[medlington]

Hi All,

I am currently running a graphics company which is on the verge of a very big deal to produce mobile content for a massive chain of companies, the conent we produce at the moment is limited to gif animations and video ringtones however we are proposing to these companies that we will diversify into the games market if all goes well.

What i need to know is roughly how much will it cost and how long it would take for somebody to develop a game for us. I realise that this is quite a vague question so any ball park figures will do.

The games we would be interested in getting developed would be quite basic, somthing along the lines of the hackeysack game in 'california games' if any of you are aware of it.

Also, how do you think a developer would prefer to cost this job, would they prefer to take one big payment or to have a smaller payment and then a profit share system happening after that?

any help you can give will be much appreciated?

many thanks,

mark.

[axs]

Just IMHO:

I have never seen a software development project which was finished on predefined timetables (or maybe this is just my poor experiences). A few years ago Borland told that 70% of projects are always delayed, 20% are delayed too much, and 10% will neve cross the finish line (and I think this is just a very optimistic top of a sad iceberg). For game developments I think the numbers are even more dramatic.

I know that many companies are adding 20-30% of the predefinded project time to the "unexpected developments and testing", which in reality means developing everything once again just from the scratch.

One friend as a joke told me that 80% of time usually is spend on 20% of code. I know this is not a joke :)

This is, however, IMHO, and I've just putted here my 2 cents...