Estimates For My Game
I am still debating whether I should train myself how to program and do it myself, and instead use the money to hire a decent digital artist or two to improve the art and sprites.
So many paths to take!
Is there any particular reason you want an actual code written ?
If all you really care for is the end game, and this is not a coding excercise/learning exp., then why don't you create the game in something multiplatform - like Unity ?
Some scripting (in C#) might be required, but I think that majority of work could be done using Unity's GUI - e.g. just clicking.
Oh if I find someone who has experience of this kind of thing, they can use whatever language / program / engine they want. I would pretty much just leave it up to them.
The only reason I haven't really thought of Unity is because it is primarily a 3D engine, so it may be more sophisticated than what I need. I know there are plug-ins that can make it a 2D engine (like fixing the camera and such) but I still wasn't sure if that was the best solution. I would leave it all up to the programmer.
If I did it myself, is there something like Unity but for 2D? The closest I have found so far is Construct 2, but if there is something better I would love to use it.
I'm guessing you already checked GameMaker or RPG Maker ? Because that would probably be the No 1 choice for this type of game. However, I never really played with them, so not sure about their license and platform support.