Game Development Cost

[Buddy]

Well, let me quote something:

Our beliefs about work environments are pretty simple: give talented and experienced people the tools they need, the colleagues who will stimulate them, and the opportunity to build games they want to play. We are constantly on the lookout for self-motivated, self-directed individuals who are interested in all aspects of building great entertainment experiences.

The people who work at Valve are multi-talented, with expertise in one or two particular areas. We don’t have managers or producers of any kind. We tend to hire senior people who have shipped several titles before arriving here. And we have also hired a few people right out of school when we've been impressed by an interesting game, mod, or level that the candidate built.

We are always looking for smart, talented, creative, interesting people who are solving interesting problems—people who will make our products and our company the best in the industry.

And its best thing you can do. In most companies ppl like managers or producers take 5, even 10 times more than the most important staff (in our case artists etc).

[2d-chris]

it's all about profit, if you can ensure (to a certain extent) that the game will make profit after sales, it's acceptable to spend almost what ever figure of money you can think of. GTA4 is an example of spending crazy money but making that back in a few weeks. Any game that makesa total profit even if £1 has been positive.

As others have said game engine lisences, tools such as Maya, photoshop and crazy console sdk costs all add up. Free food in crunch times, release party ...

[General Vivi]

yeah I can believe all of those numbers...

[Furyo]

Wasn't Kojima (or MGS4's US associate producer) quoted saying the game cost 120 millions total in one of Kotaku's news? Don't know exactly what this figure comprises but if you look at GTAIV's rumoured budget vs a game like MGS4, it could reach that when all is said and done.

And spending 100 millions on GTAIV when it sells 6 million copies on the first DAY, which means it broke even on that first day after its release, that's something I can see tons of developers wanting to put their money on

[Jetsetlemming]

Well, let me quote something:

Our beliefs about work environments are pretty simple: give talented and experienced people the tools they need, the colleagues who will stimulate them, and the opportunity to build games they want to play. We are constantly on the lookout for self-motivated, self-directed individuals who are interested in all aspects of building great entertainment experiences.

The people who work at Valve are multi-talented, with expertise in one or two particular areas. We don’t have managers or producers of any kind. We tend to hire senior people who have shipped several titles before arriving here. And we have also hired a few people right out of school when we've been impressed by an interesting game, mod, or level that the candidate built.

We are always looking for smart, talented, creative, interesting people who are solving interesting problems—people who will make our products and our company the best in the industry.

And its best thing you can do. In most companies ppl like managers or producers take 5, even 10 times more than the most important staff (in our case artists etc).

I'd agree with this. The first mod team I joined (at 14, for a Deus Ex mod) had four members: Me, as the mapper, one guy (who's now my best friend) as the coder, and two writers, one of which was the "mod leader". Me and the coder got along fine and produced plenty. All the two chaff ever produced was a list of books and quotes that were going to be added to the game as flavor text in datacubes and readable books. It eventually ended unceremoniously when the two writer guys got in an argument and stopped talking to each other, both expecting the coder and I to side with them to create a different mod. We told them to go fuck themselves.

[Hourences]

Yes, I have similar experiences with running projects without any real interaction from non developers (read managers), and usually it works out well. It depends largely on the team of developers though, how well they know each other and if they are all share a similar view, but it could work really well.

So that brings us back to my first question: Do you really need 50 milion to make a game and pay a 100 managers and all kinds of similar people? Do you really need 50 milion because your tools are so unoptimized that it takes a month to do even the simplest task?

Seriously, games cost too much. The whole process of creating a game is still too unoptimized and a lot of manhours go lost in a project by constantly redesigning and redoing things, thats the reason why a lot of games take so long and therefore cost so much, not because they were so terrible complex to create.

[FrieChamp]

The whole process of creating a game is still too unoptimized and a lot of manhours go lost in a project by constantly redesigning and redoing things, thats the reason why a lot of games take so long and therefore cost so much, not because they were so terrible complex to create.

Bingo!

[R_Yell]

Games are prone to prototyping and early testing, spending many time in features that end user may not see. It can be optimized but not avoided at all, at least if the game is minimally interesting I think Valve did like 1000 levels for HL2 and only a minor part of those went into retail.

[-HP-]

I think Valve did like 1000 levels for HL2 and only a minor part of those went into retail.

Yeah, and they had to redesign the levels when the game was leaked.

[Buddy]

Not really, leaked hl2 maps were most likely their sketches and e3-only content. Remember that they had to build technology and wide interesting game from the ground up, its not your typical fps game.

[-HP-]

It's not? Why?

I guess HL2 is pretty much "my" typical FPS game, valve is just good at making them!

[Buddy]

Well, maybe because it's like.no.other

[Furyo]

Seriously, games cost too much. The whole process of creating a game is still too unoptimized and a lot of manhours go lost in a project by constantly redesigning and redoing things, thats the reason why a lot of games take so long and therefore cost so much, not because they were so terrible complex to create.

Quote of the year. Amen

[Buddy]

But well if you'd make a whole game in one run it would end up being shitty, you need to design, test and redesign if needed.

[Hourences]

No. Wait until youre in this industry for a few years. There is a difference between carefully thinking things over and redesigning parts, and redesigning half the game every year because you did a horrible job at it the first time.

If there would be more communication so every department gets what it wants right from the start, with more experienced developers who think ahead A LOT, the unneccy redoing thing can be reduced a lot.

Redoing half a game IS NOT a symbol of quality. It means you did an awfull job the first time around, thats the opposite!