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Hello

Is it possible to develop a 3D "point and click adventure game" (think of Life is Strange, Syberia (the last two ones who are in 3D), Detroit Become human (with way less of production value of course), the newer Sherlock Holmes games... Etc. I think you get the picture.

Game Characteristics:

- 3D "point and click adventure"(like Life is Strange, Syberia, Detroit Become Human,  Sherlock Holmes games...) etc.

- Unreal Engine

- "Deduction mechanism" (like in all new "detective" adventure games (agatha christie poirot games, Sherlock Holmes etc.), otherwise pretty much standard adventure games mechanisms, nothing special, no "extra hard to develop" game mechanisms planned...

- PC platform (steam)

- 8 hours of gameplay (approximately)

- Really no real "story or choice" branching at all (NO "Detroit become human", NO "Dark pictures Anthalogy"), rather a linear experience.

- Heavy useage of various bought "pre-made" assets (3D, "code" etc.) to speed up and "cheapen" development

- Fully english voice acted (of course)

6 people payed full time (experienced people (at least one title shipped)) + externists (sound, music, voice acting, translation etc.) , 12 months of development

- One programmer (not just blueprints) experienced in Unreal Engine

- One Level Designer in Unreal engine.  -  Im not sure about this, but he might partially be also doing "3D Generalists stuff" because im not sure he needs 12 months for the work, i think he should be able to finish all the "maps" (locations) sooner than 12 months... But im not sure about this point...(any map makers out there...?)

- One 3D Animator ( we will use Mocap and probably Facial capture as well, so he will have way less work because of this) i assume that he should finish the work in half the time (6 months instead of 12, so the remaining 6 months im planning to use him as a 3D generalist (or hire dedicated 3D generalist instead of him for the remaining 2nd 6 months of development).

- 1st 3D Graphic Designer - Character Artist specialization - We will use "easier" solutions for characters -Metahuman, Character Creator etc. Im not planning to sculpt a lot of characters from "nothing"/beggining. The same goes for clothing. We will try to use "easier" "pre-made" solutions, but some brand new work in Marvelous Designer will be probably still needed. Still again, im somewhat "confident" he can finish all the characters because of this sooner than in 12 months, so in the "free time", im planning to use him also as a "3D generalist"...

- 2nd 3D Graphic Designer - "Generalist" (Props, Enviroments etc.)

- 3rd 3D Graphic Designer - "Generalist" - myself. Although because i will be doing all the other stuff around the project , im planning I might be able to allocate only like 50% of my time (at most, probably even less) to 3D graphics itself...

So 6 "experienced" (at least one title shipped i would like from them to have) people, full time, 12 months...

Its HARD to predict of course but according to me, it COULD and SHOULD be possible/doable to make this game...?

2 things im a bit worried:

1st) Is only one programmer sufficient...? But again, we are talking about basically a "point and click adventure" (in 3D) ... I just cannot see why one (experienced) programmer that can buy/use all the "code" from unreal engine marketplace he wants, should have a problem with that... Im not building the next AI (ChatGPT), im building a "frickin" "point and click adventure" game (basically) in 3D...

2nd) Im not sure if I have enough of 3D graphic designers... I have one dedicated Generalist, then me (0,5x time generalist), thats "1 and a half" (1,5) 3D generalist... Than i have a dedicated 3D character artists... I really assume that he should be able to finish with all the character stuff way sooner than in 12 months and thus should help with 3D generalist stuff. The same goes for the 3D animator... Im not sure about the Unreal Engine Level/map editor guy though... He might need all those 12 months...?

So... whats your experience, tips, predictions, oppinions... Do you think its a reasonable number of people (6 full time guys) and development time (12 months) for such game...?

(Also if anybody has any links, articles etc. about how much time each game genre takes to develop, or simply some writtings/info in this direction i would be glad to read it, i wasnt able to find much (nothing really) in this specific issue of gamedev)...?

Thanks

Thanks

1) on reddit someone told me his number was even 57,5% (and not mine expected 46,4 or yours 30, in other places i got 30 as well).

2) Regarding discounts - yeah, this is projection for the 1st year more or less and im not (at this point) planning discounts. BUT your point about the discounts in the beggining of the sales is valid, i didnt realize it. I dont usually buy games when they launch so i forgot about this. It wasnt like this before, WHEN did this trend start? (giving 10-15% discount on the games launch?) and do ALL games do it? (majority at least)?

3) You wrote:

"1) No. One thing is the percentage that you receive for each copy actually sold and another very different thing, it is to calculate an estimate based on the value of the full price in the USA vs the total estimate of sales in the world."

Well thats why theres the "Regional adjustment" sale number (at 15%) i assumed this number is for the reason you wrote about?

thanks

Im doing some estimating/planning of net revenue of my game (game just in my head currently) - how much will my company receive after all other things/actors take their cut. The breakdown shows that from every copy of game sold, I (my company) willl receive  ~ 46% from its selling price... Is this realistic? What is the number usually...?

The picture/table:

https://prnt.sc/hiT-QWPiV7xB

My questions are:

1) Is the 46,41% my company receives from every copy sold realistic...? Whats this number usually like?

2) Are all the other numbers realistic...?
Returns & Chargebacks:            7,00%

Adjust for Regional Pricing:        15,00%

VAT (/Sales Tax in USA) - AVERAGE:    15,00%

3) Are the red arrows correct? Did i understand (and pictured) correctly the subtotals the % are taken from...? (for example Valves takes its 30% AFTER VAT is deducted ; Unreal Engine Takes its 5% (if gross revenue exceeds 1 mil USD) from BEFORE VAT is deducted...?) (BUT AFTER chargebacks and regional pricing) etc. correct?

Additional questions/"analysis":

I) Are the returns and chargebacks realistic at 7% only?  (if my game is ok, good, no excess of bugs etc.)? Also WHY are chargebacks deducted and why are they often counted in separate category (i did NOT do it here)? Are majority of chargebacks atrributed to purchases made by stolen credit cards...? Or do some customers ABUSE the "return" policy and even if they played OVER steams 2 hours, they just get a "REFUND" by contacting their bank/credit card and asking for a chargeback ("illegal refund" essentialy)? (simply whats the reasoning behind chargebacks and sometimes counting them separately from refunds?)

II) Adjustments for regional pricing... Not sure i understand it correctly...
-If my game for example sells 100% of its copies ONLY in the USA, there would be NO need for "Adjustments of regional pricing" (0%)  (since in USA it sells for its original full price)...? BUT (!):

-If i sell 100% of my copies in Russia (for example) for 5 USD (typical price adjustment for Russia AFAIK), the "Regional pricing adjustment" number would have to be at 50%...?

-AND If I will sell 50% of my copies in USA (full price 10 USD lets say), and 50% of my copies in Russia (for 5 USD), that would mean that the "Regional pricing adjustment" number would have to be at 25%, correct?

III) Regarding VAT...  There is NO VAT in the USA... in the USA there is "Sales Tax", and is added ON TOP (in addition) of the original price of the game. And i dont really need to count anywhere in the table with it...?
-So if my game sells 100% of its coppies in the US, the "VAT" number in my table/chart shown would be 0% since i dont need to count with it in the table at all...?

-But if my game sells 100% of its copies in some other country (lets say Germany, whatever), that has VAT (and not sales tax), and the VAT in that country is 20% for example. This means 2 things - the VAT is now included in the price of the game (its not added on top of the game as in the case of "sales tax" in USA), and now in my calculations (table/chart) i would have to count with the VAT number at 20%... correct?

-AND If my game sells 50% copies in the USA and 50% copies in Germany, now i have to count with VAT at the average rate of 10% (0% USA, 20% Germany = 10 % VAT on average on every sold copy)... Correct?

I think developers (me included) do not fully understand the nuances in these numbers as shown, so i think if somebody can clarify/answer these, it would be MUCH HELP not just for me, but for a lot of other Devs as well...

Thank you