Each indie game dev role's Tools Cost
polycounter lvl 12
Like, programmer, designer, artist, etc etc
What are the tools they have to have to work on an indie game project.
Say, game engine (UE4, Unity3D) ...... minimal cost ??
What else do they need. Something to write C++ in ? minimal cost ??
Zbrush $700
Photoshop $15 a month
Maya $150 a month
Substance/Quixel ??
Do UI artists use Photoshop as well ? Anything else ? Flash or something for 2d animation ?
VF artist uses Maya ?
Anyone with answers/experience can shed some light on this ??
What are the tools they have to have to work on an indie game project.
Say, game engine (UE4, Unity3D) ...... minimal cost ??
What else do they need. Something to write C++ in ? minimal cost ??
Zbrush $700
Photoshop $15 a month
Maya $150 a month
Substance/Quixel ??
Do UI artists use Photoshop as well ? Anything else ? Flash or something for 2d animation ?
VF artist uses Maya ?
Anyone with answers/experience can shed some light on this ??
Replies
UE4 is free for use now, and then they have a royalty type agreement for publishing IIRC.
You could also pay $10/mo for mudbox or $300(?) for 3D Coat instead of $800 for ZBrush if it meets your needs.
Artists could technically do art for free as well. Blender, Krita, Gimp, etc. are all free. It comes down to the fact that the industry standard software for artists is expensive and most people would rather use the industry standard software.
Overall, I would say artists do end up paying more money though.
A studio should be supplying its employees with tools. It's often cheaper to get bulk licenses and it's MUCH easier to make sure everything used is legal. A while back there was a post on CGTalk about companies being sued because it was discovered that a contractor had used pirated software, that can easily kill a studio.
- sound libraries for DAW compositions : depending on your need and budget this could take up between 100 +- 2000+ dollars. Think of sound libraries as ingame "assets" . The more choice you have and the higher the quality will benefit your game.
- DAW software (Qubase, protools, logic etc.): same situation as the sound libraries yet for DAW (digital audio workstation) software there are more then enough free or cheap alternatives to dampen the cost if needed (Fruityloops/Reaper etc.) +- 100 / 600 dollars.
- Sound design / Recording gear can be pricey but well worth it. I find that this is one aspect of videogames that is still heavily underappreciated. A good investment would be a field recorder that sets you back 100 +- 300 dollars.
- Third party software like FMOD are cheap or free to use.
If your budget allows it then you can hire an experienced freelance composer who usually has the needed tools already (but this will reflect in his pay!).
Blender is getting better as a free option for a 3d modeling/animation suite for indie development.
While Zbrush is fantastic and honestly isn't that bad price wise considering the free updates and not being a subscription type license you can possibly get by using Sculptris or Blender's sculpting tools for indie development. (Or use sub-surf modeling)
There are enough free indie versions of game engines to really be good to go with whatever you need for a project.
Audio is definately a part you will probably end up spending money on while there are programs like Musagi and Audacity to help along the way for free.
That's about it really, most of the other stuff is opensource.
Podium Free (sadly only single core, Pro version at 50$)
Studio One Prime (I see that the new version is not yet available, no VST/i)
LMMS (if you want to hurt your eyes)
and surprise:
Ardour (Windows version is on nightly builds, full version costs 1$, and it's bugged like hell)
For editing, alongside with Audacity I use Wavosaur, I'm still looking for a good (free) multi track editor.
At some point you have to buy at least Native Instruments Komplete, which doesn't even cost that much, considering what it offers.
u-he plugins are also cool.
Almost forgot about this:
http://www.tracktion.com/downloads/tracktion4
If you are an indy (game) artist there isnt really a lot you have to spend your money on.
Also, don't forget to include costs for operating system (Windows, OS X, etc.) for each seat.
Obviously, your indie needs totally depend how "indie" you want to go. A tight knit team can compromise more. The bigger the team, the more lack of standardization will bit you in the ass when it comes to sharing tools, images, meshes, etc. Also a small team may be ok with e.g. Blender or other less common software. But if you "hire" or invite new devs they may not be comfortable working in a not well established package.
There's never been a forced cost for tools for programming, MS just happens to have their own handy compiler and IDE, in which visual studio express is entirely free these days.
While it's cool and a great tool I accustomed for, right now I would rather buy and use 3d coat. Prefer it over Substances too, easier and more convenient imo.
Also I know 3d max pretty well but prefer Blender to model anything, too bad it still can't export things well enough, so you would probably need something Autodesk labeled
Photoshop rental is still a must imo, although I heard very positive opinions about Affinity (Mac only)
Granted it could depend on which version of Blender you use, but normally if there is an exporter problem it's fixed pretty quick.
obj works fine but not enough to export precise vertex info to work well with normal maps
For example Raknet used to cost a lot to use. Some popular libraries also have a cost.
Freelance programmers are almost never responsible for buying libraries. They're hired to write code, not buy it. You don't hire 3D artists and expect them to buy assets from elsewhere; in fact you'd probably be pretty pissed off if they did.
Programmers might recommend you buy a library to save time and money, however. Reinventing the wheel is a waste of time for the freelancer, and costly for the client.
This is somewhat true, but it can be a real ballache these days to get things to compile outside of Visual Studio. Even Intek's compiler has issues with things like Unreal 4...
Visual Studio Express has always been free, but it's usage is restricted. Visual Studio Community is free for non-commercial use, and teams with a small annual turnover and headcount. Otherwise, Visual Studio isn't actually free still.
Express should be fine for commercial use last time I checked and it seems to play nice with unreal engine 4. If it's just for any other c++ related game development there's plenty of compilers and IDE's out there.
I think there's plenty of benefits in getting away from the idea of high-end graphical indie-game development, such as cutting down time required and avoiding the high cost of many tools.
As in, there's no cost to picking up a compiler, using most libraries and then write a game with it.
Raknet is fantastic but there's nothing stopping anyone from writing some simple net-code without it.
Designers collect fonts, artists collect textures and programmers collect snippets.
Yeah, it can be used commercially, but it's the restrictions in functionality you run into that can cause problems - as an example it doesn't allow for plugins, which means no direct integration with version control. That's problematic if you're freelancing in a team with more than a handful of engineers.
It's also superceded by Community - it isn't likely to get more updated versions, so it's going to fade away and become increasingly incompatible with what other people are using.
Unreal 4 wants VS 2015 ideally, and there is no express version of 2015.
Ergo, don't use Express, use Community.
NO.
Absolutely DO NOT do this. Taking Raknet as an example, if you use Raknet in a project, and hand it over to a client, that client has not entered a legal agreement to use Raknet. If you do this, you put them in an extremely dubious legal position. Things like this can sink entire projects, and potentially entire companies. You won't be getting more work from them, and they'll probably ensure you get blacklisted amongst their peers too.
If you want to use a library, your client MUST deal with the licensing and approve it's use before you integrate it. As a freelancer, you are not a representative of the company and you cannot enter a legal agreement on their behalf, nor can you assume that 'free' code is compatible with other agreements they may have entered, or their own internal policies.
Even if you are authorized to make that call on the company's behalf, you HAVE to let them know before you even begin to think of adding third party code into the project without their knowledge. There could be a laundry list of issues associated with doing so, even if it's legal, and the code works to spec.
Express is fine, it just has limitations.
Community edition is the full professional version, no limitations. It's free for "small teams" who earn below a certain amount.
Relax with the knee-jerk dichotomies guys, I never suggested throwing in third party libraries without consulting anyone.
Granted this is definitely more true of smaller teams like startups or independent clients (the subject of this thread), if you say, "We need to do task v, it will take w story points of effort, OR you can pay $x and reduce that story down to y story points, which will save you $z in wages and time." you can make a strong case to adopt a third party library or tool.
Re-usability is why object oriented programming is the most popular paradigm, asset stores have more than just art in them and most engineering jobs list various third party libraries or frameworks as requirements.