Game development time.

[AlexKunKun]

Hello person. For those who already have some experience with indie game development or who can talk about the subject.
How do you plan time for development? And how long do you believe or have it taken to develop a game?

Below I bring some examples from Dlsite.

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Regarding these games, is it possible to develop them alone? Or do you need a small team?
And how long do you think the development of these games that I mentioned as examples lasted?

From the example games, I chose some with different styles. But among them, what I liked most was the self-dojo. But I think about doing something like an RPG first, so I'd like people's opinions on this issue of time to plan and execute work on an indie game.

Grateful for the attention.

 

[Spiderling77]

Look, a game's most valuable asset is time. What a team does is reduce that time. In theory, you can make that kind of game alone, but it will take years since you need to master a lot of stuff like coding, drawing, etc. I have been working for a year on my simple text-based game, as it is not near completion, with just a small alpha coming soon (I did it in my free time, but still).

My advice for time management is to create self-deadlines (so you stop with reworks and scope creep) and work even one hour or half per day on your game. This way, your game will become a habit.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

When it comes to anything, there are always 3 aspects, this is my favorite version of the ??? triangle

is it possible to develop them alone

Of course, but it depends on how much you have of time, money, and skill.
if you have the skill you can do it yourself.
if you don't have the skill then you have to spend either time or money to get something to the quality you want. I imagine a lot of the games you linked commisioned art from dedicated artists.
if you don't have money and can't endure a project for that long, then you'll likely fall short.
I'm only able to dedicate 20-30 hours a month so shit is slow AF, but that's because I'm in the 'low priority' catagory since I want quality but not spend money but do things myself.

 

[Saki_Sliz]

(so you stop with reworks and scope creep)

and I took that personally

 

[Spiderling77]

and I took that personally

I am throwing stones from a glass house. My game went from a medieval adventurer trainer to a zombie survivor to what it actually is now (superpowers/heroes shit). Just get an idea and stick with it.

 

[Winterfire]

You can calculate the development time by writing a Game Design Document, and having experience.
That's why you should always start simple, in the sfw scene they'll always suggest "make pong" or other seemingly easy and basic games. It's actually a good idea for many reasons, including your threshold.

With a Game Design Document you have a complete overview of your project, from start to finish.
While with experience you will have a good idea of your limits, and how long it takes you to do something,your strengths and weaknesses, and how complex a mechanic when compared to the basic ones you have experience with.

All those games can be made by a solo dev, provided you have the required skills.
Technically every game can be made solo, but if a game would take you 10+ years to complete, it's probably a bad idea to pursue it.

 

[anne O'nymous]

You can calculate the development time by writing a Game Design Document, and having experience.

I would more say that you can estimate the development time, not really calculate it.

Doing it on your free time imply that some of the constraint come from the outside and you've no control over them. You wife can be pregnant, your child can be sick or, worse, your children take turns to be sick (my daughter kind of liked to get her brother sickness), you can have a promotion at work, and so on.
All this would be less a concern if it was your job because, except the promotion, it take place outside of it. But as amateur, all this take on your free time, and therefore on your development time.
Let's say that you wife get sick. During this time, there's no more "alright honey, I'll go grab the boy at school for this time since you look to inspired right now". You've to stop what your doing and go get it, then you'll have to accompany his sister to her ballet class, before having some grocery shopping done for the dinner you'll have to prepare. During a full week you'll have just 10% of the time you thought you would have to works on your game.

But, this don't mean that you are wrong. It's just that, and I'm sure that you know it, the truth is less definitive than what your phrasing make it looks.
You can predict a part of the chaos, by adding 25% to your prediction. But like doing it alone need years, there will always come a moment during the development where it will be more than 25% of your free time that you'll temporarily lost.