[game_edu] Allocation of effort in game creation

[Chris Oltyan]

I did a quick run through my current project budget.  We are currently
in Production (we have 3 phases: pre, production, and release)

22%	Programming
18%	Production
16%	Design
6%	Testing
38%	Art (of which sound is 3%)

For Release, the are will probably drop to 10% and testing and
programming will jump to make up the difference.  In pre, programming
and art will be around 1/2 their production levels, almost 0 testing,
and distributed around Production and Design)

This is for a virtual world with various casual games in it.  This
would (and does) fluctuate greatly based on Genre and Platform.
Fundamentally, its a question of design.  You have make a project
represent any set of conditions, but unless you want to generalize the
situation, you won't have an accurate number.  So, basically: FPS RPG
- 10 Levels, Unreal Engine, Standard Gameplay - Is predictable, and
can be generalized, but without setting constraints you will have
incredibly inaccurate estimations.  After a portion of pre-production
or at least high level design is done it is much more likely that you
will be able to determine elements of the development process.


On Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 11:47 AM, Mark Baldwin
<mark at baldwinconsulting.org> wrote:

> Yes, I was vague in saying if I was talking about money or man-hours, since

> they are not the same.   I would suggest looking at this from the point of

> view of money since decisions between in-house and out of house and

> purchasing a tool (example, developing or buying an engine) would be

> equivalent.

>

>

>

> I liked the information your presented.   It was fairly consistent with my

> guesses except for management.   I question that figure.   I can't imagine

> doing a major (or even minor) project with a 2% management cost.

>

>

>

> It would be good to get a better handle on these numbers.   A survey might

> be valuable.   Someone mentioned credits as a source.   Another idea that

> occurs to me is help wanted ads.   Would they reflect the average employee

> mix, and therefore allow us to estimate resource needs?

>

>

>

> Mark

>

>

>

> ************************************

>

> Mark Lewis Baldwin

>

> Baldwin Consulting

>

> 685 Trailside Rd

>

> Golden, CO 80401

>

> 303-526-9169

>

> 303-408-3727 (m)

>

> mark at baldwinconsulting.org

>

> http://baldwinconsulting.org

>

> ************************************

>

>

>

> From: game_edu-bounces at igda.org [mailto:game_edu-bounces at igda.org] On Behalf

> Of Lewis Pulsipher

> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 9:16 AM

> To: game_edu at igda.org

> Subject: [game_edu] Allocation of effort in game creation

>

>

>

> Mark,

>

> I agree that relative allocations of "effort" are informative.  But do you

> mean percentage effort in monetary cost, or effort in man-hours (QA is much

> cheaper per man-hour than programming...).

>

> Following was in Gameinformer (sorry, I don't have the reference to the

> specific issue, a couple years ago):

>

> Rainbow Six Vegas. Budget breakdown:

> 30% - Programming

> 20% - Art

> 15% - Design

> 10% - Marketing

> 8% - Testing

> 7% - Sound

> 7% - Animation

> 2% - Management

> 1% - Other

>

> 11 months concepting, 8 months preproduction, 10 months production, 3 months

> submission & release.

>

> As this was a port to a console, IIRC, and was also part of an existing

> series, the numbers are not typical of a brand new IP and original

> production.

>

> Lew Pulsipher

>

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-- 
Chris Oltyan
Scrum Guy
-----
"Simplicity--the art of maximizing
the amount of work not done"
  --AGILE Principle