A very serious doubt

I am an aspiring game designer and an amateur C# programmer in unity3d. I have not published any full fledged game yet.However,I was asked to work for a company where I was put in the chief developer position and I was asked to develop a complete simulation of a 3D golf game in just 3 months for both iOS and android.Unfortunately,I was not able to complete.Is it possible for a person to develop a game right from scratch in just 3 months?They wanted a game with high level graphics and so many other factors.

 

You can develop a game from scratch in 3 months. It'll just suck, probably.

 

That's far too generic a question to possibly answer. It's possible to create a well-made game in a week, if that game is of the level of complexity of Pong. This also depends on the person or people involved. This is only a question that you can answer with experience based on your own skill level and your own team.

 

Sure, that's possible, but only if you know what you're doing. If you're the only one working on the project, you need to know how to code as well as do art and design. You also need to make sure the project is not too ambitious. I could see getting a small golf game with one golf environment, and one character.

 

Yes, it is possible... With a highly specialised team, that is.

 

Team of professionals could possibly pull it off... depends on requirements.

 

3D golf....yes you can, its your job to talk down their expectations to a realistic level in the time frame. Especially targeting android, most phones won't support "high level graphics".

 

Depends on how you are defining "complete" game. A fully functional complete game with placeholder/temp art/content, sure. I do a lot of prototyping in my role, and I can generally knock out a "complete" game in a week or two. 3 months would be a luxury. But that is the core functionality/mechanics with tunable settings and basic art. (no backend, not tuned, basic ui/art/content, limited content). I haven't done golf, but I did a 9 course mini-golf game in about 2 weeks.

As long as you avoid getting too granular, and aren't actually talking about a fully polished game ready to ship, a functional playable golf game with minimal content, 3 months should be plenty of time.

 

To be completely honest, based on your self-assessed skill level ("aspiring" and "amateur" with no portfolio), if these guys wanted to hire you my first impression is that they don't know what to look for or were wasting your time.

What you asked is possible, yes (I've done similar work before), but I wouldn't expect it except from a well experienced team. Expecting it from an "aspiring" "amateur" with no portfolio is unrealistic.

Like any other skilled creative task, you don't get good at game development overnight. It takes years of practice and experience, and you need to accept that you're amongst a community full of other people also getting that practice and experience, some of whom you may well end up competing with. That shouldn't put you off, because the same can be said of any other field where skill, talent or creativity is a driving factor.

 

Reading a lot into, "high level graphics and so many other factors", it's obvious this was never going to happen, unless you had (1) a seasoned team of professionals who've worked together for years, (2) a baseline set of tech, and (3) a desire to work at 'aspiring', 'amateur' rates. If you've got all that, then you don't need to ask this question, cause you're already in Never-Never Land.

Gigi

 

It's hard to say if 3 month are enough for a specific project because every developer works with a different velocity. You should always estimate the time you will need.

When you receive an offer you could split the project into small tasks (build the base, features, views, implementing frameworks) and estimate the time needed for each of these tasks. That way you get a clue if the deadline is doable for you or not.

The three-point-estmation gives also a realistic min, norm and max value depending on your estimations. Of course it's allowed to adjust the estimation while working on the project.

Thats how I calculate the effort and also gain a first insight.

 

Look at something like golf star and that's already a 1+ year old
http://www.appannie.com/apps/ios/app/golf-startm/

No I don't think it's possible to develop a complete golf game in three months at least not one that would be competitive in the App Store. And if it's not good enough then why bother flooding the store with subpar games, it seems like the average joe still hasn't gotten the memo that easy money in the App Store is over.

Anyway back on topic I guess it would the size and scope of the project, did they want multiplayer, how many courses, how many animated characters, how many golf clubs, do you have character customization, shop etc. I'm thinking no way. I'm kind of glad to see people like that fail, they probably paid you rock bottom prices to an inexperienced amateur and expected the moon

 

maybe if you're a genius

 

The approach taken to the development process can have a massive impact especially when working for another party.

Did you opt for a waterfall style approach where you had milestones to hit or a more agile approach with regular updates?

 

I'm left wondering too.

How did you pull off getting hired with such self admitted credentials? Is this a paid staff position?
Or a make this game first, then get paid sort of job?
Or even a make this game first, then get paid IF this game makes any money job?

I'm just kinda envious, if there is some kind of a trick to getting hired as an aspiring amateur into a chief developer position, I'd like to know.

 

No there isn't.

 

It would depend on how big the stacks of cash were

 

Do you have your resume or portfolio link? Wow. just wow...

 

A team can definitely create "a golf game" in 3 month.

But it's not outrageous to fail meeting that deadline either... there are many possible obstacles that can perfectly screw your effort. For example...what type of golf game... just any golf game? or some advanced stuff with procedurally generated locations, score with statistics, commentary, and whatevs? Maybe your team didn't communicate well. Maybe you were asked too many revisions mid-process, sabotaging your progress.

What I mean is it's not necessarily your fault.

 

They probably paid pennies on the dollar otherwise they would hired someone with more experience.