AuthorTopic: Price Question  (Read 3847 times)

Offline conlius

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Price Question

on: January 23, 2013, 05:21:16 pm
Hello all!

I decided not to put this in the Job Offer section because, well, it's not a job offer :)

A friend and I have been working on a small top-down 2d RPG for a while now (just under a year, hobby style) but both of us have been programming for 10+ years.  The game is similar to a game such as Shining Force 1/2 with a little more in-depth battle system.

I am curious to find out what most of you pixel artists charge per sprite sheet, regardless of whether or not it goes to an android/iphone market or if it just stays as a hobby project.  I'm trying to decide whether this is something that I should pursue once the game (and game dev utilities) has matured more or if we should start doing some pixel art tutorials!

What should I expect to pay for a sprite sheet similar those of shining force 2?
link: http://spriters-resource.com/genesis/sf2/gerhalt.PNG

P.S. - I'm 28 and I'm a network engineer.  The friend I'm working with on this is a web developer.  We haven't determined any budget information.  We are just gauging interest and seeing whether or not this is a path we want to take, depending on how much it costs versus how happy it will make us to see a complete game.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Chris

Offline Cyangmou

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Re: Price Question

Reply #1 on: January 23, 2013, 06:20:24 pm
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/AdamSaltsman/20090724/2571/Pixel_Art_Freelance_Best_Practices__Guidelines.php

or in short 10-50 US-$/h depending on the experience/quality the artist provides

RPGs are the most expensive games you can make in terms of graphics and design. Just look up some old RPGs credit and look how many artists worked on them.
"Because the beauty of the human body is that it hasn't a single muscle which doesn't serve its purpose; that there's not a line wasted; that every detail of it fits one idea, the idea of a man and the life of a man."

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Offline YellowLime

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Re: Price Question

Reply #2 on: January 23, 2013, 07:24:39 pm
wow, this is a pretty cool article, thanks for posting it here!  ;)

Offline conlius

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Re: Price Question

Reply #3 on: January 27, 2013, 06:27:06 pm
That sounds great, and the article is good.  But unfortunately, I'm looking for price per sprite sheet.  I have no way of determining the number of hours needed to create one.  Unless you guys have a rough estimate?

Offline Tourist

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Re: Price Question

Reply #4 on: January 27, 2013, 07:21:30 pm
The scope of work is unclear from your example.  The sheet you linked to has two different sized sprites, plus a couple of portraits.  There's also a note that says this is one of the smallest sprite sheets in the game.   Taking an estimate to produce something similar to the linked sheet and assume the labor is the same for a larger sheet or more complex character would wreck your budget.

Hmm. This kind of question comes up often enough that we should probably create an guide for art direction when you don't have an art director.  Something that lists some of the choices and rough estimates on how they impact the labor cost.  For example, using unique death animations for each critter vs a simple fade out effect.  Hiring a single artist (better consistency, longer time) vs a small crew (coordination efforts cost more, assets produced faster).   Maybe a sample of low quality, medium quality, high quality versions of the same sprite and relative labor spent.

And by 'we' I mean one of the more experienced folks around here.  I understand project management, but I don't have any experience as an art director (and my art skills are poor).

Tourist

Offline conlius

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Re: Price Question

Reply #5 on: February 01, 2013, 09:21:52 pm
I think my scope is pretty clear.  I am looking for a roundabout price per sheet cost for a one spritesheet of similar quality to the one above, with top-down map sprites, in-battle sprites, and portraits.  Take the exact number of sprites from the one shown above, and assume that you would create another character given a character description.  Forget the rest of the game or what other sprite sheets in that game consist of.  I am only using the one shown as an example to what i am looking for.

I see a $/hour price shown of ~5-50/hour...which is a huge range and I cannot get even a ballpark with that.  How many hours would it take to make something similar? At what wage to do something of equal cost?  I'm not an artist, I'm not sure how long it takes to recreate a sprite sheet like the one shown or the wage of an artist to make similar sheets.  That's why I asked the question here.

So what i really want to know is:  price per hour for similar quality and total number of hours to recreate the sprite sheet listed above given a character description.  Ballpark total price.

Offline Arne

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Re: Price Question

Reply #6 on: February 01, 2013, 09:40:21 pm
$1000-2500 depending on polish. Looks like 2-5 work days plus some fixing. You'd need a lot more than that to get a game going though.

Edit: Multiply all time estimates by pi by the way. Mostly it's the artist who pays that price of time, but sometimes he knows how to charge for it.

« Last Edit: February 01, 2013, 09:57:15 pm by Arne »