Hi friends , this is the link for the gameplay section of Fire Emblem Awakening: http://fireemblem.nintendo.com/gameplay/index.html

The game consists of:

• moving 2D sprites on a 2D map (level)
• limited 3D battle animations
• the story of the game is primarily delivered via cutscenes with 2D portraits and textboxes

Is a programmer who is familiar and has successfully delivered game projects using Unity able to create a TRPG with Unity? How technically difficult will this game be develop for a fresh dev studio with around 6-7 full time staff?

I also wonder what is a good estimated budget for a developing a TRPG similar to Fire Emblem.

Thank you for replying! I know I've asked a very open question. The way you laid out the costs, mostly salary * time taken to develop is also how I've estimated the costs too. Although the planning/conceptual stages will most likely just involve 1-2 programmers and a writer (along with a game designer who can be the writer or the programmer at the same time) getting a working concept going - then moving on from there.

Unity - ease of porting? PSVita native support? Relatively low license costs? This does seem like the perfect game dev tool for a small studio is it not?

An estimate I've heard is that most business face ~40% of their cost as salary.

Using that as a start, if it costs $700,000 for salary over the life of the game, and the game is the only thing you do, the total cost comes to $1,750,000.

As a fan of the series, as long as you have good artists, you should consider leaving the whole game in 2D like the older Fire Emblems. It looks fine that way, and it seems you can be a little more expressive with the sprites in 2D than the models in 3D. Plus it feels like the animations are a little sluggish in 3D. That, of course, is just my opinion.

Keep in mind, unless everyone you hire has a computer and all the required licenses and you don't have to deal with healthcare or whatever, usually the estimate is to double the salary of the person.

As a fan of the series, as long as you have good artists, you should consider leaving the whole game in 2D like the older Fire Emblems. It looks fine that way, and it seems you can be a little more expressive with the sprites in 2D than the models in 3D. Plus it feels like the animations are a little sluggish in 3D. That, of course, is just my opinion.

Summon Night 5 and Disgaea are also TRPGS, but they seems to be have 3D models and the actual battle itself occurs on the battlefield. FE seems to be 2D all the way (sprites, maps, and battles) until Awakening - where the battles became 3D.

I wonder which approach is more efficient, or more cost effective? In the end, the objective is to deliver a decent battle experience for the players with a solid art direction. I've heard that making good 2D sprites and battles is not necessarily less expensive or time consuming than 3D modelling...

Lol guys ... so rolling up the advice so far ...

To create this game / something like it you collectively estimate roughly £3,000,000 as starting point!!!

No way ...

Using code samples, the unity store and a little wizardry I think you could cut corners her and there and given that the project needs to be low budget contract the developers on a profit based contract.

Also ...

You could easily cut those costs down if you have some knowledge yourself by building a prototype starting point in unity in your own spare time that can form an idea of the framework needed and a base starting point.

Why get in a team at all until you have something worth working on right?

Indie game studios can throw out games in much less time if well organised and a solid project manager is in place.

That manager would have already figured out most of the details needed to deliver the project and likely have the formentioned concept app working.

Money making ideas ...

• Early access based on donations (when you get that far).
• Mini games that are bits of your overall project (nice way to get a little income as you go).
• Kickstarter (when the project is at least half way there).