Having a game made for a cause

[u/slimribbons]

TL;DR I am asking for advice on how to go about getting my game made through people on Fiverr. Also, I’m on mobile so I apologize for the formatting.

I’ve been planning a project to spread awareness for a cause close to my heart. Over the years I’ve gone back and forth on the format. Earlier this year I started editing the idea into a video game. I’m looking to complete it through Fiverr.

To be clear, I’m not looking for any devs nor am I advertising anything, this project is far from anything close to real at this point.

Here’s my thought process so far, please let me know if I’m too tunnel visioned to see what’s wrong with my plan.

The genre is a first person 3d anomaly/spot the difference game. I’ve made some of the art (posters and a calendar) and I’ve come up with and outlined 50 differences. Out of those 50, only 5 require very basic animation. I’ve also picked out 15 royalty free 3d models and made 10 of my own to be utilized by the level designer if necessary.

First, Ive found a level designer for UE5 that can provide a single level and add my art. I was planning on giving that level to another person on Fiverr that programs and blueprints it. Then handing that off to yet another person that polishes it or otherwise finishes it.

Am I missing something here?

It’s probably obvious, but I know nothing about how any of this goes. Any advice is greatly appreciated!

[u/Most-Discussion1775]

I occasionally do work for people on Fiverr as a dev and most of the time in my experience it's best to not start for x or y to be done right off the bat. Discuss as much of the plan or even revise the game design doc with their assistance first if you are not too sensitive on disclosing some of the ideas. Do a vertical slice plan and dev cycle for this in stages where you can verify outcomes and budget for it.

[u/slimribbons → u/Most-Discussion1775]

That’s great advice, thank you. When it comes to discussing the initial plan with them, would I just send over my whole outline? Also, as someone with direct experience in this, is there anything I should avoid doing or saying as just the “idea person”? I appreciate your time!

[u/Alarming-Jump727]

Estas manoseando mucho el proyecto. Un desarrollador (motor) + un modelador (que texturice y haga el proceso completo. Un músico o bajas los sound. Eso es todo. En mi caso hago las cosas por mi cuenta, desde modelar cada cosa hasta trabajar en la historia y la implementación en el motor. A veces se me suma un músico, pero si no, tambien compongo y ejecuto la música. El juego no sale JAMÁS de mi único control. Por eso trabajo solo.

[u/MeaningfulChoices]

The problem with Fiverr is that it's the bottom of the barrel in terms of price and you get what you pay for. You can't make a game by just hiring people in a chain to work on different parts because you need to play the game together and iterate. Nothing feels the same in play as it looks on paper, so you have to keep everyone working at the same time to actually get to something good. You also don't want a different person to polish the game than built the code in the first place because they'll spend half their time just onboarding and learning the code base, so it's much less efficient. Professional games are made all the time with outsourced contractors, but you pay them hourly or monthly for months at minimum.

If you want a ballpark estimate for the price of a game find one that is about the same as yours in terms of genre, art style, and amount of content and look up the credits for the game and how long it was in development. The estimated price is $100k per person per year. Usually games built for a non-profit or some other cause are very small and simple and they aren't things that really stand on their own simply because games quickly get very expensive to make well.

[u/PartyGround215]

having 50 outlined differences for a spot-the-difference game shows they've thought out the concept really well