I have an idea for a game. I already written down the concept of the game. It's not going to be a browser game, it will be a downloadable game for both desktop then for the mobile app. I plan on creating the forum for the game while the game is still in development. The type of game I want to make is a multiplayer online turn based strategy game. Here are a list of questions I have to ask about the development of the game:

1. Who do i need to hire on my team for the following:

Designing the official website for the game.

Designing two official forums for the game, one for the U.S. and the other for the rest of the world.

Designing the game's appearance such as, menus, loading screen, health bar, avatar placement, etc.

Creating the game mechanics

Creating the program the game runs on.

Providing servers for the game to run on since it will be online and accessible to people across the globe.

2.) What would a reasonable budget be on game thats turn based, but not fancy like hearthstone?

Preface: I have an idea for a game. I already written down the concept of the game. It's not going to be a browser game, it will be a downloadable game for both desktop then for the mobile app. I plan on creating the forum for the game while the game is still in development. The type of game I want to make is a multiplayer online turn based strategy game. Here are a list of questions I have to ask about the development of the game:

1. Who do i need to hire on my team for the following:

a. Designing the official website for the game.

b. Designing two official forums for the game, one for the U.S. and the other for the rest of the world.

c. Designing the game's appearance such as, menus, loading screen, health bar, avatar placement, etc.

d. Creating the game mechanics

e. Creating the program the game runs on.

f. Providing servers for the game to run on since it will be online and accessible to people across the globe.

2.) What would a reasonable budget be on game thats turn based, but not fancy like hearthstone?

What you wrote in your preface does not match items 1 and 2. If you have to ask question 1, you probably aren't in a position for question 2.

Even so, some answers:

1. You need to hire a business developer or experienced business manager first, or spend a decade or so getting real work experience so you know these.

1a. Job title is a probably an artist or designer, or in a pinch someone with moderate graphics editing and web-programming talents.

1b. Job title is probably web developer or any computer programmer. There are hundreds of existing forum programs. Having a US and Non-US version is easily supported with many forum systems. Nearly any competent web developer can set you up with one of these, if you can't manage to do it yourself.

1c. Job title is UI designer, sometimes called UX or User Experience designer. Also an art director, or UI artist if you must.

1d. Job title is probably game designer and family (junior designer, character designer, level designer etc), producer, probably with a programming discipline helping to ensure the mechanics are workable.

1e. Job title is programmer, lead programmer, technical director, and similar.

1f. Job titles include network programmers, network engineers for the hardware, IT, and similar.

2. "What would a reasonable budget be" depends on far more than you asked here. Development costs for people living in New York City or in San Francisco will be far different from people living outside Moscow Russia, or Durango Mexico, or suburban India.

I'll guess anything from around $200 if you do it yourself and pay as little as possible with very cheap hosting and a tool like GCCG, to something around $40M if you are doing things with professional developers doing professional work at professional wages and professional quality living in an expensive city.

If you were discussing contract rates with our studio, based only your descriptions and questions you'd asked, I'd guess it is a project on the order of $25M. Professional quality, but still be prepared to invest another $30M marketing it if you want it to succeed, plus another $20M or so post-development. Hopefully you'd also have done some market research before you've sunk your $80M into the full project, although I wouldn't particularly care about that.

Those numbers are too high for the sort of game I want to develop. I'm looking for a price range between 50k-70k. Since I live in NYC and don't plan on outsourcing the development of the game overseas. I am very confident about this project since I already have the concept of it down. Here is an example of the kind of game i am making:

2:04 - Main menu Selecting characters

2:50 - Searching for an opponent

3:14 - Battle gameplay

Title: Naruto-Arena

Description: Naruto-themed based Multiplayer Online browser flash game

My game will be similar to that but more dynamic and it will be downloadable for both pc and mobile. Is it possible to manage a team that can complete a game like that within a year in a half or less, with a budget less than 100k. From the look of the gameplay is it possible for two-three people to design a game of that quality from the comfort of their home.

"A year and half or less" = 12-18 months, or 2000 to 3000 work hours. $50K-$60K. Even at 60K/2000 hours that's $30/hr best case or as low as $16/hr worst case. Very low for a programmer in the US generally, terrible wages for a programmer in NYC.


Again, there are an enormous number of details missing. When you write about an accessible online game for global use, it must be easy to play, translated into many languages, with music and sound effects and beautiful art, well-tuned gameplay, etc. That is not a $100K project.

Even if a team had an existing engine, existing client/server systems, and a rock-solid design, and incredibly easy game mechanics I still wouldn't put it as less than 2 work-years for very experienced developers. Any of those components missing and it looks more like 5 work-years to me for a polished game as a bare minimum.

If you're using Hearthstone as your comparison work you're looking at ten times that effort for a baseline, a large team with 50 work years combined. You don't have that many millions.

Of course if want something cobbled together that sometimes work okay as long as you've rebooted the server recently, and you don't care about anyone hacking the results of any game, and you don't have great graphics or sound or fine-tuned gameplay mechanics, then sure you could probably find some eager students willing to take your $100K to try to build the system.

"A year and half or less" = 12-18 months, or 2000 to 3000 work hours. $50K-$60K. Even at 60K/2000 hours that's $30/hr best case or as low as $16/hr worst case. Very low for a programmer in the US generally, terrible wages for a programmer in NYC.


Again, there are an enormous number of details missing. When you write about an accessible online game for global use, it must be easy to play, translated into many languages, with music and sound effects and beautiful art, well-tuned gameplay, etc. That is not a $100K project.

Even if a team had an existing engine, existing client/server systems, and a rock-solid design, and incredibly easy game mechanics I still wouldn't put it as less than 2 work-years for very experienced developers. Any of those components missing and it looks more like 5 work-years to me for a polished game as a bare minimum.

If you're using Hearthstone as your comparison work you're looking at ten times that effort for a baseline, a large team with 50 work years combined. You don't have that many millions.

Of course if want something cobbled together that sometimes work okay as long as you've rebooted the server recently, and you don't care about anyone hacking the results of any game, and you don't have great graphics or sound or fine-tuned gameplay mechanics, then sure you could probably find some eager students willing to take your $100K to try to build the system.

I don't want to build a game like hearthstone, thats too much investing. It's going to be a decent multiplayer card game. With excellent graphic design and good enough engineering to make the game run smooth like the video in my previous post. The game will have UGC, which I can oversee myself along with volunteers I promote on the forum for the game. On top of that I'm just going to keep the game in English and downloadable in the U.S. only. I know I sound cheap but I don't want anyone to think I am going over the top with this idea. I would like to hire a decent amount of people with a budget of 100k or less and have the game release sometime by the year 2019.

I would like to hire a decent amount of people with a budget of 100k or less

Then you need to be recruiting from 3rd world countries. $100k doesn't even pay 2 professional game developers to work for a year. (And if you can only afford 2, they do need to be pros.)

You can try recruiting hobbyists to work for free or for pennies but probably 9 out of 10 of them will drop out at a time inconvenient to you.

If you are time-rich but (relatively) cash-poor, the best thing for you to do is start learning how to make the game yourself.

It's going to be a decent (online) multiplayer card game. With excellent graphic design and good enough engineering to make the game run smooth like the video in my previous post. ... PC and mobile

I think it is the quality levels and the cost to reach them that are the difficulty.

If you want to cobble together a system that is a mediocre online card game, with hobby-quality graphic design and engineering where it mostly works okay on for both a PC and a modern smart phone, that could be done in the time frame and budget you want. That could realistically be put together under $100K and an enormous time investment on your part.

If you want rock-solid servers, excellent graphics, and solid engineering so the game runs smooth on not just a $2000 desktop but also a cheap 5-year-old smartphone, you will need to pay much more. You will need highly skilled and talented graphics designers and artists, experienced sound engineers, with expert-level programmers with skills in client/server development, mobile devices, and general game or engine development. You will also need a bunch of testers and equipment so it can be verified on a wide range of hardware and devices, as well as a wide range of network conditions.

There are good reasons that 'shovelware' titles cost several million dollars, and mainstream games often cost in the ten to fifty million dollar range. Getting all the experienced experts working together is not cheap.