And ZombiU2.
wait,200/300k?
can you even make a game with that much money?
at best you can make a mobile app,a shitty one
Awesome news! We need more games like Child of Light and Valiant Hearts.
This policy would not be for those games. No way they were developed for less than $5m. The only game to come into existence from this policy is Grow Home, which is great but only around 2 hours long.
This policy would not be for those games. No way they were developed for less than $5m. The only game to come into existence from this policy is Grow Home, which is great but only around 2 hours long.
The employees were working for free for 5 months before the game released.Shovel Knight got about $300k from Kickstarter.
This is your chance to make Might & Magic XI Limbic, get on it.
The employees were working for free for 5 months before the game released.
Yahct Club said that without the passionate/desperate indie dev penny-pinching, the Shovel Knight would have cost closer to $1.5 million
They also developed it for 5 months without any pay, worked for free or at half salary for most of it etc. It's original cost estimate was 1.4 million if done as it should be: http://yachtclubgames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/productionestimate-360x368.pngShovel Knight got about $300k from Kickstarter.
Ubisoft employees wouldn't have to pay backer rewards, taxes, credit card fees out of that money and they already have office space/utilities paid. So even though the Yacht Club Games folks put some of their own money into Shovel Knight the budgets probably would end up being similar in the end.
Here you go:I get why large AAA games cost so much, but I don't understand how a game like Shovel Knight would cost 1.5 mil. I am guessing the majority of that would have gone to paying salaries. How many people worked on the game?
What does that mean? Essentially, each developer will cost the company 10,000 dollars a month or 120,000 dollars a year. Now, of course, not every developer on the team makes that much money and often, NONE of the developers on the team make that much money.
That’s because this monthly $10k goes into much more than just paying the salary of the employee. It covers any and all expenses accumulated from having that employee on site. That includes not only individual expenses for the employee like salary, health insurance, etc but also company expenses like rent, electricity, water, food/snacks, conventions, computer and other equipment, software licenses, lawyer fees, taxes, development kit expenses…the list goes on and on. Given that it encompasses so much, we can use this figure to calculate the cost for the entire game. Also note that some developers may only be on a project for a few months, while others will work for the whole project’s duration. The man month total number can vary widely for games, but for Shovel Knight, we figured it was something around 144 man months to finish the game.
Budgeting doesn't work like that when you're a company like Ubi and not a couple of isolated guys.No? You can make a perfectly good game with 200-300K. That is a team if the salaray is like 60K a year, that will fund up to 6 people for a year. Very reasonable for a small game.
No? You can make a perfectly good game with 200-300K. That is a team if the salaray is like 60K a year, that will fund up to 6 people for a year. Very reasonable for a small game.
Tom Clancy's RocksmithAs long as they have 'Tom Clancy' in the title
For a big company like Ubisoft (or well even most decent sized game companies) that 6 manyears would cost at least 500K. You'd probably be looking at least 100K per developer in yearly burnrate.No? You can make a perfectly good game with 200-300K. That is a team if the salaray is like 60K a year, that will fund up to 6 people for a year. Very reasonable for a small game.
Yup, I know a few companies where that's quite a realistic daily burnrate, though it naturally depends a lot on the tools and level of the developer. Still, Ubi is filled with absolutely amazing talents so 3 developers for a year is certainly nothing to scoff at.You can't calculate the cost of a project like that. I don't know exactly how it works at Ubisoft, but to give a rough idea, the cost of a man/day is probably around 700 to 800 (in France at least), then you could have a some other costs like licensing, internal services for projects (ex : internal billing for bug tracking tools, etc...)
So yeah, six mounths for a team of three seems more like the scope of the projects we are talking about. It's still really great
This policy would not be for those games. No way they were developed for less than $5m. The only game to come into existence from this policy is Grow Home, which is great but only around 2 hours long.
For a big company like Ubisoft (or well even most decent sized game companies) that 6 manyears would cost at least 500K. You'd probably be looking at least 100K per developer in yearly burnrate.
Yup, I know a few companies where that's quite a realistic daily burnrate, though it naturally depends a lot on the tools and level of the developer. Still, Ubi is filled with absolutely amazing talents so 3 developers for a year is certainly nothing to scoff at.
As long as they have 'Tom Clancy' in the title
Afaik, it's up the studio to decide, but it most likely wouldn't be a very effective way to work and could be a bit tough to manage with the distributed development model.Do Ubisoft have any policies in place that allow developers to work on other projects eg 10-20% of the time? If so that could allow small groups to work on little projects effectively free of labour costs if that is absorbed into their normal role costs.
Already happened. Rayman Jungle Run & Fiesta RunI imagine consultation would also be required to utilize existing Ubisoft IP?
It makes sense. It seems to me that it's just Ubisoft opening themselves up to the possibility of a small team of employees making a mobile game that catches on.
What? Valiant Hearts is superb. You're really missing out. There's a reason why it was in the top 5 in Best New IP, Best Downloadable Game, and Best Adventure Game in the GAF GOTY 2014 resultsWait so Ubisoft have been putting out high cost titles? Since when?
Dunno. I can't think of any other "small indie title" from Ubisoft other than Child of Light and Valiant Hearts. Child of Light had terrible DLC and I had to delete friends off my friends list on Xbox One just to unlock an achievement. I didn't play Valiant Hearts but that's only because I gave them £15 for a copy of Tetris that didn't even work. Valiant Hearts I'll happily miss out on. Even with their smaller titles they get it wrong.
Valiant Hearts 2 would be amazing, WWII, Vietnam War, ... I dunno just any war with a new story but the same ambiance and music style as the first one pls. This game was amazing.
'Bon chien'
Beyond Good and Evil 2 to be delivered in one hundred 200K episodes over the course of a decade. Cheat the system, Ancel!
Wait so Ubisoft have been putting out high cost titles? Since when?
Dunno. I can't think of any other "small indie title" from Ubisoft other than Child of Light and Valiant Hearts. Child of Light had terrible DLC and I had to delete friends off my friends list on Xbox One just to unlock an achievement. I didn't play Valiant Hearts but that's only because I gave them £15 for a copy of Tetris that didn't even work. Valiant Hearts I'll happily miss out on. Even with their smaller titles they get it wrong.
No? You can make a perfectly good game with 200-300K. That is a team if the salaray is like 60K a year, that will fund up to 6 people for a year. Very reasonable for a small game.
ubisoft not being shit? Vive la révolution!
People like to dump on Ubisoft a lot (and they do deserve a bunch of it) but they are definitely better than Take-Poo (lol Evolve's 2 season passes, Levine studio closure, etc.) and Electronic Farts. They are the only ones that make tons of new IPs (or new takes on old IPs), lots of AAA games (albeit, a tad formulaic) and a bunch of smaller, more experimental "indie" games. There is also no large western publisher that supports new platforms as well as Ubisoft. The others were too scared to release a ZombiU for Wii U or an Assassin's Creed: Liberation for the Vita (R*, Kojima, Bethesda, etc. all those devs that promised to develop for the Vita bailed on it).
WB Games is doing really well with AAA games this past year though.
30-50 hour open world RPG is probably the first thing that comes into their mind when given the opportunity to create a small budget game. Ok, I know M&M X was pretty low budget game (and I did really enjoy that game) but I wonder what that means in actual budget dollars, few millions at least?
Indeed and if they use an already established engine and can share some assets will really help. I mean Zeboyd is making Cosmic Star Heroine for less than that with only two people and that looks amazing.
If you expect like AAA visuals than no but smaller games that use great gameplay and art (Child of Light, Valiant Hearts etc) should be doable.
Valiant Hearts 2 would be amazing, WWII, Vietnam War, ... I dunno just any war with a new story but the same ambiance and music style as the first one pls. This game was amazing.
'Bon chien'
Somebody port Valiant Hearts to Vita, then. You didn't even have to ask anybody!
Also, make another Valiant Hearts!
LOLGrow up and refer to Take-Two and Electronic Arts by their proper names.