[casual_games] Estimated Project Costs (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Horn, Dan B Dr ARI]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED 
Caveats: NONE
 
Hi,

I'm a training researcher with the Army, and we've been doing a bunch of
work on serious games.  One avenue we are thinking about pursuing is the use
of casual games as training aids.  We're hoping to contract out the
development of some prototype games in the near future.  I've been asked to
figure out an estimate of what something like this would cost.  At this
point, I'm just trying to figure out the general neighborhood of what these
projects would cost.  Right now I am NOT asking for proposals - that goes
through a whole different office, and I just need to know about how much we
should be budgeting for this type of project.  Any help would be
appreciated.  Here's what we're thinking of doing:

 

Game Properties that are relatively common:

*Something with relatively well understood game mechanics like a match 3,
Tetris, or Solitaire type of game play.

*In Flash, or Java to be played in a web browser (although it would be good
to know what a stand-alone version would cost).

*Some basic artwork - mostly using existing graphics, like military insignia
or camouflage patterns

*Very generic music/sound

 

Things that are a bit less common

*ability to save detailed player performance logs on the server side (or
locally for a stand alone version)

*an authoring tool to allow different artwork to be applied (by instructors)
to the same game (e.g., changing the game pieces from gems to vehicles to
army men)

*ideally, the ability to have some author control (for instructors) over
game properties like whether games can be run in a timed or untimed mode,
how scoring occurs, etc.

 

Again, I'd appreciate (on or off-list) any thoughts on the neighborhood of
what we would expect to pay to have a studio create a game, and about how
long this type of project would take.

 

Thanks,

Dan

 

---
Dan Horn, Ph.D.
U.S. Army Research Institute
Research and Advanced Concepts Office (RACO)
2511 Jefferson Davis Hwy
Arlington, VA 22202-3926
703-602-7902 (DSN 332-7902)
dan.horn at hqda.army.mil

 
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED 
Caveats: NONE
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