Amateur Video Game Development - Cost Questions

It's really dependent on a great number of factors.

Since you are a finance/accountant type person some basics you need to consider after you have your design document are what is the average amount of time your artist(s) will spend on an asset (you probably will not know this until well into your alpha build or yoru upscaled beta), multiply that by the number of same type assets in quality (special assets will take more time) and multiply that by the amount you expect to pay your artist. Do not forget to include things such as marketing, advertising costs, license fees, software purchases, normal bills (i.e. mortgage, car payments, utilities, etc. . . if not doing on the side), etc. . . amortize your cost structure over the period you expect to break even (if you are generating revenue), and then when you have your basic budget built, double that amount (at least). THEN you will have a loose idea of what the cost would be.

As far as feasibility goes, expect to work hard and long and learn a LOT while you are doing it. Do not expect to simply be the "ideas guy" your first time out either unless you are paying contractors to do the job (in which case you need to be even more detailed in your budget, contracts, ip rights, etc. . .). Is it doable? Absolutely. But don't expect it to be easy.

Quote from jojogld311

In summation: If I plan out every possible aspect of the game in text / GDD / sketches what will my costs be for a PC simulation / building / interactive settlement management game?

You can't.Unless you're ripping off another game, copying all the mechanics, you're gonna find that certain things work and other not, the iterative process is gonna waste you time, hence money.

You're also gonna find that art that you think it's supercool doesn't work because of visual legibility, or people will tell you they don't understand what that is or simply hate it.

Ok I'll bite, but fair warning, this is a much more complicated topic than just your original question.

First off, the finances. Know how much you can gather BEFORE going on about a game. Its design, the size of the team, the art style depend on the money you can collect, not just your vision of what the game should be.

What's your ROI plan? Distribution channels? Marketing? Platforms targeted? Again, know all of this before you set out on your adventure, or it's likely all going to be for naught. When considering closed platforms (consoles), expect a fair bit more investment before having your game playable (dev kits, TCR internal testing at Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo)

With that out of the way, plan for the game you want to make. Divide the money you have over a milestone plan, and see how much you can spend per month of work. That will tell you how many people you can hire (by far biggest overhead) and for how long. THAT, more than anything else will tell you what game you're making. I'm going to assume you're not looking to set up a studio, but have people work remotely. If not, then you need to plan 6 months ahead for finding a lease, and equipping your space so your new team can hit the ground running (again, they're the biggest overhead, so make sure they can work from day one)

Third point: the game. Given you don't make games yourself, please hire the good people that will keep your schedule and production in check, otherwise you're going to be bleeding money fast. Making a game is not a hard science, and it's not a chain production until after you've "found the fun". Finding that fun will be a long and expensive prospect, unless you once again have the right people and right processes in place, and don't shoot for the moon. In case you don't find the fun before you have to move on and produce the game, your chances of ever breaking even are diminished right off the bat, but can still be done with heavy marketing. Which is another way of bleeding money fast.

There is a reason most games that get funded have a proven demo build. Starting a game fund before having one is suicidal. By the way, that's exactly how the rest of the software industry works.

I think you should consider doing one of two things before going off the deep end.

A. Work with finance/accounting/producing at an established games company.

B. Learn how to produce game content as an artist, designer or programmer at some level.

Learning as you go is incredibly expensive if you are the wallet.

Difficult question! No single / straightforward answer. So here' my attempt at answering it! Which is way over simplifying the subject of estimating games costs...

Break the project down into tasks.

Work out how long each task will take.

Total up the amount of time.

Add some time for bug fixing / fire fighting.

Multiply that by 1.5.

Work out the cost for each man hour, taking into account variations between disciplines and employee experience. Total it up.

Add any additional costs (marketing, tech, distribution, travel etc.)

And after that you'll have a ball park figure! Always try and overestimate, game dev is full of hidden time sinks, you will encounter them!

Investing in stock markets or solar powered roadways is 100% more profitable than investing in games. If you want to make games, do it because you want to make games, not to make money.