

I'll quote myself here again, since I think it's relevant, and it will be as close to a guess as you can probably get with little to no information:

Also, my estimate is more for a simple 2D indie rpg, and primarily covers resources, while it assumes you are going to do the brunt end of the work (mapping, coding, eventing, writing, balancing). If you're looking for somebody to actually make your game, on top of complete new resources, you may be looking anywhere between $10,000 and $20,000 on the low end. This goes up depending on higher quality, more quantity, the longer the game, the more effort needed, and whether you're going for something like an old SNES game, or something more visually appealing.

Thank you I guess that it, actually none of my friends or me thought that was going to be so expensive, but so I'd like to ask, how can people make such beautiful game like "You are not the hero" for example where the team is huge, do they get paid like after the crow founding, or what?