For those that have experience in game development, I would like to know if a decent iOS game can be made under $7-8 K. I am thinking about having a simple and cost-efficient game developed within that kind of budget. If anyone has completed a game within that price, please feel free to jump in because I am curious.
Are you planning on programming yourself or hire someone to do it? If you´re are good programmer you can develop the game yourself for a lot less then 7K. That is if you´re not counting the time you spend as actual money.
Are you planning on programming yourself or hire someone to do it? If you´re are good programmer you can develop the game yourself for a lot less then 7K. That is if you´re not counting the time you spend as actual money.
We plan on hiring someone to do the programming for us. All graphic and sound elements (with the exception of animations) will be completed by us.
I guess it´s still possible. I´m in the opposite position, I do all the programming myself and hire someone for the graphics and sound :-). Think it´s cheaper that way since coding can take quite a lot of time.
So my suggestion is to hire someone and agree on a total price for the whole game and not someone who charges by the hour.
I guess it´s still possible. I´m in the opposite position, I do all the programming myself and hire someone for the graphics and sound :-). Think it´s cheaper that way since coding can take quite a lot of time.
So my suggestion is to hire someone and agree on a total price for the whole game and not someone who charges by the hour.
You are absolutely right! I only do fixed price now because I am still crawling out of a hole I dug for myself over a year ago using the alternative method. I worked with a team once that developed a decent ios game for under $7000 because we were both learning the ropes at the time. We both had something to add to our portfolio at the end, so it was mutually beneficial.
Saying "hire", you mean, hiring a guy to work for you and pay his salary each month? Or do you mean you will pay him for the work done, and that's all? If it's latest, then I guess it is possible to do a decent game under $7-8k. I've never done such work in group with games, but I think that a decent game may be even done with a budget less then $1k! It all depends on how genius your idea was for the game. A game that contains more details is more expensive and may not necessarily be attractive.
Wouldn't it be easier to just learn the coding and implement it by yourself?
However, it will take some time if you have no knowledge of coding.
I tried it, and coding is extremely difficult. I have a greater appreciation for it as a result, and I understand that it would take more time than I have to develop a mastery for it. Also, as a business owner, you learn that leveraging time is a necessity. My friend owns a dozen properties, but he has to hire landscapers to maintain them although he knows how to do the tasks himself. My strengths are in the creative and executive field, therefore I cut cost in those areas. Everything else will be contracted out to a freelance development team. I will try to keep the game simple, and I will let you know how the investment goes.
I think it would be possible if you keep the scope under control and you and your staff do a lot of the non-dev work (like QA).
It might be easier to attract a developer and save you some $$ if you offer the dev some ownership and/or royalty in the end-product. That can get kind of messy though.
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I was approached a few months back by a guy who asked if I could develop a game for him. The end result was Par-Tee - Augmented Reality Golf.
I'm a lone developer and did all the coding myself, with the exception of online tutorials and open source SDKs. The guy that approached me worked on the sound and graphics, so this is very similar to your situation. This was his first ever app and while I've contributed to some projects, this would be the first I release as something coded up entirely by myself. We agreed to do it for no money, as he had no budget but I also had no portfolio to show him, so from his part it was risky too. What we did agree on was we would share all revenue generated 50-50.
This sort of scheme can encourage a developer to produce better work as they now have a vested interest in how well the app does, as it directly correlates to how much they earn off it's back.
So to put it simply, I did three months coding work for nothing but now earn 50% of everything Par-Tee makes. This is cost-effective at first, but say the app is to get a huge number of downloads, it would work out more costly but at that point you probably won't mind as you'll be making lots of money too
But I think unless you have a developer friend, you may have to look hard to find people willing to do it for free/cheap; I simply needed to build up a portfolio and get some work in. This seemed like a good job and he was easy going and didn't impose any deadlines. I'm not looking to earn a living off developing yet either so I was happy to do the initial work for free in exchange for royalties.
So in answer to your question, yes you can do it (I'll leave it up to your judgement as to whether Par-Tee is a decent game) and I'm sure shopping around will find you enough people to compare with and get the best deal from.
EDIT: Yesterday, Par-Tee was featured as number one of the top 5 iPhone apps of the week by Stuff Magazine, one of the largest technology magazines. I'll leave it up to you to use this to help your judgement
For those that have experience in game development, I would like to know if a decent iOS game can be made under $7-8 K. I am thinking about having a simple and cost-efficient game developed within that kind of budget. If anyone has completed a game within that price, please feel free to jump in because I am curious.
I guess it depends on what you feel to be a decent game
We like to think our new game is pretty decent, and it cost us just over $5000 to develop, make the music and SFX, graphics, and the company website. We outsourced as we cannot program at all!
I can put you in touch with the developer if your interested...just send me a PM
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Try our fun new game Panic at the Pump from Treat Yourself Apps
I guess it depends on what you feel to be a decent game
I agree with this. If you mean something like Final Fantasy Tactics or Grand Theft Auto then probably not. If you mean something like Angry Birds or Cut the Rope then possibly. If you mean something like Tiny Wings or Canabalt then sure.
Your main challenge will be maintaining the scope of the game within budget while also keeping some room for polish at the end.
For those that have experience in game development, I would like to know if a decent iOS game can be made under $7-8 K. I am thinking about having a simple and cost-efficient game developed within that kind of budget. If anyone has completed a game within that price, please feel free to jump in because I am curious.
Looks like that works out to 31 dollars an hour if the programmer worked every single day for 30 days, 8 hours a day. Insanely doable if you find an unemployed programmer worth their salt.
As for me, I make the whole game (art, programming, design, sound, music, advertising).
Make a Decent Game Under $7.5K??
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