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How much does it cost to make a video game?


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#1 James24

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 10:40 AM

Check out these two videos from industry veterans to see how much it costs to make a video game:

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=w37Zes6zlkg

https://www.youtube....3DNmvXAIc&t=78s

 

Any budding game developer would also do well to know the true and accurate history of two of the most legendary and best-selling games in gaming history, Super Mario Brothers 2 and Super Mario Brothers 3.  Despite their renowned success, the development of Super Mario Brothers 2 was extremely controversial

 

https://www.youtube....h?v=2EUYSN5aFcE

https://www.youtube....6IwUtLSU&t=359s

 

What are the implications of the above for anyone looking to make a stellar Zelda Classic Quest?


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#2 Deedee

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 11:10 AM

What are the implications of the above for anyone looking to make a stellar Zelda Classic Quest?

That most people on this site are here not to make money, but to show their passion and perhaps get experience for actual game development? Some people find putting in effort to make something people love to be a valid use of their time.


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#3 Aevin

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 11:28 AM

And yet time can mean money. I do some freelance transcription work to help support myself, and I'm keenly aware of the fact that my ZC work and my transcription work are in competition. Yeah, I do this because I'm passionate about expression and game design, but it does seem like there's a "cost" associated with it, even if that cost comes in the form of imaginary lost income.

 

So on that "time is money" note, I hope you'll forgive me for commenting generally without actually watching the videos. Apologies. :P


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#4 Anthus

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 02:13 PM

As those two video outline, different games take different amounts of time. You have examples of 300+ people teams spending millions over five years, and you have a team of four making a game for about 100k. It just depends. For example, let's say I wanted to "take the plunge". I could put up a couple thousand myself, sure, but then what will I do in six months? Will I need a team? Probably, I'm not doing all the art, and music. It would be expensive for me, unless I networked with people, found people interested in my vision, and hammered out details with those people.

 

 

What are the implications of the above for anyone looking to make a stellar Zelda Classic Quest?

 

None? No one is making money from quests. It is not a commercial industry. These are people doing what they love doing in their free time. Now let's say in the future when ZC is "open" then what about making a game? I'd still wager one person could make a game in their free time with ZC in a few years. You could also get a team together, sure, but I really couldn't see it realistically costing over 100k to make a 2D game in ZC, and that is like, an extremely liberal estimate. You'd need to hire Hideo Kojima, and the Final Fantasy dude to blow up a budget that large.


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#5 Moosh

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 05:24 PM

What are the implications of the above for anyone looking to make a stellar Zelda Classic Quest?

It tells me to expect the drought of challenge quests to continue, because even money can't buy passion.

 

Evan finish Inverse Mirror goddammit!



#6 NoeL

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 05:59 PM

How much does it cost to make a video game?


How long is a piece of string?

What are the implications of the above for anyone looking to make a stellar Zelda Classic Quest?


... that they should take an existing quest, swap out the sprites and release it as Super Zelda USA? :shrug: I honestly don't get what you're asking here, but I can guess, since it's coming from you, that it's just more anti-ZC poo-poo.

Seriously, why are you so invested in how other people want to use their free time? Can't you just focus on yourself and let others be?
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#7 DarkFlameSheep

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 08:25 PM

It tells me to expect the drought of challenge quests to continue, because even money can't buy passion.

 

Evan finish Inverse Mirror goddammit!

 

Challenging things themselves aren't bad, and different people like different things. For instance, FromSoftware develops many very hard or challenging games, many of them get high rating and are selling well. Simply, original AQ and LoH don't match most people. 


Edited by Stray Sheep, 19 March 2020 - 08:52 PM.

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#8 Rambly

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 08:40 PM

Why spend time and money on a hobby where you have no hope of making something professional and triple A quality and getting any of that money back?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Answer: Because it's fun ya turkey.  Making Zelda games is fun.  Same reason anyone does any other hobby.  Debate over QED 8) :king:
 
Yeah it takes a lot of effort to make a really great ZC quest and some people might not see any money at all from doing it.  That's not a problem.  Even if someone paid me to make quests, I'd still probably be slow about it because I'm lazy :zzz: There's easier ways to make money :zzz: Leave me alone, I don't wanna make a Zelda fangame mom :zzz:
 
 

Challenging things themselves aren't bad, and different people like different things. Simply, original AQ and LoH don't match most people. For instance, FromSoftware develops many very hard and challenging games and many of them are selling well.

 
Yes!  A quest can be good even if it only appeals to a tiny minority of people.  Things don't have to appeal to everybody to be good.  Authors should focus on what makes them happy and feels fun to them.  It's the only way people can find the passion to create something truly amazing.

Also, FromSoftware is a great example of a studio that makes what they want to make, regardless of how their games will be perceived, and still manages to find success. If you make something you like, it will resonate with someone else, too.  It doesn't matter if it resonates with the majority -- if it resonates with a few, if it's the thing that just one person was truly looking for in a quest, then it's worth making, I think.

 

(p.s. the souls games are great and everyone should at least try them)


Edited by Rambly, 19 March 2020 - 08:46 PM.

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#9 P-Tux7

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 09:43 PM

What about current quests do you not think is stellar?



#10 James24

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 11:20 PM

I'll tell you what I think those videos imply:

 

Of course no one is here to make money.  They are here to write a game that truly suits their passion and their vision - but only their passion and their vision.  Despite what they might say in public, the reality is that no one will commit significant time or resources to making anything other than a game that is truly them.  Isle of Rebirth is a pure example of this.  Evan pursued the game of his dreams but when it came to difficulty he simply made a cheap nerf that went down horribly with most players who prefer a more relaxed difficulty.

 

If someone has to spend the time and resources accommodating for other people's passion and vision then the cost of their project goes up exponentially.  Unlike a commercial game, this cost is not going to be met by the playing public when its finished.  This is a huge problem because the developer is going to be spending a lot their precious free time making a game that they aren't going to enjoy in the end.  Its purely so they are socially accepted, game gets high ratings, people don't rage at them etc...  Some developers tend to value those sorts of things where others don't.  As Aevin said, that precious free time could be used for income generating purposes and well, you know....

 

As for recent challenge quests, I've enjoyed quite a few actually Moosh - Mike's Fun House, Overhead and Westrule are all very challenging.  Flynn says he's an average player but some of the difficulty in his quest is very much Liberation like.



#11 Aevin

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 11:30 PM

Of course no one is here to make money.  They are here to write a game that truly suits their passion and their vision - but only their passion and their vision.

Now, I don't think that's exactly true. For my part, I agree that it's important that our games mean something to us. Otherwise, creators have no motivation to make anything at all. But game-making, like any form of art, is about a relationship between the creator and his audience. So of course I want to make a game that represents things that are important to me, but there's also a certain element of building to your audience, too. I'm not about to put together something that I think everyone else will hate. Making something that other people like is part of making my ideal game. These things aren't polar opposites. You can do both.

 

And for what it's worth, I probably wouldn't be willing to put in the work to make a game I hate, regardless of how much someone paid me. Money could certainly encourage me to make something, but if I don't care about it, I'm not going to be enthused about it.

 

Okay, in all honesty, if someone offered to pay me like a million dollars, maybe I'd bite the bullet. ;)
 


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#12 Moosh

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Posted 19 March 2020 - 11:41 PM

Challenging things themselves aren't bad, and different people like different things. For instance, FromSoftware develops many very hard or challenging games, many of them get high rating and are selling well. Simply, original AQ and LoH don't match most people. 

It's funny, a lot of people make the Dark Souls comparison, but I don't think the Souls games are as hard as people give them credit. They're just punishing in a way that turns some people cough cough game journalists away.

 

As for recent challenge quests, I've enjoyed quite a few actually Moosh - Mike's Fun House, Overhead and Westrule are all very challenging.  Flynn says he's an average player but some of the difficulty in his quest is very much Liberation like.

Did you play the final release of Mike's Fun House? I liked the quest for its overwhelming creativity and trollish nature, but I don't think I'd call it a challenge quest. Was it maybe toned down from the version you played? Haven't heard of the other two, but Overhead looks like an interesting concept. But what I really like to play games for is that difficult boss grind, and there's only a couple questmakers who can deliver a challenging and interesting boss fight.



#13 DarkFlameSheep

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Posted 20 March 2020 - 12:40 AM

 

From Software develops not only very hard or challenging games, for instance this Metal Wolf Chaos XD. Personally, I played only some Armored Core Series as From Software's games, and I loved many of them which I played.

 

By the way, Evan20000 adds difficulty settings for his own quests what it's his freedom.

 

Mike's Fun House? Current version of it has the post game boss.

If you want to see it, you can see this my record. 


Edited by Stray Sheep, 20 March 2020 - 03:28 AM.

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#14 P-Tux7

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Posted 20 March 2020 - 11:08 AM

See, the thing is, what are you hoping to accomplish with this topic? I understand you find SOMETHING wrong with the way quests are currently made and want to bring it to our attention, but I'm having trouble figuring out what that is.



#15 Jamian

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Posted 20 March 2020 - 03:04 PM

Making a ZC quest requires tears, blood, and sweat. And those are things that money can't buy. 


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