how long does a mod take to make?

kburts · Post by **kburts** » 13 Apr 2009, 21:27

pretty much starting from scratch... i'm just wondering

Hoi · Post by **Hoi** » 13 Apr 2009, 21:38

Long.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » 13 Apr 2009, 21:43

S44 in its current form has been approximately 3 years in the making.

kburts · Post by **kburts** » 13 Apr 2009, 21:45

uh oh

imbaczek · Post by **imbaczek** » 13 Apr 2009, 21:49

a couple hundred man-hours for something small, like KP. much more for anything bigger (unless you just put together a bazillion units and call that a mod.)

kburts · Post by **kburts** » 13 Apr 2009, 21:55

aah, that would have been my seccond question: how about if the models are very simple...

but... i haven't got the time or the attention span.

Nemo · Post by **Nemo** » 13 Apr 2009, 22:05

My two small games (Dark Side of the Spring, Kapital) were probably ~20-40 hours each, I wasn't really counting. But they're also VERY simple games with few units and very simple rules.

If you have a very small and clear design idea that is reasonably suited to the engine/within your lua coding ability (and skills to make it happen without looking everything up/asking people) and aren't fussed about reusing art, you can make things fairly quickly.

That said, its not something for people with crappy attention spans.

kburts · Post by **kburts** » 13 Apr 2009, 22:40

yep... that's probably not me, becasue:

if ever, i probably would have done it during the break (almost over)
i use Ubuntu
what's Lua?

^^ i like making lists!

Post by **Auswaschbar** » 13 Apr 2009, 23:06

A weekend.
http://jobjol.nl/1831

imbaczek · Post by **imbaczek** » 13 Apr 2009, 23:27

KDR doesn't count, when he sneezes, a mod comes out.

hrmph · Post by **hrmph** » 14 Apr 2009, 01:54

kburts wrote:pretty much starting from scratch... i'm just wondering

Just animating a unit in spring is a pain. A whole game (remember S44, PURE, SWIW - these aren't just mods) can take a long time even with a team of skilled people.

Pressure Line · Post by **Pressure Line** » 14 Apr 2009, 05:19

imbaczek wrote:KDR doesn't count, when he sneezes, a mod comes out.

Heaven help us if KDR ever gets hayfever ^_^

Sheekel · Post by **Sheekel** » 14 Apr 2009, 05:21

hrmph wrote:Just animating a unit in spring is a pain

Yes, part of the reason things take so long is because some (most?) of the development tools are either out of date/abandoned, of poor quality, are time consuming to use, or all of the above.

kburts · Post by **kburts** » 14 Apr 2009, 06:32

ooh... that is a bummer...

KDR_11k · Post by **KDR_11k** » 14 Apr 2009, 08:53

Generally it depends on the scale and complexity. A mod with a small number of different objects (units, important features, etc) and little new code can be done pretty quickly (few days usually), a mod with the now usual 200+ units and enough lua to reimplement the whole gameplay will take forever. Also depends on the complexity of your objects, if you want pro-level realistic graphics you'll spend weeks on each object. That's with full-time dedication, do it in your spare time beside your day job and making a pro-level 200+ unit mod would take so long by the time you're finished polygons are obsolete.

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 14 Apr 2009, 10:19

I would say that I've spent 5,000+ hours on IW (+SWS). Possibly well in excess of that, but it's hard to calculate.

Pressure Line · Post by **Pressure Line** » 14 Apr 2009, 11:34

It depends on the level of graphical complexity. Then again, even if you are only spending 2 hours modeling and texturing each unit in a mod the size of BA, that would make 400 hours just for modeling and texturing.

Then theres bos scripting, Lua coding and the other unit files. Depending on the complexity, and your skills, that could be upwards of 100 hours.

Even working on it like a full-time job (40 hours a week) thats 13 weeks. And then theres playtesting etc etc.

For a small mod using simple models/textures, basic scripting and no major Lua trickery (I'm just gonna go ahead and assume you know little or nothing about Lua) expect to spend a month or so (but dont expect it to look great, but it should be playable)

kburts · Post by **kburts** » 15 Apr 2009, 01:29

@Zsinj-IW does look amazing, and i heard you went to like graphics design school-or something like that so it's allowed to take a long time

@Pressure-that is a bummer... hmmmm

Pressure Line · Post by **Pressure Line** » 15 Apr 2009, 01:56

You didn't read my last paragraph did you?

To make a TA-styled gameplay clone, you could start with t1 vechs and aircraft (plus all the ancillary buildings, mex, solar, wind etc) to get the feel for modeling and texturing. That would only take a few weeks for me to do, the hardest part would be re-imagining the TA units.

FLOZi · Post by **FLOZi** » 15 Apr 2009, 02:05

Nemo wrote:S44 in its current form has been approximately 3 years in the making.

And of course is based in parts around AATA which started in 2001.

(Ok, it's really more of a successor now with no common content but

)

Spring RTS Engine

how long does a mod take to make?

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