A discussion broke out on the network about how much the budget of the first part of Fallout would change in 2022. On the one hand, modern technologies accelerate the development and simplify its individual elements. On the other hand, it is impossible not to take into account many other factors, including inflation.The discussion of this issue began with a post on Reddit.
User Burgermeister_42 asked if the production of a similar Fallout title cost the same or cheaper.
In his question, he outlined several conditions:
- you cannot copy and use elements from an existing game;as in the case of the original Fallout, it is necessary to make all the elements from scratch: code, dialogues, art design, voice acting, etc.;
- you can take advantage of modern technologies that can simplify development;
- as a result, it should not be a remake of Fallout with an AAA budget and impressive graphics, but a game similar in content and visual style – just made in modern realities.
- Budget and inflation
According to Brian Fargo, founder of Interplay Entertainment, the development of Fallout cost about $3 million.
This amount included working with sound, creating commercials, and the overhead costs of publishing the game.
The development of Fallout began in 1994, and the full release took place in October 1997. Taking into account inflation, the title’s budget in translation into modern money would be about $4.9-5.3 million.
However, such a rough calculation does not take into account many factors.
The main one is the salary level. In the 90s, programmers received significantly less on average. This is what Fargo himself says. In the period from 1994 to 1997, an American college graduate could count on the starting salary of a software developer in the range of $ 28-32 thousand per year.
Today, the average level of the initial PO has grown significantly, not to mention the earnings of more experienced specialists. According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary of a game developer in the United States is $82 thousand (as of February 2022). This category includes various professions related to game development. For example, programmers on average get more ($103 thousand), and artists — less ($72 thousand).
Thus, only salaries today would have to spend much more than 25 years ago.
Team size and development speedOne of the advantages of modern development is technology.
Ready-made engines and many other tools are available to studios. They save resources and speed up individual stages of development, including pre-production.
In addition, in the 25 years since the release of Fallout, standards for most genres have appeared in the industry. Today there are hundreds of titles that can be used as a reference and find solutions to individual problems in them when developing your game. In the case of Fallout, Interplay had to come up with a lot of things from scratch and solve problems as they arise. It also slowed down and complicated the development.
At the same time, one of the Reddit users stressed that the lion’s share of the work in the production of a Fallout—like game lies in the creation of assets (characters, environment, interface, etc.). Specifically, this element of development has not become easier in recent years – especially if developers make completely original assets, and do not use ready-made libraries.
As the CadavericSpasms user noted, today a team of 30-50 people will be needed to produce such an RPG with tactical combat and a non-linear story. The development itself may take a little more than two years — about 27 months.
Taking into account modern salaries in the American game dev, the maintenance of such a team will cost about $205-340 thousand per month. With such calculations, the final budget will be about $5.5-9.1 million. This does not include additional expenses and marketing expenses.
You can go one more way — to assemble a small team of several enthusiasts and work on the game for, say, five years. In this case, the budget may even be less than a million dollars. However, such a case would be irrelevant in a conversation about the first Fallout.
“Fallout 1 was not a project of indie developers working from home. It was a product of an experienced company that invested the appropriate resources in it,” CadavericSpasms emphasized.
Comparison with Wasteland 2As an example, we can take a relatively modern game similar to the first Fallout.
As one of the Reddit users noted, Wasteland 2, released in 2014, is suitable for this.
Initially, inXile Entertainment planned to raise $900 thousand on Kickstarter. Brian Fargo himself noted that even in modern realities, the very $3 million that she once spent on the first Fallout would be enough for a comfortable development of the studio. As a result, the developers managed to raise $2.9 million.
Speaking about the size of the team, Brian Fargo noted that when working on Wasteland 2, the studio used the services of outsourcers and freelancers much more. But when creating the first Fallout, the team completely relied on its own strength.
As a result, the total budget of Wasteland 2 increased to $6 million during development. Taking into account inflation, a similar project in 2022 would cost about $7 million. However, it is not known whether marketing expenses are included in this amount. In some cases, they may be equal to the production budget or even exceed it.
As one of the Reddit users noted, today a project similar to the first Fallout would be promoted on the market much more aggressively than 25 years. Without having marketing data, it is difficult to even roughly calculate how much the full production and launch of such a game would cost.