How long did you spend developing your games?

[Glen Pawley]

This thread (http://forums.indiegamer.com/showthread.php?t=7011) made me curious about how long indie devs here have taken to develop and publish the games that they made. Have to admit that the 2 year figure that Sharpfish mentioned in his post lookes pretty long from what I was expecting. So how long did you take to develop your game? I'm also curious to see whether I'm a slow ass developer or not ;).

I'd start the information sharing myself, but since I have yet to finish my game I don't want to be that guy that says he has two months to go but takes the next half year to deliver. :o

[lakibuk]

My first commercial game Bound Around took about 5 man-months to develop, written over the period of 1-2 years. My second one will take a lot longer. And everyone who ever worked on a piece of software (game or app) knows that it always takes longer than you have expected.

[Sharpfish]

Games usually end up taking at least a third longer than you anticipate if you are trying to make them as polished as possible without dropping the features you planned.

I know a good ballpark figure is 8 months as a few devs have mentioned that before. However it all comes down to the game. Funpause were very prolific in a short time (2/3/4 months per game) because they focussed on an existing gametype and made sure they had polished graphics. Games like Mr Robot will take longer (even with 3 people working on them) because everything has to be done from scratch (including game design).

Further still part-timers can maybe spend 4 hours a day on their games dev where full timers (ideally) can spend at least 8 and probably 12 on average if they stay on target.

If you find your game is nearly done after 2 months then that's fine, it could just be a vastly simpler gametype. There is a lot of time invested in research for me, I have built and scrapped more prototypes (and code) than I care to remember but I have learned from all of them and in some cases ended up combining concepts or dumping the bad parts and adding to the good parts. This all takes time.

edit. My first game (released on Amiga in 1993!) took around 6 months but this was not really "polished" and wasn't that innovative. That was part time (evenings and some weekends). If I were to do that same game today (to the same standard) it would take me no-more than one month (seriously). I wouldn't release it in that state though. The time consuming part is lifting that basic game up by layers of polishing and art assets which are very time consuming to get right.

[Olivier]

2 full-time people here:
-MinuteMatch, 12 months (first commercial title, took longer than we first thought)
-Bonbon Quest, 2 months
-Treasures + CrazyCrab + Carnivor, 2 months (free webgames)

[Anthony Flack]

Oh, decades.

[amaranth]

Oh, decades.
Ha ha ha! Perfectionists!

For me, it takes about 1 1/2 years for the first release of a game. It really depends on the game you're making though. A small puzzle game shouldn't take that long, but adventure/action games might take more time.

[electronicStar]

I think the first game always takes a long time (8 months or more) because you have to make big decisions and also you must create your framework from scratch. Sometimes it involves changing engine/language and starting over from 0. You have to make decisions and find the good tools in relation to your enterprise goals.
Once the first game is finished, I'm sure the following games must be much faster to devellop, that's how it should be anyway :)
I've fixed myself a 2 years deadlines for my first game, I'm in the 8th month but if everything goes right it should take no more than one year.

[Roman Budzowski]

The first game we finished took 6 months (Tom's Hen House). Our second (codename Maggies Garden) will take lot less time, I guess it will be about 3 months. My goal is to make casual game release every 3 months :D You have to consider that I'm working on my games almost full time and my coworkers are students and spends most of their free time doing our games (one graphician, 2 additional coders now).

all the best
Roman

[gatti]

My first game "The Adventures of El Ballo" (exclusive to Mac OS 9 and X) stretched to about 2.5 years. (2 years of main development and 5 months of testing, tweaking, and polishing)There were two main developers: Ivan Milles (programmer) and myself (artist and level designer) working at an average of 4 hours on it, 5 days a week. However, we both sometimes had nice solid 10 hour days on the weekends and days off our full-time jobs. We additionally had two contractors: musician/composer and sound effects guy that each spent around 25 solid hours on it.

If we worked "full-time" (9-10 hours a day) hours on it, I'm thinking that it would have taken us around 7 months.

[Mark_Tempe]

My first and only published game ( published as in cardboard box published ) took 2 years with teem of 3 people: 2 programmers one graphic artist. All working part time on the game, non having experience in programming . The thing that kept the project together was that we all REALLY wanted to make games and we all lived on the same floor in the dormitory.

Anyway , if you are inexperienced and want to estimate the time of the development of the game I find this
Algorithm useful:

Make a really sober prediction of the time you will be making the game , times that by 2 and add to the original prediction. ( worked for me in the past )

Example:

Prediction : 6 months

6months + (6 months x2)= 18 months

Another little game I made just for my own amusement took 3 weeks , having already a lot of technology from 1000 crystals of Altaxia.

1000 C of A is on the other hand taking forever, thankfully now in a closed beta stage there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (but, should I go toward the light?)

Seriously , CofA is taking 3 years and a bit while working alone and learning C++ , Direct X, Strata 3d , Poser , Adobe photo shop. Mostly part time

__________________________________________________ ______
Hunique Games (http://www.huniquegames.com/)
Huge and Unique Science Fiction and Fantasy Games

[Sparky]

Oh, decades.
Hehe...yup, that's about our speed. :)

[princec]

6-10 man months between me and Chaz, usually spread over about 12 months.

Cas :)

[Expresionista]

I have spent four man-months of not too hard work on my first release.

[Desktop Gaming]

Shortest - Arcade Bowling (32 days)
Longest - Tennis Ace, Par Fore or Maxx Powerboats RC (about 6 months each)

http://www.desktopgaming.co.uk/games.htm for screenshots of these and others.

[vjvj]

Meridian 59: Evolution took roughly 18 months to complete while working on it part time.

Damn full time job!!! :)

[PoV]

So far, 6 Months on Tech (Sept->March), 1 on prototyping, and we're expecting 6 more to finish this one.

Team of two working full time/lazy. ;). 2nd team member was added 4 month in.

[Anthony Flack]

I get through a lot more months than I do man-months, that's the main problem.

Make a really sober prediction of the time you will be making the game , times that by 2 and add to the original prediction. ( worked for me in the past )

Example:

Prediction : 6 months

6months + (6 months x2)= 18 months

A quick suggestion to increase your productivity - just times it by 3 instead.

[Glen Pawley]

A good compiler will do that for you ;)

[d000hg]

My RTS game was started for GameDev's 4E4 contest. I think that was ~1 year ago? Anyway it's still in 'crappy-prototype' version but mainly 'cos I've done very little work on it. It got to it's current state by me working late into the night and getting up very early for a couple of months.

[Fry Crayola]

Oh boy. I technically started work on my current game around March 2002, if not earlier. Current estimates would say it might be done by September 2007.

In truth, I pretty much took a year off working on it (2002/03), and last May I had to start from scratch when BlitzMax came out, and I haven't regretted it (not that I had a lot done). I'm too easily distracted though, on average working about an hour a day if not less. If I was more disciplined I'd be a lot further on than I was.

It's a ridiculously large project though which helps explain the long period of work.

If I ever get it finished, I'll be looking to cut any future projects to a much smaller timeframe.

[Sirrus]

2 full-time people here:
-MinuteMatch, 12 months (first commercial title, took longer than we first thought)
-Bonbon Quest, 2 months
-Treasures + CrazyCrab + Carnivor, 2 months (free webgames)

Tokyo War - 1-2 months
Dope Farmer - 2 months
Office Life - 8 months
Speedy Solitaire - 5 months

Next one...hopefully <3 months.


OliverPearl supports 2 people full-time? :)

[Tr00jg]

Well Ive only developed games for 1 month competitions, so yeah. Most of my games is incomplete/unpolished but playable.

I plan to start on a new game. I am aiming for about 3 months dev time.

[milo]

Approximately eight years, working ten to thirty hours a week (in other words, roughly half-time).

Geez, I feel old.


--milo
http://www.starshatter.com

[Sysiphus]

In mobile phone java games, I often take just one day(doing all graphics). Sometimes a long day...


But if not java, usually spent months.

a deeper and better java game...maybe one or 2 weeks.

In pc game jobs, 1, 2 years, or endless.

At home, done few, mostly collaborations, but some full....in the time I can do, as I can go doing...Best job to have for this is...part time, not one I have.

[Pete]

At this point I've spent 4 1/2 years creating my first sellable indie game.. this is all after hours work while working full time.

Be warned it will take you a very long time if you intend to do everything (design, engine, graphics, sound) yourself, there is more to learn that you can ever imagine.

I'm very close to finishing it, I've given myself till the middle of this year to have the finished version shipped.

I've even given up beer until I've finished, to give me that extra bit of motivation :)

[RedKnight]

At this point I've spent 4 1/2 years creating my first sellable indie game.. this is all after hours work while working full time.


I've even given up beer until I've finished, to give me that extra bit of motivation :)


Yeah, I've also spendt the same amount or less of time developing my game.
I've had some good time learning new stuff on how to work.
I've also had some bad days, failed projects, frustration and depression on "finishing" a 100% playable indie game
but with every failure I've learn something new on how to work around.



Good thing you've givin up beer.
for me it is sexs... :-(

[Bouncer]

It's comforting to notice that also some others are spending a lot of time on their games... I've been sometimes starting to feel I'll never finish my game.

I've been working on it for a maybe 4-5 years now, but it was never meant to be this game that it's shaping up to be. It started out as a physics experiment and grew into a old-school deathmatching game. At the same time it's my first contact with 3D and all that. Didn't know anything about modelling or 3D-gfx design when I started it. So I quess I made the classic error of climbing the tree ass backwards ;) Starting from a techdemo and nding up with something resembling a game after a lot of feature creep.

Another thing I was thinking another day, was that while my life keeps changing one thing that stays constant is my game and my love of developing it when I have time. I've switched houses, girlfriends, jobs and I've lost people and whitnessed new ones born... but I'm still working on the same game... feels weird. I'll bet a lot of you longtime developers feel the same. It almost feels I've lived many mini-lives in these years, the only constant being my game.

And now that I have a multiplayer game ready I have begun to build a full single-player game with storyline on top of that... it might be total shit when it's ready, but I'll finish it (although I'll first have to define what finished means.) even if it takes another 4 years... ;)

[dislekcia]

When I was but a wee corporate dev (ie: pre-retrenchment), a wise old engineer came in to "save" a flagging project. The first thing he did was ask us how long it would take us to finish, then he multiplied our estimate by pi.

It worked too. Although, you have to wonder if that's work expanding to fill all available time or not.

[MrPhil]

I wasn't going to comment because I’m not even close to releasing yet, but it appears I'm not the only one. So here’s my short story.

I jumped into the idea of making an indie game in November or December of 2001. (I look back now and realize it was a response to my experiences during 9/11.) I’ve been struggling massively ever since to produce something. I won’t claim I’ve been "working on" my game since then because a lot of that time has been just learning as much as I can about everything involved with games. I’ve had a lot of false starts and switched technologies so many times it makes my head spin. I’ve also spent a lot of energy fighting my inner demons (specially my inner procrastinator.) But like Bouncer I always persist and don’t think I’ll ever stop. On a happy note I will say I feel closer to the day of release than I ever have.

[Escapee]

I spent about 3 ~ 4 months full/part time developing Prodigious escapee (http://www.funpcgame.com/productO0.html)while i was unemployed with my very limited artistic skill and some help from Matt ... The game doesnt look good , The game doesnt sound as good as the hit titles , the gameplay can be very difficult and frustrating if u arent into mind bending type of games and there is no mouse control . With all these drawbacks, one could easily imagine how many sales would I get . On the positive side , i enjoyed every single moment i spent on the game and i think it really helps me to understand the market better .

[dmikesell]

It's comforting to notice that also some others are spending a lot of time on their games... I've been sometimes starting to feel I'll never finish my game.

I've been working on it for a maybe 4-5 years now, but it was never meant to be this game that it's shaping up to be. It started out as a physics experiment and grew into a old-school deathmatching game.

Scope creep and/or vague requirements at the outset are the reason for nearly all missed deadlines. If you don't know what you're building, or if that changes every month, how can you ever get done?

[Bouncer]

I'll expect the game to tell me when it's finished, like an artist knows when the painting is done ;)

nah... I'll have a pretty clear direction now. I just wish I would have made a clearer plan in the beginnning... would have saved me a lot of time.... maybe.

[Hotwire]

so far 1 month in the concept phase, just moving into prototyping and working out tools and processes. production outlook is 6 man-months, so, i'll be conservative and predict 12 mm ;)

see you next year!

[Pete]

Another thing I was thinking another day, was that while my life keeps changing one thing that stays constant is my game and my love of developing it when I have time. I've switched houses, girlfriends, jobs and I've lost people and whitnessed new ones born... but I'm still working on the same game... feels weird. I'll bet a lot of you longtime developers feel the same. It almost feels I've lived many mini-lives in these years, the only constant being my game.

I hear ya, believe it or not my programming efforts on my game (and all the years of half games before hand) got me a promotion into a senior analyst programmer role from networking and support (it was possibly some of the network tools I wrote for work as well).

Part of the problem I'm facing now is that my coding practices have changed so much (been coding full time at work for 2 1/2 years now) that I'm frustraited with the shoddy old code and structure I wrote at the beginning, I'm very keen to get this finished and out the door so I can start on something fresh with a half decent design.

I've also traveled to South Africa and South America, got engaged and soon to be married, the 4 year old I initially wrote the game for is now 8 and well past playing the easy difficulty level I designed for him (though his younger brother is well suited to it) he even asked me the other day "didn't you start this when I was 5?", mind you the game itself has progressed a long way in that time, I occationaly play an old version to remind me how far it has come :)

[Fabio]

Ah the kids.. the Voice of the Truth. :)

[mahlzeit]

I'm frustraited with the shoddy old code and structure I wrote at the beginning, I'm very keen to get this finished and out the door so I can start on something fresh with a half decent design.
That, unfortunately, will be true for any non-trivial coding project you start, no matter how experienced you are and how awesome your coding practices are. ;)

[Spaceman Spiff]

Not really relevant, but what the heck.

My first commercial game took about 16 months in producton, and probably a year in pre-production (2-4 people) before that (I wasn't there for that). There were around 15 people total when it shipped. Say 20-23 man years total. The second sequel to it took in the ballpark of 300 man-years.

My current day job includes an engine written from scratch . I'm estimating 15 months from start to store shelves, 8 people at start, 12 at finish.

My indie project currently has about a full man year into it, mostly done while between FTE gigs, and should be done some time well after Duke Nukem forever ships... *sigh*

[PrefixEx]

Real Time:
On the PDA side, about 6 months (my record is 2 months)
On the PC side, about 18 months

This time would include design, coding and testing; each taking up about 1/3 of the time.

As others have mentioned, with a FT job and other obligations. This goes to:
On the PDA side, about 10 months.
On the PC side, about 32 months

These numbers include developing proof of concepts, learning about new technology that comes out while you are developing your game using the old technology and odd side projects that crop up as the development drags on.