How long would it take to make a online game like this?

MaoShoto

Hello,
It's nice to meet you all! I'm new here. 

I'm a single person trying to develop a third person shooter game as big as this. I don't favor the futuristic setting though so I'd probably go for a modern day theme. How long would that take?
I don't think it's impossible to make it on my own it'd probably just take me time, dedication, experience, and effort. I'm aware I should start small but I always like a challenge!
Reference link: https://www.bilibili.com/s/video/BV1DC4y1H7as (This video or work does not belong to me)

Note: I've done 2D art before but completely new to 3D rendering, texturing, animation/rigging, and lighting. I'm a fast learner just a bit slow when creating illustrations. I'd appreciate some tips/advice in Maya, 3Ds Max, or ZBrush.

Excited to see your estimated answers!

poopipe

Something with production values like that and the level of depth all those features would require.
On your own with no relevant experience.. 
About 200 years

It sounds like I'm taking the piss but I'm really not.
For reference, the last game I worked on with production values like that took 90 of us 3 years and that was a fairly straightforward FPS on an engine we already knew

As a novice I'd suggest you start with reproducing space invaders or similar so that you understand the production cycle, then make something a bit more complex and build up in scope until you feel like you really could build the big game.
If you try to tackle something too big you will fail and you'll get disheartened

Biomag

Also to keep in mind everything you mentioned is just on the art content side and thus scalable depending on what you want to achieve. The minium time necessary time to produce a multiplayer game is probably going to be far more depending on the code side.

To be honest, just doing the video that you posted by yourself, thus not really needing programmers/game designers to create a whole game around the cinematics, would take you several years.

Alex_J

just seconding advice already given, but make this game your dream project you'll create when you can hire team of specialist and have millions of dollars. It simply wont happen before then. 

Lifting 500 pounds is a challenge. Work really hard for ten years and maybe you can achieve that. Completing the work of 50+ specialist across various domains is an impossibility. If you destroy yourself you can maybe do as much work as 3-5 people, but thats not sustainable.

Start by making tic tac toe. 

If you are single developer, art is only one tiny consideration in the whole project. The key difficulty is dividing time and attention. Avoid brain drain. 

To get the thing finished, even a "tiny" game, you have to limit the amount of new stuff you are learning in each department. Only so much load brain can handle at a time. 

After tic tac toe, move into some simple board games. There is chance to work a bit more on art and fundamentals of game design. 

From there, to start making "serious" games I think the crux is getting the money. Marketing becomes as important as anything else if you want return on the big investment you are making.

sacboi

Yeah, that'll take awhile too make...solo.

Though, nonetheless thinking about scaling back your expectations in terms of scope wouldn't hurt, especially when starting from scratch. To reiterate the above comments, start small! essentially as a type of introductory project, kind of 'getting your hands dirty' entry point  Among other things, aside from enabling a baseline on which to build upon but also further insight into various aspects of games dev, that aren't apparent to those taking their initial first steps.

Now I'll suggest at least preview this little clone workflow (beginner/intermediate level), of a popular mobile game from back in the day. Fairly straightforward covers just about everything - coding, level design through to asset creation, pretty much what I'd recommend for anyone dipping a toe or two:

"Lets Make Flappy Bird - LWJGL 3 / OpenGL"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pUYjxeDNEs&list=PLlrATfBNZ98e5KBKGcL7ARy3DjstzI2TV         

Ashervisalis

It'll take years and years and years to get to that level of character art, rigging, animation. And that's just dedicating yourself to characters only. Why not hone a skill and join a mod team or something?

RN

As far as I know, Astartes (a Warhammer 40,000 fan film project) is made by a single guy, Syama Pedersen. It's up there in terms of ambition, of what you can do on your own:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bko5GgK5v8

There are a couple of interviews with him:

- https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/an-interview-with-syama-pedersen-creator-of-astartes/

- https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer/comments/gkf3vh/im_syama_pederson_creator_of_the_astartes_project/

(The latter is a Reddit Ask-Me-Anything, which is an interview with questions from fans)

sacboi

Damn! that's impressive, spanning an episodic series, no less

Wonder if the author works for WETA? since he's from my neck of the woods, well least-ways across the ditch in New Zealand, it would seem.

Neox

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10869295/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 unless weta doesn't give credit, i think not

Ashervisalis

OK Damn that was impressive for being one dude.

Alemja

Just strolled through the Astartes AMA and he stalks about using libraries, buying less important 3D assets and having help for recent/future cinematics.He also has 20 years of 3D experience with 10 doing professional work. Just for some perspective.

Mao you could get there, but it would be take a long time. Since you're starting from scratch you're going to be not only be learning the 3D software, but all of the best practices to make good workable 3D art, and it's honestly a lot. I've seen people people burn out just trying to tackle both learning the software and learning how to make good art at the same time. I would honestly just start learning one thing, be it modeling, an engine or something... and start super basic. A mod team is a great suggestion once you feel more comfortable creating 3D assets.

RN

Ian Hubert is another example. He's worked as a VFX supervisor and also has years of experience using Blender (I remember him saying 15+ years). 

Apart from a couple of models (a crab model and a mural art) that were made by other artists, as well as the live action elements, he produced all of what's seen below (the visuals and compositing, not the audio) and then rendered on Blender's Eevee:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG31WSioSxk

@MaoShoto remember that you don't need to make a complete game. You can make what is called a 'vertical slice' of a game, see this: https://polycount.com/discussion/comment/2539840/#Comment_2539840
With this you can save a ton of money and time while still getting something that is presentable / playable. You can then use it with a pitch to a production company, a Kickstarter, Patreon etc. and fund the development of the rest of it.

Deborah_Flannagan

It takes a very long time to do this alone.

Eric Chadwick

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