Hello,

I dont know if this is the right forum to ask this but I need some information about RTS games development.

I want to get a RTS game developed along the lines of C&C:Red Alert.Can somebody give me an idea as to how much it will cost to get such a game developed?....and how long will it take?

some other specifics:
1) the game needs to have only multiplayer capability....no single player campaign required.
2) two factions with about 4-5 different units in each.
3) one resource type.
4) five terrain types: mountain, hill, water, forest, plains.
5) graphics and sound of the level of C&C: Red Alert.

To get a Command and Conquuer style of game developed....


First of all it does not matter if its like C&C, Warcraft, Age of Empires or the Earth series.
What matters more it to get people with knowlege about RTS games at all.
I worked on an RTS Project, that costed 8 Million Euros, and was a big flop...

If you want to get into RTS, you should first look for good Programmers, that can handle such a Project.
If this is cleared you have to look for several Artists, and Gamedesigners.
And most importantly about the fininacing of the Project.
For free! you will not get people with the skills to make a serious RTS, as this
is a Project lasting over 2 Year development, fulltime work.

Look at www.RTSMaker.com in some months
as I am working on a "easy to handle" sollution for hobby Gamedesigners.

hello damocles,

i am not looking to make this RTS myself. i am just doing a small project for a company where i need to give them an idea abt the costs and time involved. financing is their headache altogether.
i could contact some game development companies directly for a quote but i thought i would get some input from non-company ppl first.

so lets say i need to get this game developed within a year....how big a team will i need and how much will it cost? i know its difficult to answer such a question without further details abt the game but a ballpark figure will do.

the game is going to be used for educational/training purposes so it doesn't need to have any cutting edge graphics at all. The target audience is such that 95% of them will never have played an RTS before. It just needs to be a bare bones RTS without any major bugs. Also, the absence of a computer player AI should help the cause.

What I can think of what you need as a back-end/framework:
- pathfinding (A* e.g.)
- economy system
- server/client architecture
- balanced units
- building/development system

note: I've never done an RTS myself yet. So any information from me may be inaccurate regarding this topic.

Its very undetermined how your game should look.

If its just something that should play somehow like in an RTS, and Kids like it,
you can make this realatively easy.
If you want to make a competative LAN Tournament-RTS game, it will cost much more.
Without a gamedesign draft, thaere is no way of saying how much this will cost (eg how many people
have to work on it for how long - wich ist the major cost in gameproduction)

RTS (especially Multiplayer) have a huge portion of Coding required to make it work. Much more than the Casual games
you see on the Indy sites, and more than an Ego-shooters. For this you need skilled and experienced programmers,
and they cost of course.

Actually, if you have to ask in such a way, you should not attempt a big production in the first place.
Better you start by joining a group of experienced developers, or look for employment in a game-company, to learn about
this risky market.

If you need some numbers, I can quickly think up some:

Take http://www.arenawars.net/ for example, a pure Multiplayer-Tournament RTS.

I suppose you need 3 Programmers, with advanced skill, working for two years.
One graphical Artist with lowpoly skill.
At least one person who takes care of Game/Leveldesign and Balancing (who needs to be
a good competative RTS player, and has experience in what makes RTS games fun)

Additional parttime work by Sounddesigners, additional Artits.

A Person who takes care of project planning, marketing, financing, Public -relations, (Producer)

If you take a 6 Man team, working for 2 years, each earning 3000$ per month (wich is low),
You will have 432000$ cost, just for the employees.
Lets say 100.000$ for licencees, equipment and rent,
200.000$ for marketing and production (low number).

you End up with 732.000 $.

I really took low numbers...

"I really took low numbers..."

yeah you did.


although by the looks of it he isnt looking for a competitive type, i think it got to be something a bit smaller, i'd probably knock about 200k of of that figure, but thats just a guess really.

Damocles, I fully respect you as I know you have alot of experience in RTS development, and I also understand that thereare many variables to consider when asking how much a game should cost, and how long it should take.

I disagree though, because I think that a RTS like C&C should take no more than 6 mnths - 1 year for an experienced, dedicated individual, and it should probably be very cheap to make. Your costs would be a years salary(because there is no way you could do anything but work on the game for about 50-60 hours a week), your social life (you would need to limit yourself to maybe 1 nite a week out, or with your partner), and the basics (engine, cheap tools, etc.)

IMO, a RTS can't be that hard to make for someone who is equally good at modeling, and programming. You would need to plan everything out in advance, and stick to your gown guidelines.

I think Firoball should think about doing this himself, as I feel not only is it the most rewarding experience, but also the best way to learn. I feel this way because I have done the same thing, but at a disadvantage. Before January of 2007 I had zero programming experience, or 3d graphics experience. I am nearing the end of my project now (a rather large RPG), and have done it almost entirely on my own.

My belief is simple, if you stay dedicated and meet your own goals, you will finsh anything that you set out to do.

Best of Luck!

As I sayd, to get an RTS "somehow" working is one part.
To make a running RTS game is actually not that! hard. But hard enough to see not
many running RTS projects here although I have already seen over a hundred Acknex demos.
But to get a stable! , fun and polished multiplayer RTS working adds a lot to this project.

If you make multiplayer only, then of course you cut the investments into AI development,
leaving just the need for simple state-machine AI for the units. The planning and group
controll is done by the Player.

Maby the numbers are higher, that for a small Indy Project needed, but It does
not leave out the need for skilled programmers.
To make a professionally working RTS, you need experienced people, to get it running in a timeframe
of one year. But these People cant live of a warm handshake, and must get some kind of sallery.
And the sallery must be comparable to the amount, that the programmer would get in an alternative job.
Thus the high costs for wages.

If the development is not approachd serious (fulltime work), you might at the most have a fun Indy game,
but there are already so many in the marked, that it will be hard to generate any decent income.

But in the end, the distribution channels count more than the Project itself, regarding revenues.


To the RTS development in general.

I think that people have so much trouble making an RTS (even thoug they can make
nice looking Casual Puzzle or Action games) is the lack of focussing on the structural points of an RTS.

Nice Models, Shaders, effect etc. are needed, but in the End replacable gimmics hovering around an empty shell.
The core of an RTS is waht troubles most.
All the nice features like traces, polygondetection, scans, even entities etc in acknex are quite useless to realize
the core architecture.
Maybe its even better to approach an RTS in acknex, to first trying to develop it in some old Basic environment.
(I actually wrote my pathfinding on QBasic, before porting it to c-script)
This amkes the developer focus on the structure, not the implementation.

The graphical gimmics that people really are able to create here, are just useful to visualize the game.
The game-core itself (how unis are thrated, how the basic Unit AI and global AI works, even the pathfinding) are
really independent of the programming language. (although object-oriented languages would help a lot, something
acknex lacks)

Taking all this to multiplayer is one the one hand difficult (realizing a stable informationsharing), on the
other hand easy, when the core gamearchitecture is stricly seperated from the visualization of the game.

i just want to toss one interesting link in here. the guy over at

http://redbrickgames.com/blog/

is working since 2005 !!! alone on an rts and is so far the only person i know of, that came this far. you get a good insight of what its like to develop this kind of game while reading the blog. bear in mind this guy is an experienced programmer c++ and still has lots of problems to solve everyday.
if i remember right he even used parts of the torque rts starter kit...

edit: ohh and damocles i really like your idea to create this rts maker, i guess if you do it right it could be quite successfull. with 'right' i'm thinking of a good basis but still beeing flexible enough to customize things like a.i. if you want to, so every game made with it can be different not just by the looks of it.

I try to keep it as customizable as possible.

The core of the game is set, but many many things can be altered, without writing code.

things like:

-unitmodels
-unitname, descriptions
-unit sounds , speeches
-what attack the unit can do
-configuring the attacks, moseld sounds, particles
-attackmatrix so each unit can have a differnt attack to everyother unit
-Editor with cinematics, multitexture terrain, shadows, selfconfigurable
ambient objects. Editable Pathfinding. Quick-creation tools.
-Campaignmanagent
-Buildings
-upgrades and units available with buildings
-Programmable AI buildup routines
-trigges in the map for dialogues and cinematics
-selfdefinable Panels, bitmaps

and and and

The user should be able to do all changes in the Editor or
in Excel. Without the need to know programming.
By this the developer can concentrate on gamedesign and Art.