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HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE YOU TO MAKE A GAME?
Posts
PentagonBuddy
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Closeso I'm working on a project, and one question I need a somewhat reasonable answer to is "how long does it take to make a game?"
This varies HUGELY. I thought I could go by looking at the date added value for a game page and then looking at either the latest blog date, the latest download date, or perhaps looking at the latest comment made by the developer, but.... that does not work in practice. A common problem with this idea is that people make a game page when they already have a download. This is only one of many problems with this approach.
So I am asking folks! I think the amount of time varies whether we're talking an event game or something made for a contest (which has set time limits and is pretty easy to estimate), a short project, or someone's magnum opus.
Even if you haven't finished a game, I'm interested in hearing how long you've been working on any projects of yours, or just Your Opinion on how long you think it takes to get some kind of download up on a game page, or how long it takes to complete a game.
For me, the three projects I have on the site are Adventure Ace (made for a contest, 2 week dev time), Demon Slayer (magnum opus, 5 year dev time), and Free Spirits (also contest, 1 month dev time).
heck, I'd even love Opinions on how to best get a time estimate.
This varies HUGELY. I thought I could go by looking at the date added value for a game page and then looking at either the latest blog date, the latest download date, or perhaps looking at the latest comment made by the developer, but.... that does not work in practice. A common problem with this idea is that people make a game page when they already have a download. This is only one of many problems with this approach.
So I am asking folks! I think the amount of time varies whether we're talking an event game or something made for a contest (which has set time limits and is pretty easy to estimate), a short project, or someone's magnum opus.
Even if you haven't finished a game, I'm interested in hearing how long you've been working on any projects of yours, or just Your Opinion on how long you think it takes to get some kind of download up on a game page, or how long it takes to complete a game.
For me, the three projects I have on the site are Adventure Ace (made for a contest, 2 week dev time), Demon Slayer (magnum opus, 5 year dev time), and Free Spirits (also contest, 1 month dev time).
heck, I'd even love Opinions on how to best get a time estimate.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
There was one I spent a month and a half on (with a team of four people) and one I spent over eight years on (by myself). The month-and-a-half game is definitely much higher quality, but only about 10% as long.
There's a point beyond which extra development time is clearly just there because you're creating original graphic/sound resources and code packages and so forth, instead of outsourcing that shit or finding free stuff you can download. When I create a short-term game, I build the game around the resources I have. When I create a long-term game, I build the game however I want, and then start working on a way to create or obtain resources that match my vision. Interestingly, doing things the second way doesn't really even result in a better game. It does result in the exact game I want, though.
There's a point beyond which extra development time is clearly just there because you're creating original graphic/sound resources and code packages and so forth, instead of outsourcing that shit or finding free stuff you can download. When I create a short-term game, I build the game around the resources I have. When I create a long-term game, I build the game however I want, and then start working on a way to create or obtain resources that match my vision. Interestingly, doing things the second way doesn't really even result in a better game. It does result in the exact game I want, though.
My first game took 3,5 years to make. In length, I remember that I made a speedrun of it that took 30 hours. Most players have finished the game in about 50-70+ hours though.
My second game took about 10-11 months to make. It's very similar as my first game in terms of length and content (it's a bit shorter, but it's a lot more detailed and fleshed out compared to my first game).
My third and forth game took about 1-2 weeks to make, I think. The game I started (game's were made for the SWAP event), I only worked on it for about a day (I started too late). I worked a little bit more on the game I received, mainly because it's a bit of a special snowflake.
I'm hoping that my fifth game will be finished by the end of the month.
In order to estimate the time of development (from a game's start to completion), you'll need to have finished games yourself before. It's easier to estimate the development time when you work solo, since you never know if you're partner is going to magically disappear from the face of the planet.
My fifth game is taking a bit longer for me to develop, mainly because it's my first ever Adventure/Mystery game. I'm not a native English speaker (which you probably have already noticed from reading this post), so I usually struggle a lot with grammar when I write for games (it takes time to get it right).
It's also a bit tough for me to make this game, since there are a lot of branching paths (which is something new to me) and I try to keep the game somewhat original and fresh.
Experience is the key to understanding the amount of time and effort it really takes to make a certain game. Of course, making games (at least for me) has become easier and easier by each game I complete.
My second game took about 10-11 months to make. It's very similar as my first game in terms of length and content (it's a bit shorter, but it's a lot more detailed and fleshed out compared to my first game).
My third and forth game took about 1-2 weeks to make, I think. The game I started (game's were made for the SWAP event), I only worked on it for about a day (I started too late). I worked a little bit more on the game I received, mainly because it's a bit of a special snowflake.
I'm hoping that my fifth game will be finished by the end of the month.
In order to estimate the time of development (from a game's start to completion), you'll need to have finished games yourself before. It's easier to estimate the development time when you work solo, since you never know if you're partner is going to magically disappear from the face of the planet.
My fifth game is taking a bit longer for me to develop, mainly because it's my first ever Adventure/Mystery game. I'm not a native English speaker (which you probably have already noticed from reading this post), so I usually struggle a lot with grammar when I write for games (it takes time to get it right).
It's also a bit tough for me to make this game, since there are a lot of branching paths (which is something new to me) and I try to keep the game somewhat original and fresh.
Experience is the key to understanding the amount of time and effort it really takes to make a certain game. Of course, making games (at least for me) has become easier and easier by each game I complete.
It varies for me. Luxaren Allure took me over two years while Last Minute Gift took me a month. I spend a ton of my free time on this stuff, but real life makes it hard to predict how much time I'll have from one day to another to work on games.
As a general rule, I'd say it takes me about one-to-two years to make a non-event game depending on how badly I procrastinate. I recall an exception to that general rule that took me less than one year to do, but, yeeeaaaah.
I haven't finished a single project (outside of events). The one that has the longest dev time so far is an unnamed project i've been "working on" for 14 years and which will probably never be released.
My shortest dev time for a game has been around two days to make this.
Then five days to make something like this:
Both look similar to each other but actually are very different.
Mind you, i was a lot more quick when finishing projects before i realized i'd have to make all graphics and music and code by myself. Once that realization kicked in my projects started taking months, if not years, to be completed, if they ever were.
My shortest dev time for a game has been around two days to make this.
Then five days to make something like this:
Both look similar to each other but actually are very different.
Mind you, i was a lot more quick when finishing projects before i realized i'd have to make all graphics and music and code by myself. Once that realization kicked in my projects started taking months, if not years, to be completed, if they ever were.
Usually, I spend about two years from concept to version 1.0. I also tend to build my own systems almost entirely out of whole cloth, and gut/re-purpose built-in things wherever it's convenient. I also don't do teams, but I do obsess!
I can't imagine sitting on a single project for 5+ years. Heck, usually after a year or so, I already get bored of the story/setting I've devised and am ready to move on to a new one.
I can't imagine sitting on a single project for 5+ years. Heck, usually after a year or so, I already get bored of the story/setting I've devised and am ready to move on to a new one.
Aegix_Drakan
6037
All of my completed works are from contests, so it's usually something like 2-4 weeks, plus a month or so afterwards going back and making improvements and bugfixes.
This is basically the only way I get stuff done, as the tight deadlines keep me focused and keep me from making the games too huge to complete.
This is basically the only way I get stuff done, as the tight deadlines keep me focused and keep me from making the games too huge to complete.
Really depends on the type of game I'm developing:
Short contest games (30 mins - 1hr): Around two weeks to get about one hour done. I've calculated that I do about 50 hours of game development a week, which more or less gives me anything from 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay if I'm on a roll.
Medium-length games ( 10-15 hours ): I've only done one, and that took me the better part of four years to complete, but only because it was my first serious RM project ( before that, I was working on a fan-game that clocked in at 12 hours as well but I never released it ). But I got caught in that cycle of constantly redoing things, which meant not only did I do a lot of unnecessary work but I ended up doubling the dev-cycle itself ><.
Magnus opus': My current magnum opus has been in development since late 2013, but again, I've rehauled it over and over again until I was happy with it. It was only around January this year that I really decided where I wanted to go with it. It's projected to have around ten long chapters averaging around 4 hours in length, and it excludes filler content and I hope to have it finished by late 2017.
So yes, long projects take me about 4 years.
I've realised that planning a project in advance ( or indeed, having a scenario writer ) helps a lot when it comes to mapping out points A to B for larger projects. I was never a planner before ( I always did things on a whim, and added stuff as I went along ) but now I know it is a massive time saver and stops me from going back and redoing older parts of a project.
But to be honest, the length of a game doesn't matter to me. I'll take a game with a solid plot and little to no filler that clocks in at under 15 hours than a 100 hour epic filled with useless sidequests and all the JRPG stuff I couldn't care any less about ( like fishing, cooking, mining etc. etc. ).
Short contest games (30 mins - 1hr): Around two weeks to get about one hour done. I've calculated that I do about 50 hours of game development a week, which more or less gives me anything from 30 minutes to an hour of gameplay if I'm on a roll.
Medium-length games ( 10-15 hours ): I've only done one, and that took me the better part of four years to complete, but only because it was my first serious RM project ( before that, I was working on a fan-game that clocked in at 12 hours as well but I never released it ). But I got caught in that cycle of constantly redoing things, which meant not only did I do a lot of unnecessary work but I ended up doubling the dev-cycle itself ><.
Magnus opus': My current magnum opus has been in development since late 2013, but again, I've rehauled it over and over again until I was happy with it. It was only around January this year that I really decided where I wanted to go with it. It's projected to have around ten long chapters averaging around 4 hours in length, and it excludes filler content and I hope to have it finished by late 2017.
So yes, long projects take me about 4 years.
I've realised that planning a project in advance ( or indeed, having a scenario writer ) helps a lot when it comes to mapping out points A to B for larger projects. I was never a planner before ( I always did things on a whim, and added stuff as I went along ) but now I know it is a massive time saver and stops me from going back and redoing older parts of a project.
But to be honest, the length of a game doesn't matter to me. I'll take a game with a solid plot and little to no filler that clocks in at under 15 hours than a 100 hour epic filled with useless sidequests and all the JRPG stuff I couldn't care any less about ( like fishing, cooking, mining etc. etc. ).
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
author=Jude
48 hours or infinity.
This is deeply profound
Quickest game I ever made took me 8 hours. That was for the RMN 8th Anniversary event. Conversely, I've got a game I've been working on for 2 years and it doesn't even have any gameplay yet.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Depends if you count backburner time. :V
I've seen a kind of minimum of 2 years for your average game; my personal experience is all over the place. Grappi took like 4 months; the thing I'm doing on my own right now has been going for like 9 months or so, mostly being worked on in 2ish hour bursts once or twice a week. (Based on that, I'm gonna say 2 or 3 years as a minimum amount of time to get the whole thing first-drafted.)
I've seen a kind of minimum of 2 years for your average game; my personal experience is all over the place. Grappi took like 4 months; the thing I'm doing on my own right now has been going for like 9 months or so, mostly being worked on in 2ish hour bursts once or twice a week. (Based on that, I'm gonna say 2 or 3 years as a minimum amount of time to get the whole thing first-drafted.)
If an individual seeks to make a full-length RPG with graphics and gameplay from the SNES era, expect at least 5 years. But if you work together with a small team of people, working with modern tools like Photoshop and .mp3 or .ogg creation, you can cut that in half, or more.
I keep thinking back to the original development teams who had to do all of the work by hand, with graph paper and Assembly language.
I keep thinking back to the original development teams who had to do all of the work by hand, with graph paper and Assembly language.
The two years figure seems to crop up a lot, so alright, I will probably use that as a base assumption and then bump it up/down depending on whether the game seems to rely on a lot of custom assets, has expected playtime listed (if applicable), or just seems to be someone's magnum opus with a lot of extra time put into it. If it was made for a particular contest/event, provided it was something like the igmc, ludum dare, or something hosted on RMN, I can just look at the date range of that particular contest/event.
Of course, it helps when people just say "I've been working on this since the year 20XX".
Feel free to chip in with other estimates!
I am definitely not counting backburner time or sitting on "hm maybe this could be a game" or years of writing Lore since I have projects I've been doing that with for 8 years with almost nothing to show.
Now, if I had psychic powers that worked independent of distance, well
That would make most things easier.
Of course, it helps when people just say "I've been working on this since the year 20XX".
Feel free to chip in with other estimates!
author=Sooz
Depends if you count backburner time. :V
I am definitely not counting backburner time or sitting on "hm maybe this could be a game" or years of writing Lore since I have projects I've been doing that with for 8 years with almost nothing to show.
Now, if I had psychic powers that worked independent of distance, well
That would make most things easier.
Sooz
They told me I was mad when I said I was going to create a spidertable. Who’s laughing now!!!
5354
Yeah my main thing is "I have gameplay and like half a plot... aaaaand I need the other half. Back in the file it goes!"
I have "finished" about 10 or so games now... the shortest were 48-hour game jam games (Mirror Boy was one of these) and the longest that I've finished was It'll Look Great on Your Resume, which took about 4 months. Right now, I've been working on BOSSGAME for about a year. It's worth noting that I have a full-time job now, which slows things down quite a lot, but it's also my biggest project yet.
I have two general rules I follow when I'm trying to predict how long a project ~should~ take:
1) Be honest and try to math out how long it will take to do each part. Come up with a general estimate. Then, multiply that by three. It will take at *least* that long. This has pretty much never failed to be true for my projects. It's almost a guarantee that a dozen things will crop up and make it take way longer. Seriously, I know it sounds ridiculous, but multiply your estimate by three.
2) Scope games only as long as my motivation will hold up. I'd rather have a shorter finished game than another incomplete prototype - I already have plenty of those :P I have a hard time keeping my attention on a single thing for a long time, and it's something I'm trying to improve. It's a big reason why BOSSGAME is made of only boss battles - I know I don't have the patience to stick it out for a full-scale RPG. I tried to cut every single corner I could.
After I finish BOSSGAME, I think I'm going to go back to smaller games for a bit... trying to manage bigger projects when you can only sneak in a couple hours here or there is really tough.
I have two general rules I follow when I'm trying to predict how long a project ~should~ take:
1) Be honest and try to math out how long it will take to do each part. Come up with a general estimate. Then, multiply that by three. It will take at *least* that long. This has pretty much never failed to be true for my projects. It's almost a guarantee that a dozen things will crop up and make it take way longer. Seriously, I know it sounds ridiculous, but multiply your estimate by three.
2) Scope games only as long as my motivation will hold up. I'd rather have a shorter finished game than another incomplete prototype - I already have plenty of those :P I have a hard time keeping my attention on a single thing for a long time, and it's something I'm trying to improve. It's a big reason why BOSSGAME is made of only boss battles - I know I don't have the patience to stick it out for a full-scale RPG. I tried to cut every single corner I could.
After I finish BOSSGAME, I think I'm going to go back to smaller games for a bit... trying to manage bigger projects when you can only sneak in a couple hours here or there is really tough.
Lucy_Fox
1872
I finished two games. One has a playtime of 1 hour and took me a bit less then a month to make. (Was for igmc)
My other game took me 2 1/2 years and has a playtime of 4-6 hours.
That one is a story driven Point n Click where I wanted to add as much detail as possible....
It depends on your own working speed (I'm horribly slow xD). And on the amount of detail you want to put in. A super detailed game will take much longer than a simpler one.
Additional you have to calculate in the size of the game. A small but detailed game can take as much time as a large and low detailed game.
And it depends on how much you have to do on your own. Own graphics, sounds or music take additional time. (Often a lot of it)
^u^/)
My other game took me 2 1/2 years and has a playtime of 4-6 hours.
That one is a story driven Point n Click where I wanted to add as much detail as possible....
It depends on your own working speed (I'm horribly slow xD). And on the amount of detail you want to put in. A super detailed game will take much longer than a simpler one.
Additional you have to calculate in the size of the game. A small but detailed game can take as much time as a large and low detailed game.
And it depends on how much you have to do on your own. Own graphics, sounds or music take additional time. (Often a lot of it)
^u^/)
