Help with timeframe estimation of a project?

HGC125

Hello guys,
I would like to ask you how much time as an artist do you think you need for completing an animated, textured scene of an airport ready for a game?
Please take in mind the latest "standard" of modern graphics games!
Thank you very much!!

huffer

You need to ask a couple of questions to gauge the scope:
- is it an first person shooter where you get up close to everything or you will only see it from afar / the air? Depending on the answer you can determine if you'll go with high poly baking or more low poly geometry, set up texture density and triangle budgets, etc.
- what do you mean by animated? Airplanes and cars moving in loops, set-up in engine? 

Then break it down in assets needed:
- environment, streets, buildings, vehicles, etc
- how many types, how many variations, materials and textures on each, etc.

Make a list and estimate each asset for research / high poly / low poly / texturing / engine setup; then estimate the time to build everything together, set up lighting, materials, textures, create the animations as needed, etc. There's no easy answer for a scene of this complexity.

HGC125

huffer said:

You need to ask a couple of questions to gauge the scope:
- is it an first person shooter where you get up close to everything or you will only see it from afar / the air? Depending on the answer you can determine if you'll go with high poly baking or more low poly geometry, set up texture density and triangle budgets, etc.
- what do you mean by animated? Airplanes and cars moving in loops, set-up in engine? 

Then break it down in assets needed:
- environment, streets, buildings, vehicles, etc
- how many types, how many variations, materials and textures on each, etc.

Make a list and estimate each asset for research / high poly / low poly / texturing / engine setup; then estimate the time to build everything together, set up lighting, materials, textures, create the animations as needed, etc. There's no easy answer for a scene of this complexity.

Right, forgot to tell about that... hehe.. It will be part of a "simulator" game.. so yes, we can say "first person" although the airplane will obviously go from the air to ground and ground back to the air.. High realism is very important, so I think polys will depend per area, as long as it look real and not a computer.. The places nearest where the plane will pass (that means gates, taxiways, runways,airbridges, the faces of the terminals, etc) the higher the "quality". If an object is 2km away from the runway and the Aircraft will never reach nearer than that is not needed to make it high poly (I think)
By animated yes I intend airbridges moving, vehicles, etc...
I'm asking here to you guys who have more experience than me, I'm not modelling and doing such works anymore neither I arrived very far with it to be able to answer it by myself..Else I would have already done it.
I'm trying to calculate the required size of my team. Therefore I need to calculate the amount of work hours needed.

Kevin Albers

It might take a couple of months of person-work JUST TO ASK THIS QUESTION CORRECTLY.  Someone would need to prototype out the level, using proxy models etc, in order to determine the scope of assets required etc.  Also, you should pick a specific reference game (or two) to help define what you means by 'modern game graphics'. If you have a 'whiteboxed' level with al the assets in super simple form, and a very clear reference example for the fidelity and quality of the assets, someone (with the right skills and background) could come up with a decent WildAssGuess.

The amount of time it would take to actually complete the work can vary tremendously. You still haven't given nearly enough information to make a useful estimate. It's going to more than a man-year of work, unless you 'modern game graphics' is an exaggeration of what would actually be done. It might vary between 1 year to 10 years +.  If you give that sort of answer to the money-person on the project you will probably gain some clarity. If spending the time/money to do it right is clearly not feasible (i.e. the top budget is 10k dollars), you can save everyone some time and avoid actually coming up with a refined estimate.

It's great that your trying to answer the question, however! Many people just give up and throw out a number, which is a common reason why game companies go out of business constantly.

HGC125

Kevin Albers said:

It might take a couple of months of person-work JUST TO ASK THIS QUESTION CORRECTLY.  Someone would need to prototype out the level, using proxy models etc, in order to determine the scope of assets required etc.  Also, you should pick a specific reference game (or two) to help define what you means by 'modern game graphics'. If you have a 'whiteboxed' level with al the assets in super simple form, and a very clear reference example for the fidelity and quality of the assets, someone (with the right skills and background) could come up with a decent WildAssGuess.

The amount of time it would take to actually complete the work can vary tremendously. You still haven't given nearly enough information to make a useful estimate. It's going to more than a man-year of work, unless you 'modern game graphics' is an exaggeration of what would actually be done. It might vary between 1 year to 10 years +.  If you give that sort of answer to the money-person on the project you will probably gain some clarity. If spending the time/money to do it right is clearly not feasible (i.e. the top budget is 10k dollars), you can save everyone some time and avoid actually coming up with a refined estimate.

It's great that your trying to answer the question, however! Many people just give up and throw out a number, which is a common reason why game companies go out of business constantly.

I tought it was possible without going into such details.. just to have an indication.. my idea was to not over-think it.
The money person wouldn't like 10+ years. Neither to pay for a prototype.. In anyways that's not the issue here
Intended time to market is 1 year, but I need to know how many people I need. I do have in mind what I exactly want of the result but I just don't want to make a huge list about it and over complicate this post.. because of the reasons mentioned before.
I put the pictures to have an idea of the result.. I think we are all able to distinguish what is low poly and high poly in this pictures...  It is not intended to make a game out of this but an addon to an existing game. What I ment with modern games was to take in count some extra work for better textures/maps and a little better polyworking.

Kevin Albers

It would still be helpful to pick a more specific art approach, in order to figure out scope. The amount of time per asset in Cities:Skylines might work within your (apparently modest) budget. The amount of time per asset in Destiny would be way way beyond that. Both of those games are modern games.