iOS Hiring a good developer for my game.

[legolug90]

Hey! So I have a great game idea. It's a physics-based puzzle game similar to Angry Birds.
I don't know if I should learn programming and pay a great designer/animator to do the whole artistic part of the game or simply just pay for a developer to create the entire game, without me contributing with anything.
So basically my queston is this:
What's the price of a developer/company compared to a designer?
I don't really have a great budget, willing to spend on this a maximum of $10k.
Will this amount of money be enough for hiring a good developer/company or I should just hire an animator?

 

[firewood]

If you don't know any programming, but are fairly bright and motivated, it might take you a year or 2 to learn enough to finish a quality physics based iPhone game yourself. Much longer if you want to learn to be an animator/artist as well.

I've seen reports of budgets for typical quality apps ranging from $35K to $250K. You would probably need to find both an experienced artist/animator and a developer or development company. Around my area, experienced iOS developers charge more, but experienced artists/animators aren't cheap either, and maybe even harder to find one actually available for work.

There also seem to be reports about people attempting to contract out iPhone development on a lower budget who ended up with unfinished or non-working apps. Caveat Emptor.

YMMV.

 

[nickculbertson]

If you are looking to make a game, not into coding, and don't mind spending some cash maybe you would be interested in something like game salad. Google it

Nick

 

[legolug90]

Thanks for the answers!
I found myself learning a bit of objective c from that guy Kochan's book. And I'm enjoying it actually.
So I made my mind: I'm gonna learn how to program for the iphone!
Now... do you, as programmers, ever hired an animator for your games/ applications?
If not, do you know someone who did so?
I really want to know what's the approximate amount of cash I'm going to spend on a good animator considering the type of application I want to create.

 

[Cromulent]

Thanks for the answers!
I found myself learning a bit of objective c from that guy Kochan's book. And I'm enjoying it actually.
So I made my mind: I'm gonna learn how to program for the iphone!
Now... do you, as programmers, ever hired an animator for your games/ applications?
If not, do you know someone who did so?
I really want to know what's the approximate amount of cash I'm going to spend on a good animator considering the type of application I want to create.

Considering it is quite easy for a website to cost $5,000 to design and a game is much much harder to do graphics wise than that. You might get an impression of how much it will cost to hire a professional outfit.

Obviously you could get a cheaper price but you need to make sure that you still get quality.

 

[nickculbertson]

What are you trying to animate, zombie birds?

Starting off with app development, I'd try to keep the bottom line low. I do all my own animations using photoshop. I find creating artwork in photoshop a highly rewarding part of app making. Also if you plan on making more than just this one app, it would be better to have those tools.

If you are not artistically inclined you could put out a craigslist add and possibly save some cash.

Nick

 

[firewood]

Starting off with app development, I'd try to keep the bottom line low. I do all my own animations using photoshop. I find creating artwork in photoshop a highly rewarding part of app making.

I sometimes do my own artwork when creating app designs/mockups. This can be fun, but the results are usually so fantastically ugly that I would never buy an app that looked that bad. So I usually hire an artist. That doesn't always pay off, but it does seem to often enough. YMMV.

 

[multinode]

Thanks for the answers!
I found myself learning a bit of objective c from that guy Kochan's book. And I'm enjoying it actually.
So I made my mind: I'm gonna learn how to program for the iphone!
Now... do you, as programmers, ever hired an animator for your games/ applications?
If not, do you know someone who did so?
I really want to know what's the approximate amount of cash I'm going to spend on a good animator considering the type of application I want to create.

Two great books:
Advanced iOS4 Programming ... Maher Ali
IPhone Programming ... The Big Nerd Ranch Guide ... Aaron Hillegass

You should read the above books in the order shown.

There is another book "IPhone Developers Cookbook" by Sadun that is no good!

 

[amorya]

Write the game engine first. Just stick in placeholder graphics so that you can play the game and work on it until it's fun. Show it to your friends. Once you've written something that people like to spend time on and keep asking for another go, that's the time to hire an artist.

If you go out and buy a load of art before you can code, you might end up never finishing the project and just be out of pocket. But if you wait until you've made a fun game, you'll know that there's a product to be had there.

 

[1458279]

After you get your feet wet, you might want to look at the ready made game engines. If you're doing a graphic move-around type game, they have engines for that. Someone posted on one before, can't remember the name, but looked pretty good and would save a ton of time.

People expect a certain level of quality / looks / responsiveness ... a few $$ for a game engine could save the day.

Here's a link that looks at a few:
http://maniacdev.com/2009/08/the-open-source-iphone-game-engine-comparison/