$12256 / $11500
I've been saving up my money for a while and I've really been thinking about a fun way to invest it. I love to play mmorpgs, but I've been sickened by the genre lately as everything released recently has been nothing but overhyped cookie cookies of games before it. The genre really needs a kick in the right direction. So lately I've been thinking of starting a commercial MMORPG project.
First off, I am a very experienced programmer and the actual aspect of programming an mmorpg won't be a problem. I know how to manage bandwidth to keep things within limits for massive amounts of players. I would also more than likely license a networking suite specifically for mmo games that already handles thing such as dynamically/seamlessly splitting the world across multiple physical servers. Probably the best indie solution would be UnityPark which can be licensed for just under $1000 and ties in nicely with Unity3D for which I already have a professional license.
The part the worries me is the art, which in todays age and expectations is the most expensive part of game development. I would really like to keep my budget below $20,000. I'm not sure you could really make much of a mmorpg with $20,000 though and was wondering what you guys think? I would like to do a similar art style to the 3D version of Evoland which I asked about here. Really great game by the way.
Just wanted to get your guys thoughts and opinions on such a project, and hell if your a good artist send me a PM or something and we can talk numbers.
Thanks,
Kalagaraz
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I have been working on open source mmorpg's for a number of years now, on my current project we are 2 years in and we dont even have a fully working game yet, as such 20,000 is nowhere near what a mmorpg would take to make, they are the most expensive of all games typically costing upwords of 10 million.
That said if you have an idea for a good unique game and the idea doesnt require the massiveness of a standard mmorpg it -MAY- be possible
I wouldnt bet on it however.
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Full Steam Ahead! o/ <-- little ascii fist in the air holding a debugging hammer.
What I'm curious about is the cost of art and how much art you can expect to get for roughly $20,000. The actual programming etc... I'm not factoring into the cost cause I can handle all of that myself. I also already own unity Pro. Unity Park is $715 USD which basically leaves $19,285 for art assets. I'm not looking for extremely detailed art, I'd much rather go with a kind of low-poly cartoony style like the evoland pictures I linked to.
The idea I've been fiddling with is to make a single player game that is based a lot around the MMORPG I have in mind, with a story that kind of leads into a mmorpg sequel. Then I can reuse a lot of the assets, and have income from the single player game to really expand.
That sounds like a resonable idea, trust me dont start with a MMORPG :)
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Full Steam Ahead! o/ <-- little ascii fist in the air holding a debugging hammer.
Also you were asking about how much art to expect, well if you pay a good artist hourly you can expect about 2 months worth of work. A good artist probably could make 1 mobs every other day between animations etc. For the world you can expect a small town every week probably.
So the answer is not much, now you can pay less experienced artists however that will probably harm the qualirt of the art or make it take longer. That or you hire a less experienced concept artist, 3d artist, then a 2d texture artist, then a animator. That may be the most cost effective but for sure the most management work.
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Full Steam Ahead! o/ <-- little ascii fist in the air holding a debugging hammer.
Well good news is I have a license for ipi Mocap2 so I can do animations myself lol. 2 Kinect cameras + the software = awesome investment.
How much do you expect I can reduce costs by not requireing "exclusive" rights to the assets? I.E The artist can resell them to others as well.