If there’s one thing you shouldn’t do before starting a game development project, it’s going into it blindly, without knowing how much time and money it’ll require. When designing a game as a pastime, you may not have any limits, but having an estimate is essential if it’s being produced to meet business objectives.
While there is no magic formula or tool for estimating, this article should help you understand timeframes, what drives them, and what you can do to achieve an accurate estimate and start developing mobile games.
How long does it take to develop a game application?
Most mobile game projects take anywhere from a few months to many years from conception to end. The huge variation can be explained because each game has different skill and content requirements.
To put it simply, a small-scale game will always be faster to develop than a large-scale project, and a huge team working on a project will nearly always complete it faster than a skeleton crew.
Obtaining an estimate
We can’t offer you a precise timeframe for your game in this post because of each project’s many subtleties and conditions, but some individuals can. If you have a project manager with game development experience on hand, they should be able to assist with estimation.
Similarly, if you’re working on a game with a partner, one of the first things they’ll provide you is an estimate, which is normally free and given before any cooperation is confirmed.
How long does it take to develop different types of mobile games?
While no substantial research has been conducted to determine the average production time for various game kinds and genres, this does not rule out the possibility of finding this information. We can divide mobile projects into three broad “speed groups” based on our experience in the business and several well-known game examples.
What Factors Influence the Time It Takes to Develop a Game?
As previously stated, the number of individuals working on a project significantly impacts its timelines. However, this is only an issue if the team is underfunded or overstaffed, and most studios strive to establish a happy medium. As a result, let’s devote more attention to the game-specific aspects that can lengthen or shorten development time:
Assets are required in quantity.
Because mobile games feature fewer 2D/3D models and are less detailed, they are faster to develop, but this is still a significant consideration. Designing characters, environments, and other aspects and the associated animation, VFX, and other elements take a long time.
The scope of the game
The more variation and unique mechanics you provide at each game level, the more individual labor it will demand. Developers try to save time and money by recycling or repurposing specific game assets or player behaviors, but adding new features takes more time and effort.
Features for multiplayer
Multiplayer features are notoriously difficult to master. On the one hand, you must consider player matchmaking and gaming balance. In contrast, on the other, you must consider how to provide a consistent experience to users with varying connection speeds. Instead of creating a specialized arena/matchmaking experience, some studios prefer to integrate social features (e.g., leaderboards) or local (same-device) multiplayer.
Payment/customization
Most gaming developments are for-profit and offer entertainment value. Making a profitable mobile game, on the other hand, isn’t easy. You may either charge for the game and limit your user base, or you can invest effort in designing a play-to-earn NFT game to get into the lucrative crypto sector. However, if you want to build a great second one, you should enlist the help of a qualified NFT game production business.
Apparatus utilized
With the aid of a game engine, you will be able to create a game more quickly. Unity and Cocos are well-known in this area, as are competitors such as Unreal Engine and Lua. Several studios have made their tools to speed up prototyping and other development elements.
How can we figure out how long a game will take to develop?
We encourage openness and communication at Game-Ace, and we work together with each customer to generate a complete game design document for each project. It contains all of the expected information on levels, assets, gameplay, and more organizational details like timelines and costs.