Creating a game is a fun and extremely rewarding experience. If you are just getting started it’s likely you have heard people say creating a game is expensive. You see Kick-starters raising hundreds of thousands of dollars, but does this mean for a beginner or a hobbyist there is a large barrier to entry. From personal experience I can confidently say NO.
Creating games as a hobbyist can be as expensive or cheap as you make it. Software required to produce games such as Unreal Engine is free. The cost primarily comes from saving time. Buying add-ins or 3d models can cost money but if you do it all yourself it costs nothing.
In this article we will look at all the costs involved with making games and just how and why money really isn’t an issue for aspiring hobbyists
What is a Game Comprised Of
The are several components to creating a game but to simplify things the top 4 would be.
- Coding the game
- Creating 3d Models
- Animation
- Sound and Music
With all of these you have the capability to do them yourself, using free software, paying someone to do them for you, or purchasing existing work that someone else has done.
If you have little to no budget there are a lot of options, provided you have the time and willingness to do them yourself. So let’s look at each of these points in more detail.
Cost involved with Coding a Game
To create and code games you will typically rely on what is referred to as a Game Engine. A game engine is basically a piece of software that has the framework set up so you can create a game. You can use a pre-existing game engine or even create one yourself.
A lot of the heavy lifting is done with a game engine giving you the tools to create a game easier. Thankfully a lot of game engines are FREE!!! The bigger more well-known engines include Unreal Engine and Unity.
You can freely use these to create your game only being required to pay if your game makes a lot of money. This means there are no upfront costs.
All your coding is done in the game engine and you are only limited by your creativity. You can learn to create anything without ever spending a dollar
Where it can cost money is if you require functionality in your game that you don’t want to create yourself.
For example, you want to create some cool menus. You can pay someone to do them for you, or utilize pre-existing preprogrammed modules that other people have created.
Engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity have a huge marketplace where you can purchase almost any module you could need to create a game. This removes the requirement code much at all, which of course comes at a cost.
Cost of Creating 3d Models for Your Game
Creating 3d models for your game can be done for free by utilizing free models or creating them yourself.
Creating them yourself involves further software other than the Game Engine. Thankfully there are a few options that are absolutely free, the most popular being Blender.
Withing 3d modeling software such as Blender you have all the tools you need to create game models. Like coding, this can be a complex task requiring you to continue learning.
There are a lot of free models available if you are not keen on creating them yourself. For instance, Unreal Engine releases free models each month for anyone to use.
If you’re using Unreal Engine you also have access to the Quixel Megascans library, which is a library of high-quality models and textures you can use for free in your game.
There are free models available everywhere but always BE CAREFUL that you are allowed to use them for anything other than personal use.
The biggest downside to free models is because they are free a lot of people use them. If you are looking for something unique, then you might have to look at different options.
If you are looking to pay for models then there are numerous marketplaces that sell models such as Turbo Squid, CG Trader, Unreal Marketplace and Unity Marketplace to name a few. You can usually find almost anything you could want in these marketplaces.
Alternatively, if you want something unique then paying someone to model something for you is the other option.
Cost of Animation Characters for a Game
If you are on a budget then getting animations for your characters for free is one of the easier tasks. You can do it yourself or use Mixamo. Mixamo is great for this as it allows you to import your own character and apply hundreds of animations to it.
You can use them free of charge and import them into your game. If you are interested in this please check out my article on How Mixamo is used in games.
One important note is that this is for humanoid characters only anything else may require you to do it yourself.
If you are looking to pay then this is where it gets tricky. There are marketplace animations available however they aren’t always interchangeable easily.
Animations require a rig, which is basically a skeleton. Different animation packs may have different rigs meaning they won’t work together. There are ways around this but can require some work yourself.
Alternatively, you can pay someone to create the animations for you.
Like 3d modeling, animation is another skill that you can do yourself, but requires knowledge and practice. Once again software such a Blender is great for doing this.
Cost of creating sound for your game
Like all the parts of creating a game the cost of creating sound effects and music for your game is completely dependent on your budget. You have 3 options:
- Create the sound yourself
- Pay someone to do it
- Utilize marketplaces who sell it.
Creating it yourself once again requires a further skill set and software. With some patience and free software, you could easily do this.
If you simply don’t have the skill or time, purchasing existing music and sound effects from marketplaces is easy. Once again Unreal Engine or Unity Marketplaces are great options that have extensive libraries.
Finally, if you want something absolutely unique you can always look at paying someone to do it.
What are Essential Costs for Creating Games
Unfortunately there is one very important cost involved with creating games and that is a computer. Games can be as complex or as basic as you require them to be, as such a top of the line computer is not required.
In most cases, if you are creating a game you’re creating it so as many people as possible can play it. This means your computer only has to be as powerful as the people who will be playing it. A basic gaming computer is more than enough.
So Why Can Games Cost So Much
The biggest cost involved with games is people. As there are so many facets involved with creating games it can be difficult to find anyone who can perform them all. Even if they could depending on the game it would take a long time.
This does not mean as a hobbyist that creating a game is unachievable. It just means creating the type of game you see big studios producing is very difficult and time-consuming for a single person.
Conclusion
Hopefully I’ve now convinced you to give game development a try. It’s a lot of fun and in my opinion a fairly inexpensive hobby provided you are willing to give all aspects a try.
While there are a lot of aspects to creating a game fortunately there are a lot of ways and resources that enable you to create them cheaply.
If there are parts you want to learn. In my case sound, the game engine marketplaces are great places to go. I’m not kidding when I say you could create a whole game solely using these.