Question
Money money money... woes of an indie dev
To sum it up: I'm looking for advice on keeping the cost of development low, or at least, lower, while sacrificing as little as possible in terms of the end product.
The long version:
I'm fresh out of grad school, with nothing but "educational" licenses and an outdated laptop to my name, well that and plenty of debt to Sallie. I am looking at what its going to cost to get a one-man (or small team) indie studio going. Maybe doing all of this in a public space will inspire others to pursue their dreams, or potentially scare them away out of the costs :?
Truthfully I feel a little overwhelmed and I can't help but ask myself, "how the hell am I going to do this?" but I'm determined to find a way.
First the software:
Autodesk Maya 2014: $3,675
http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/buy
or
"Entertainment Creation Suite" $5,777 to $8,395 depending on package
Unity Pro: $1,500 https://store.unity3d.com/
Adobe Master collection : $2, 599
or
Adobe Photoshop (only PS for texturing, nothing else) : $799
https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_creativesuite6.html?start=10
Total Software Cost: $5, 974 (Photoshop, Maya, and Unity Pro only)
or $7,774 (Adobe master collection, Maya, and Unity Pro)
$ 10,000 (Both suites, price varies based on specific choices within those suites, but stays in the 9-10k range)
Open Source options:
Blender instead of Maya
For 2d and texturing, I'm not familiar at all with the open source options, or if there are even decent quality alternatives for photoshop that would be significantly less expensive.
Some of these software packages offer "subscription" or "cloud" based deals instead of a one time lump sum, their prices are:
Unity: $75 a month
Adobe: $50 a month
Autodesk: Leasing options available, but details are limited to a case by case basis (credit)
Looking at all the prices at a glance, it seems like the best deal would be to use the monthly plans for Unity and Adobe initially, and only buying 3dS max or Maya rather than the suite. However, around the 10-month mark the subscriptions seem like kind of a rip. Depending on the interest, a loan or financing to buy the entire product is probably (?) the best option, as the subscription service you end up paying for the software but never own an actual copy of it. Conversely there is the argument that you would need to upgrade every year anyways, and with the upgrade costs the subscription actually comes out ahead assuming you were to upgrade to the newest versions at each release. Of course, there is always the option of using the 4-month free trial for Unity with the OCR and then paying on a month to month basis until I can afford to pay for the entire license out of pocket, but that seems highly inefficient, and only addresses Unity which is the cheapest of the 3 main software packages. The subscriptions also have the potential problem of internet service being required to access.
HARDWARE:
I'm really at a loss here. I used to build my own PC's back in high school (late 90s to early 2000s) but haven't built one in a long time.
I know I want to put most of my money in the GPU CPU and motherboard, but I'm concerned about overbuying in one area and getting bottlenecked in another.
Whats the least amount of memory you think I can get away with? 8gb? Obviously, most people want to dump as much ram into their machine as possible, but I'm looking to be efficient, especially for the initial rig, since memory can be upgraded so incredibly easily and is always falling in price rapidly.
Same goes for HDD, eventually I want a solid state drive, but I see no reason to avoid cheaping out on the HDD as long as its 7200rpm and can hold enough data to get the job done.
Current Rig I'm looking at building:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z87 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($240.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($69.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($476.59 @ Amazon)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($93.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VX238H 23.0" Monitor ($177.64 @ TigerDirect)
Total: $1829.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-23 09:22 EDT-0400)
So when all is said and done, somewhere in the $12,000 range, is the cost of a bare-bones, one man studio, using industry standard software, not including outside costs like rent/webspace/cables/internet/etc. :shock:
The long version:
I'm fresh out of grad school, with nothing but "educational" licenses and an outdated laptop to my name, well that and plenty of debt to Sallie. I am looking at what its going to cost to get a one-man (or small team) indie studio going. Maybe doing all of this in a public space will inspire others to pursue their dreams, or potentially scare them away out of the costs :?
Truthfully I feel a little overwhelmed and I can't help but ask myself, "how the hell am I going to do this?" but I'm determined to find a way.
First the software:
Autodesk Maya 2014: $3,675
http://www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/buy
or
"Entertainment Creation Suite" $5,777 to $8,395 depending on package
Unity Pro: $1,500 https://store.unity3d.com/
Adobe Master collection : $2, 599
or
Adobe Photoshop (only PS for texturing, nothing else) : $799
https://www.adobe.com/products/catalog/cs6._sl_id-contentfilter_sl_catalog_sl_software_sl_creativesuite6.html?start=10
Total Software Cost: $5, 974 (Photoshop, Maya, and Unity Pro only)
or $7,774 (Adobe master collection, Maya, and Unity Pro)
$ 10,000 (Both suites, price varies based on specific choices within those suites, but stays in the 9-10k range)
Open Source options:
Blender instead of Maya
For 2d and texturing, I'm not familiar at all with the open source options, or if there are even decent quality alternatives for photoshop that would be significantly less expensive.
Some of these software packages offer "subscription" or "cloud" based deals instead of a one time lump sum, their prices are:
Unity: $75 a month
Adobe: $50 a month
Autodesk: Leasing options available, but details are limited to a case by case basis (credit)
Looking at all the prices at a glance, it seems like the best deal would be to use the monthly plans for Unity and Adobe initially, and only buying 3dS max or Maya rather than the suite. However, around the 10-month mark the subscriptions seem like kind of a rip. Depending on the interest, a loan or financing to buy the entire product is probably (?) the best option, as the subscription service you end up paying for the software but never own an actual copy of it. Conversely there is the argument that you would need to upgrade every year anyways, and with the upgrade costs the subscription actually comes out ahead assuming you were to upgrade to the newest versions at each release. Of course, there is always the option of using the 4-month free trial for Unity with the OCR and then paying on a month to month basis until I can afford to pay for the entire license out of pocket, but that seems highly inefficient, and only addresses Unity which is the cheapest of the 3 main software packages. The subscriptions also have the potential problem of internet service being required to access.
HARDWARE:
I'm really at a loss here. I used to build my own PC's back in high school (late 90s to early 2000s) but haven't built one in a long time.
I know I want to put most of my money in the GPU CPU and motherboard, but I'm concerned about overbuying in one area and getting bottlenecked in another.
Whats the least amount of memory you think I can get away with? 8gb? Obviously, most people want to dump as much ram into their machine as possible, but I'm looking to be efficient, especially for the initial rig, since memory can be upgraded so incredibly easily and is always falling in price rapidly.
Same goes for HDD, eventually I want a solid state drive, but I see no reason to avoid cheaping out on the HDD as long as its 7200rpm and can hold enough data to get the job done.
Current Rig I'm looking at building:
PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks
CPU: Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($279.99 @ Microcenter)
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler ($29.98 @ Outlet PC)
Motherboard: Asus SABERTOOTH Z87 ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($240.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($69.98 @ NCIX US)
Storage: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Video Card ($476.59 @ Amazon)
Sound Card: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD 24-bit 96 KHz Sound Card ($149.99 @ Amazon)
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 w/Window (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case ($93.49 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: Corsair Professional Gold 750W 80 PLUS Gold Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($159.99 @ Amazon)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VX238H 23.0" Monitor ($177.64 @ TigerDirect)
Total: $1829.06
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-07-23 09:22 EDT-0400)
So when all is said and done, somewhere in the $12,000 range, is the cost of a bare-bones, one man studio, using industry standard software, not including outside costs like rent/webspace/cables/internet/etc. :shock: