I was just curious as to how long people took to finish games. Please only give information on games you have finished. Give a short description, a complexity rating (1 to 10, 1 being pong, 10 being some huge 3D MMORPG), the number of people on the team total and the number of programmers, and about how long it took to make from the first day of coding to the final release (or non-beta.) Also include how much time you spent per day/week on the game (I'm mainly interested in the programmers though.) I'm trying to get an estimate on how long most projects take (yes I will take the type of game into account.) [edited by - Aerolithe on October 23, 2003 11:02:47 AM]

Tetris + graph + sound (acceptable level) 1 programmer - os independent architecture - 35 hours

Aerolithe: You forgot a large factor to do with time: how long you spend each day making the game...

For example, someone could finish pong in 1 day, if they coded it for 10 hours. But then another person could take 2 weeks, because they only spent 1 hour a day on it... this is just an example but I hope you understand what I mean.

I knew I was forgetting something. Thanks. Yeah go ahead and add time spent per day on it (mainly for coding). For that I''d just say the average of all developers (if one person did 10 hours a day and another did 6, post 8 hours a day).

I planned my game last September. I have since written and rewritten it about 4 times, using SDL and other libraries with each re-write.

The first time, I created my own image classes, my own animation schemes, everything was my own.

The second time, I''d studied up on what design problems I had, started using SDL_image to load in graphics. That took out a lot of bugs. Also, I learned how to implement dirty rectangles to increase FPS, and linear time interpolation for processor speed independence.

The third time around, I decided to use Kyra with SDL as my graphics manager. I threw out most of my own code except for the non-graphics stuff. Kyra is awesomeness incarnate for 2d stuff.

The fourth time, I still used Kyra to draw to the screen, but greatly simplified the logic of the game from tips I''d picked up from the Enginuity Engine articles here on gamedev.

Of course, the game was never completed, and may never be. But the experience I picked up from deciding to scrap what I had worked on and redesign with new techniques was absolutely invaluable.. I feel I know enough now to create a complete, good game.

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