Hi all I realize everyone is very busy, etc, just wanted your advice please - I have been quoted $US20K for development of an game for iPhone 3GS+. It has been sketched out as a platformer game, with sounds and music (it is a children's game). The basic artwork is supplied, but in black and white - the developer team is coloring and animating it. It will have three levels (about 3 minutes each), with different backgrounds on each. No scoring or other integrated systems. The developers have approximately three months to complete the project. Do you think this is a fair quote? They are not a huge company (only have about three other (small) apps on the App Store). I'm very happy with their professionalism, just not sure about the quoted price. Thanking you in advance.
That sounds about right to me. I've never developed a game before but I keep hearing $10-30K being the starting price for a basic app. Obviously it depends on the quality of their work so it's hard to judge without seeing a portfolio or something.
it completly depends on the expected quality (in all departments, sound, gfx etc.).. 20k is not small change.. but from the first few comments its sound way overpriced.. but in the end its really a question if target quality. 3 month for a jump and run with limited content sound also quite long.. but its all guessworking until you get to know the complete scope of the project.. they surely made you the offer with alot more informations.. so hard to say..
3 Levels a 3 minutes and no scoring? Graphics black/white given. I would not pay 20k. And I would not ask for 20k.
again, whould you know the extend of the quality behind the stuff? i could easily see it exceed the price point of 20k depending on the amount of animation, enemies, sound polish etc. etc. but it could also be alot less.. it depends.. anyone giving you a quote with this kind of imformation can't be taken serious.. because you can't quote something you barely know about..
Sorry US20K sounds cheap... With most ios devs I know charging $100 an hour and up for senior level work. So... 3 months * 4 week * 40 hours * $100 = $48,000 3 months * 4 week * 40 hours * $50 = $24,000 So you are paying less then $50 am hour for more then 1 developer? If my math is correct
hehe we would call that a "milchmädchen rechnung".. i have yet to see a game developer earning 100$ an hour.. please tell me the company / joint who provides such salary in game developement and i'd happy apply there.. the complete european game developers will apply at this place and i'm sure most of the us too.. who here earns 16k a month ? maybe thats wishfull thinking.. i also doubt thoose 3 month are fulltime.. usualy such teams are working on several smaller and bigger projects at the same time.. but again without much knowledge of the real content of the project all is guessworking..
http://osxdaily.com/2010/09/07/iphone-development-costs/ http://www.groovypost.com/howto/apple/how-to-become-a-mac-app-developer/ http://www.indeed.com/salary/Application-Developer.html
It's really important that you take the time to inspect the developer extremely thoroughly. What projects has he/she done in the past? Play them. Check the credits. What you don't want is somebody completely overestimating the time requirement for hourly work. Get a few quotes from folks who provide quality work. Finally, be skeptical of people who charge an extremely low amount. You really need to find someone who will give you an outstanding code-base to work with. If you want to add onto the project in the future, and the original developers are not around, you'll have a major headache on your hands if the code base is extremely poor. Here is a good article: http://www.hollance.com/2011/05/developing-software-is-expensive-because-it-is-hard/
nice links but they proove nothing.. i would like to see a few companie names poping up so i can apply there .. i can bring around 150+ more people i know from germany with me who work in game developement.. any none of them earns no where near of 16k a month.. or even close. thats a doctors salary i can show you several links who show different figures.. and somehow i doubt us guys earn double the salary and more than european developers.. if that where true most companies would come over here and not leave to the us and other cheaper countries.. weird.. huh..
20k can be a good price or a rip off it all depends on the quality. I would check their track record and see what other platformers they have made in 3 months.
The figures given were the price a business charges customers. That is a very different thing to a salary. A quote has to take into account costs, hours worked but not chargeable (such as doing the accounts), etc.
Moonjump nailed it. A company quoting a contract job like this would charge X amount per person, where X = a large value like $100/hour. The people actually doing the work likely receive well below half of that amount by the time the company pays for its overhead, taxes, and puts some in the bank for profit. Self employed, independent contractors such as myself do the same thing, although we get a bigger piece of the pie because my pay and the profits are combined. Note I don't do much in contract game programming, my focus is in industrial automation. iPhone games are my after-hours obsession, at least for the moment. Which is why Spirit Hunter Mineko has been in development for so long now. But I digress... Looking at the weekly rate and multiplying by 52 is not a good measure of how much money an independent contractor makes. Part of the nature of working in contract programming is not knowing when or where your next job is coming from. Another USA-specific problem is the huge cost of health insurance for individuals trying to get coverage for themselves. Most people I know that do this make a more modest living, by the time they deal with extra expenses of self employment and business ups & downs they "officially" earn $60-$80K a year... roughly what they'd make sitting behind a desk working for "The Man". But they report to nobody, and are happier for it. Personally I've been very successful at running my own business for over 13 years now, but it takes a lot of work to maintain
Mr.Ugly totally did not understand... But I see that was a addressed. To add a bit more to this discussion... First off I talk to hundreds of ios developers about these topics on a regular basis. Many senior iphone coders make over $100K a year salary in the US. So that is say around $50 an hour. Now a standard rule thumb for freelance might be take your hourly rate and double it and thats at least what you should be charging for for contract work. There are actually a lot of more specific rules for doing this online if anyone cares to look. Last ios game contracting I did personally was at $75 an hour freelance for an Ad firm with large corporate clients who were happy to pay these fees or higher. Mobile dev salaries are at a premium in the US. Game dev salaries do not seem as high in the none mobile industry.
Hello, I myself am an iPhone developer & will complete your project, as long as it is 2D, for around $12,000 for a completed quality project. For an exact price, please email me at [email protected] & send me the project info. Enjoy your weekend, Matt
Yeah, it depends on the quality and playability, users feedback, you can get test before--- anyways there are so many free games for players, such as "Top 8 Best Free iPhone Racing Games" in iFunia iPhone column~
iPhone Developer Hello, My partner & I are iPhone, iPad, & Mac game developers & would love to work on your project. As long as it is 2D, we can build amazing projects, at a great price. For a platform game we'd charge approximately $12,000. We have recently developed a game for someone called Golf: 2112. It can be found at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/golf-2112/id435353853?mt=8 Please email me at [email protected] if you're interested, Matt
Sorry, I have posted 2 times & cannot see either of my posts. If I post again I'm sorry. My partner & I are 2D game developers for the iPhone & would love to work on your project. We have recently developed Golf: 2112 for someone. This game can be found at http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/golf-2112/id435353853?mt=8 For your project I can quote around $12,000. If you are interested in our services, please email me at [email protected]
its not of interest what your hourly sales peaked at.. if you got once a big job with an ad company to create a game for 75an hours.. do you get that constaly.. do you earn that 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the hole year.. i doubt that.. how long did you contract lasted? a week , month, years? earning 75$ an hours is quite possible.. but saying 100$ is an normal average cost is not. so any of thoose obscure calculations 100$* x days x weeks is just wishfull thinking.. who cares what you earn in a spike.. its of interest what you earn in average.. and who cares what the top dogs earn.. how does that reflect the average? i earned thousands of euros with a single signature and no additional work , so what does that make.. you can earn couple thousands dollar in a second as a iOS developer?.. now lets take this to minutes , hours , days and i can portrait myself as a millionaire if such silly calculations would not be artificial at best.. earning 100k a year as an iOS developer doing contract work is surely by faar not average at all.. and does not even help the slightest calclation developement cost of product X because so faar in my life every single contract what completly different and every contract was uniquely calculated and quoted at.. as for all your great successfull contact.. send them here.. let them tell us their stories.. if you can be so open about what they earn they might shed some light on their own..
I was talking about salary... non contracting. But here looking around the US and talking many people on #iphonedev the average senior iphone developer makes 80-120K a year Salary. ( non contracting ) Generally of the people doing full time contracting they tend to charge over $100 and hour for senior level work. These folks are also by and large back logged for many months and can not take on more work. The average earnings are going to be over 100K a year. aka you only need to average like $45 an hour to bring in that since you were talking about peak times and average work load. The average contractor job... short term I run into through a consulting firm ... these jobs basically are full time you just bill per hour through the consulting firm start at $50 an hour and go up. Its very hard to find experienced iphone developers for less then 100K a year ( salary ) in most of the US. It is a really nice bubble to be part of and looks like it will continue for years. I have my own resume on line and on sites like linked in. Example http://chrisdillman.com/ Or linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisdillman With these I average about 1 job or contracting email a day because it is that hard to find talent right now. BTW if you want to get more contracting offers etc.. anyone get on linked and post your resume in line and join many groups use my links as an example.
