People required for a game like Doom3/HL2

#1

Hiyas,

I don’t know much about game design. My only experience with programming is with C, and quite a bit of PHP/Perl. So forgive me if this is a stupid question.

I am wondering, what exactly does it take, as far as man power, to make a game, from start to finish, like the ones we see out there today. Examples, Half Life 2, Doom 3, Halo 1/2, etc.

Is it even feasable with a group of 10? How long would it take?
I’d probably want to write our own engine, as there’s no way we could afford the prices of licensing say the D3 or UT2K4 engine, etc.

I guess what I really want to know is, what are the different parts of the whole game production, and what kind of man power do we need for each part?

I’d appreciate any reply,

Thanks :thumbsup:

#2

If you’re looking to develope video games, I would suggest you do some indeopendant work first. Try developing something small in the same environment you would be using for the larger product(preferable language, API, etc), and use this time find any problems, and generally learn the process that goes into developing games. Once you have a couple smaller projects done, look into a larger one.

I wouldn’t recommend large scale online development. A: there’s not real workflow or unity of a team. B: Difficulties with communication and coordination are killer. and C: You will most likely throw a team together without any knowledge of their skills(especially if ya don’t look into my previous advice :)). If you have something to show, you will probably attract more skilled indeviduals.

If you were planning on paying people to work for you, I have 6 years of game development experience, and am already knowledgable in rendering/game engine design.

#3

I’ve no experience with game design other than writing basic 3d engines. What I can say is that it is a complicated and often tiresome business.

As well as the cool stuff of making pretty effects, you also have to do the boring stuff like managing resources etc…

There are several engines out there that are either low cost (torque) or free (ogre,neo). I’d advise you to maybe concentrate on writing a game with one of those first.

#4

Projects like Halo 1/2, Half Life 2, and Doom 3 have team sizes ranging from 20-40 people developing the game and or engine for a 2+ year time period. Though you may want to jump into development of a game because they are really cool and fun, I’d advise starting off with something much simpler and smaller.

If you want to learn to make your own games from scratch, engine and all, try something simple like an Asterioids recreation or simple Quake like game. If you just want to build a game and not bother with the back end stuff then you can find quite a lot of free engines out there that might suite your needs.

#5

Doom 3 was upwards to 4 years, HL2 6 years.

#6

Some great articles on Gamasutra about teams etc.
One recent example…
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20041013/fristrom_01.shtml

#7

I was assume controlled substances are invloved. :twisted: (j/k) :wink:

#8

Yeah, coffee.

#9

the only reason HL2 took so long was because they

1.) Decided to redo the game completely part of the way through.

2.) Someone stole the source code and put it online.

#10

Many thanks for the replies, you guys helped me a lot.

When you say 20 - 40 people, what does that include? Is that 20 - 40 programmers? Or does that include all the other positions?

The reason I’m asking is I already have a team, but most of us are mainly artists, editor/compositers. Only a couple of us can program anything, so I guess I should be asking how many programmers do studios doing that kind of stuff have?

#11

20-40 people from Art to Programming. I’m not quite sure exactly how many programmers studios like Valve and ID have. Don’t take this to heart, but I believe Valve has 15 or so people that work on programming while ID has around 6 or so people. Depending on your timeframe with the project & experience levels of everyone else will dictate the number of programmers needed.

Good Luck.

#12

Here’s a thought, look at the credits in the games mentioned or printed manuals if it came with one (still don’t know why HL2 didn’t come with one, not that I need it, it’s the novelty of having it I guess).

#13

Just found this today: Interview With Bill Van Buren of Valve

They had asked some questions about the make-up of the design team. It’s more CG focused but gives you an idea.

#14

iD software might only have a few programmers, but with John Carmack in the lead, they are among the best in the industry I would assume.

My experience is that to write a 3D engine takes a long time but that in the long run you need more artists than programmers.

#15

50/50 programmers to artists is a good range. It can vary alot from game to game. Basically, the more you want the game to do, the more programmers you’ll need. The better you want the game to look, the more artists you’ll need.

Right now it sounds like you have a team for creating a CG short. You’re going to need some experienced 3D programmers (C/C++ with OpenGL/DirectX or console) before you’re ready to take on a game.

#16

Other free and open game engines are Crystal Space and Blenders built in engine.

LetterRip

#17

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.