I think it depends on the type of game... It took me about a month to create my game, it's puzzle based, but the development time came from creating the art assets and balancing the gameplay. I just released it a few days ago, response has been pretty good - even without marketing and advertising. Naxus - http://www.nelsonhurst.com/games/naxus/ I've also worked with a team (12 people) to develop a FPS, it took us 9 months to create the first 3 levels - so it depends on the type of game you're developing. My advice is, when you decide to make your first game, don't be too ambitious, just finish a game with good effort to see how long it takes. Then you can plan your development time for future projects.
I'm on a 3 to 6 months per game basis, with maybe an average of 3h or 4h per day on it. But I'm very strict with my schedule, if I don't meet expectations early enough, I drop the project not to spend years on it.
Sounds familiar! I had my game working in 6 months, but I'm in year 3 or 4 now. I'm fairly certain it will be complete next year, though! Can't wait to release it, but not before it is ready.
I downloaded your game and it is a winner. Do you have a plan on how to promote the game? I played it as I waited for my pizza to be made and when I got home my son who is 9 also played it and had a lot of good things to say about it. Push you may have something good. The nice thing about puzzles games is their staying power. They don't fade so fast.
Thanks, I'm still working on promoting it now. Marketing is a beast within itself. I did read an article on marketing if anyone is interested... http://www.apptamin.com/blog/ultimate-guide-video-marketing/ The article is pretty insightful. We should start a new thread if we're going to discuss marketing ideas, don't want to get off topic.
I would always imagine an answer to such a question! Then I heard it said as "how long is a ball of string?", but still I imagine an answer. I think the best description of how long a proper job takes is "until it is done". Not so sure there are many of this breed. To answer directly, I've spent between 6 months and a year on projects though the last few years have not seen any releases, so I would like to change that as the taps are dry.
Over and over I found the Parkinson's Law to be true. It states that "Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." If you have a dateline to deliver your game in 6 month, that's what will take! Not a day less. That's why game jams tend to be so successful, you have a dateline. If you don't have any dateline then it takes forever or until you get tired of working on it and cut it short to move into a more exciting project.
We have 3-4 people working together, it requires around 4-5 weeks to make a polished game, you can check the games from my signature. They work from 9am-6pm for 5 days a week.
This business if very fast. The conditions / opportunities that exist today may not exist in a month. I was building a website that has more than Alibaba has today. My programmer told me it would take 6 months. We hired the team and 3 years after it was not built and Alibaba surfaced and the opportunity was gone. Cost me a little over $400,000 which in China is a good chunk of change. The same thing happened with a Presta Shop type website. Today with this project I can turn on a dime. Just got to solve some other unknowns but getting the product out is not problem.
That was a full blown company and yes it was over priced. I got quotes from American companies to build my apps for $17,000++ with a 45 day delivery. What do you think about that price? It was for a game not unlike the original 2048.
I think it is in the ball park based purely on time. If I was going to do it for someone I would of quoted less but I don't have the same overheads as a company. But yeah I don't think it is outrageous or anything based on what I know is spent on those sorts of things from my work.
My group can build it in 5 days. In 2 days we can produce a test game, modify it on the 3red, 2nd test game on the 4th day and polish ready to publish it on the 5th day. Price in the business is not the key factory, it is how fast you can get the game out. If you have a successful game someone will make a version of it. You need to be able to come out with a v2 which is better than their game as soon as possible. If you need to wait 30 days you will lose all of your customers especially if it is one of the larger companies that targets your game. They have a large customer base and will come out of the gate with 500,000 downloads before you can wink an eye.
From experience speed doesn't always mean quality. There are cheap offshore companies out there but there can be many issues or language issues
They would of probably would of had 1-2 people working on it rather than a group. I don't think the speed you have got it out has helped. You are already very late on the 2048 scene. You have picked an exceptionally simple game to copy however.
