Does anyone know how long it take to develop a game like diablo or starcraft?

A couple of years with a couple hundred people working on it and about a million+ budget.....

lovely industry isnt it..i will stick to my backroom development as long as I can afford to...can''t beat it

OME

Yeah you'll need a lot of people for that kind of project. At the simplest level there are a bunch of designers, then software architects, then programmers and artists, sound effects people, musicians. Then games like Starcraft require map design, which requires some people.

The game art and various code parts are split between smaller teams of artists and programmers respectively. One team might be working on the graphics engine (which one must try to reuse as much as possible for as many games as possible), another team might be working on the level editor (as in the case of Starcraft where the editor itself is a HUGE project), and so on.

I'm not sure how many artists are required for a game like SC or Diablo, but must be a lot. Sound effects also require a number of people. Sound effects include things like voice narration, which requires actors. Music is always original in Blizzard games, so musicians are needed.

The average development time for a non-Blizzard game is supposed to be 18 months. I say "non-Blizzard" because Blizzard likes to "make a high quality product" as they like to put it, so they might take longer. But your average Joe Shmoe game development company (Interplay, Westwood) will try to finish a game in 18 months even if it means making a buggy product.

I'll stop here, I'm sure there are more people I missed, but you get the point. Games like this do have budgets in the hundreds of thousands, and even millions, and unless you've got some very generous investors I wouldn't recommend trying it

Long live backroom development!

Edited by - Supernova on September 26, 2000 5:08:00 PM

Amen Supernova Aren''t you a little far from home? I didn''t know your mom let you cross the street and come over to GameDev.net from Xgames3d.com If I end up making a small percent of what your typical games makes..hell even 1 percent of what it cost to develop Diablo I would be more then happy..but then again I am just one of the guys who isn''t in it for the money and I make a decent enough living at my normal job that I can do this for the rest of my life and be happy! Don''t get me wrong...getting that first game published be it valueware stuffed in a crate with a thousand other cds or that lucky day when me and my team get a stand alone(Hell if Firefighter can make it I hope one of my titles will eventually..that game was..well a good effort by the small guys ) Will be the happiest day in my life(or close to it)

Later
OME

Hehe yeah, I''m over 18 now so I don''t have to ask my parents'' permission

You guy''s go on about how it takes hundred''s of people to develop games....

The team''s at Blizzard and Blizzard North aren''t all that big, not for Diablo atleast anyway.
Lot''s of Artist''s ? I don''t think so just quality and very good artist''s.

Quality beat''s Quantity any day. Also many people are multi skilled. Sure 2 year''s sound''s about right but you have the people that develop the engines then implement them into the game.

1 Game Designer
1 Lead Programmer
5 Programmers
1 Lead Artist
3 Artist''s
3 Sound Engineers
2 Music Composers

and so on... remember they have 2 year''s to get it done and during 2 year''s that is ALL they do, they don''t do it in there spare time like everyone else, and yes they do have huge budget''s.

I just watched through the credits of StarCraft''s expansion pack Brood Wars and a rough estimate of the number of people who worked on the game (it doesn''t differentiate between SC and BW ppl), which include producers, arts, programmers, music, sound effects, voice acting, cinematics ppl, and map designers, was around 80 people. I stopped counting once it got to manual layout/art and quality assurance...

Also in the packaging of StarCraft it says "Coming in 1998: Diablo2".

Yes, and I''m sure every game could crank up the number of people who worked on it by adding it''s beta tester''s and quality assurance testers.

Yes produces, they are primarily people that fund the project and tell everyone how "they" like it.

Also we''re you counting name''s or what ? Because I can guarantee you that alot of them did more then just the one job.

Also DavidRM moderator of this section has made 2 game''s along side with his brother, sure they we''re no Diablo or Starcraft game''s but those game''s were/are enjoyed by thousands of people and the whole team consist of 3-5 people.

2 programmes, 1 artist, 1 sound engineer.
Then again if you included beta testers and quality assurance people you could probably change Artifact to a team of about 100 people because I was one of those 100 people.

What I''m trying to say is you don''t need to be a millionair with 100 other guys just to make a good game.