Character Creator Cost

I'm not sure where to post this, so I will do it here. It's just a small and simple question: how much do you think it would cost to hire a programmer to do a character creator program? Like, we would make all the graphics and parts that characters can have (the visual stuff) ourselves and would just need someone who can pierce them together to make a character creator and add a color palette.

 

Anywhere from 1 to 24 months.

More specifics narrow it down.

 

I mean the money costs.

 

Anywhere from (1*DeveloperMonthlySalary) to (24*DeveloperMonthlySalary).

More specifics narrow it down, and developer salaries vary wildly.

 

Well, there would be the gender choice first, male or female. Then you'd have the race of which we got 8 custom ones. Choosing the race will automatically change some sets (every race has different ears and racial parts and some have normal skin colours while others have special ones or are limited there, like Umbras having only completely black, grey or white skin) and two of the races have variants. It would not be full body and just start around the bust or shoulders so you don't have to worry about height and body proportions as well as pants. Every gender would have their own sets although there would be same overlaps.
The first option would be the skin colour which is heavily dependent on the race - there are 4 that use normal ones while the other 4 have their own colours. The option afterwards would be the head proportions, ears come after that - which you can choose depend on the race you chose. After that comes the nose where all races have the same option although one of the races has additional options there.
The mouth is the same for all races again. Then you choose the eye form which is the same for all races while the possible eye colours depend on them again.
The hairstyles and eyebrows are the same for all races again while colour is limited for some of them (most can choose all colours, though) and some have different "textures" (like metallic hair for metal Structoids). There are also beards for males.
Next would be stuff like accessories which contains categories like glasses, scars, scarfs, hats, earrings/headphones, necklaces/ties and miscellaneous. After that comes the top clothing where you only see the bust or shoulder part so that's quicker to make.
The last thing would be racial categories where some are only possible for certain ones.
Like face markings for Lazulians and Gourmears (they have different ones), Monsterkin parts and so on.
If it starts around the bust there would also be bust size for females.
There could also be a randomizer.
Like I said, we would provide the assets ourselves and would just need someone who can pierce all of this together to a character creator.

 

I estimate zero dollars.

UMA does all that already, plus more.

 

Seems like this is for 3D. We would use drawn characters. Sorry I forgot to mention that.
Like something similar to this http://image.charactercreator.net/screenshot-anime-character-creator-game.jpg
We want to make the creator so that others can use it. Or in other words: we want to make a creator itself, not use one to make characters.

 

I would say 2 to 6 weeks would be a safe bet for a generic character builder made from scratch that is not over the top.

So, in turn the cost would be hourlyWage * 8* 5 * numberOfWeeks.

Also... check out UMA if you haven't already:
https://github.com/huika/UMA

I found UMA to be a bit awkward, but it works.

 

A good programmer could probably adapt UMA to 2D in 2 - 3 months. Join UMA and ask the crew if they are interested. I bet one of them would be.

I definitively wouldn't have it done from scratch but either get a UMA contributor to do so or hire a programmer to adapt the UMA framework and contribute the work you hired them to do to the UMA framework with the same MIT license so that it will be maintained and likely improved with free contributions for UMA contributors. I've seen them make big strides in the UMA framework in the past year. Adding 2D character support to UMA is a natural fit and needed.

Ask them in the UMA thread in this forum.

 

I would say lock around 20 000€ based on Neg estimations.

 

60 dollars per hour? I'm certain it is possible to get it for less, especially if you outsource.

 

No, I have added some overhead for probable unpredictable problem. I would say if it goes over that budget that you are in trouble and it is not worth it.

 

Sorry, whenever I hear people talking about hiring I always feel the need to mention:

Hours of work are completely meaningless.

They just are.

Different people work at different speeds and produce different levels of quality.

Meanwhile, there is absolutely no way what-so-ever that you can track how many hours someone is putting into the work.

If you offer someone X dollars per hour and then just go by what they tell you it's almost a guarantee that you will be cheated on the hours.

The only way to really do work for hire is to present exactly what you need and negotiate a flat price. Some money up front, some money during milestones, and some money on the tail end. And it's always a good idea to offer a percentage of sales as a bonus so that people will be invested in the game's success.

And don't just grab the cheapest offer. Look at their previous work and their portfolio.

When you find someone you like, make an agreement on a timeline, the amount of money, and that what you pay for is yours.

Also, keep in mind that a lot of programmers are just copying and pasting a patchwork of assets they use regularly. It's not like every time they're hired to do something they're doing it from the ground up.

And 20K seems way steep to me. More like 2K to 5K. Assuming the art assets will be separate from the costs.

Or you could learn to do it on your own.

You would just need a base character with body parts you swap out.

If it has skeleton animations that's super simple.

If you're looking to have it pixel perfect, that means you'd need to stitch it together and bake a mesh to use and plop it onto the character.

 

There are software tools done specifically for purpose of time tracking. Down to the point where you'll be able to check work history and webcam snapshots just to make sure the freelancer was working. Although for this kind of level of distrust and discomfort it is reasonable to charge extra.

Depending on your freelancer's talent, you may end up overpaying by 500% or more. Because in case of flat fee project, it is easiest to use the most pessimistic estimate and charge hourly for that one.

Flat Fee may work well for artistic work, though. Programming is a different beast.

 

Er, all of this sounds a bit over the top. I just want a simple character creator and nothing with skeletons and the like (it's 2D anyway). I think I will just get this https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/49644 and try to do it myself.

 

My earlier estimate was for 3d character customization system.

2d version will be much faster to make, especially if you already have all the paperdoll parts prepare and don't need anything fancy.

 

Yes, we would make the parts ourselves. All someone else would have to do is make the technical part. Not much, really.

 

Anyway, locking a certain sum is not necessarily offering that sum, it's about planning, anticipating, and looking at viability. It's about the windows in which you should operate and takes decisions from, not the actual spending and money you will have. By tracking these estimations, you know how healthy your project is, and what opportunity you truly have.

So hours of works are not meaningless, they are tools to estimate healthy resources attributions. Good planning practices is all about minimizing unpredictability to keep projects healthy, and eventually checked project viability. It's good practice to estimate monetary and time costs even when you work for free with infinite time.