   Making your own game, solo.
  How feasible is it to make a game close to the scale of Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind if I am making it from scratch with exception to the game engine itself, most of the sounds and some art (all of which I would l buy). I have some skill in art and music creation as well as ideas for the game itself. This would be a hobbyist project.   
  So, did I get this straight, you're gonna make everything except the engine, graphics and music from scratch?How much is left of everything after that? Scripting and a story?   ;  You do have to put this in consideration: They had a team, a big one probably. So say it took 34 people to make a game in about 2 years, then it would take 1 person to make it in maybe over 6 years.   ;  Its not feasable.  I often catch myself trying to do stuff like that, thinking that i can handle it, but before long, i always realise that a one man team doesn't cut it for big games.  Try shifting your focus to something smaller.   ;  how big is feasible? btw, music will be by me, sounds likely found stock, art will be a mix of me and what i can find.   ;  I can't answer that for you, because I don't know you. Do you have previous game development experience? If so, in what roles? Are you familiar with large-scale projects in general already? How long can you stay motivated? What are the most important aspects of your game idea, and what aspects can be thrown out if you lack the resources to implement them?Different persons have different motivation spans. For solo, unpaid hobby projects, my motivation span roughly lies between a few months and a year. After that I simply loose the motivation to go on. I've learned this by simply attempting projects and failing on them.So, nowadays I'm going for game projects that'll take me a month, perhaps two or three (always longer than planned - planning is something else I want to get better at), and I'm giving them a high priority, no side projects and stuff.Morrowind is a huge, huge game. It's not feasible for a single person, unless that person is extremely talented, experienced and efficient, and even then he lacks the benefits of a team - the end-product will likely not be very good. I think you're better off trying to create a much, much smaller scaled game. A decent, polished Flash game can take months already. If you succeed, then congrats! You know you're capable of handling it, you can learn from the feedback you get, and you can start with something bigger. Don't run before you know you can walk. Unless you want a baptism of fire. ;)[Edited by - Captain P on September 16, 2007 2:57:43 PM];Quote:Original post by JasRonqhow big is feasible? btw, music will be by me, sounds likely found stock, art will be a mix of me and what i can find.Feasible usually is arcade style games (at least in my case).If you have ever used the construction set for Morrowind than try making some large stuff in that (whole guilds and such) to get an idea of what they had to do to get the game working.;  I would say it's very feasible with a pre-made engine.Ask yourself this.1. Can you learn the engine?2. Can you learn the programming required to customize the engine?If you can answer yes to both of these, and you are planning to hire artists, then I don't see why you would fail.  Good luck.   ;  I'm pretty sure I read somewhere in an interview that it took over 400,000 man hours to develop TES: Morrowind. That would mean 33 people working 60 hour work weeks for 4 years.Just FYI.   ;Quote:Original post by Theodore FuhringerI'm pretty sure I read somewhere in an interview that it took over 400,000 man hours to develop TES: Morrowind. That would mean 33 people working 60 hour work weeks for 4 years.Just FYI.Sheesh, read what the guy is saying, folks.  Morrowind was not created with a pre-made engine.It won't take near that time.   