Developement cost and time for a game similiar to RuneScape classic?

Hello,

I am wondering how long it would take to develop a game similiar to RuneScape classic, and how much it would cost me if I hired programmers to do the project?

Would a budget of 100K be enough? If some experienced java programmers that are familiar with runescape classic could give me their opinions, I would appreciate it.

Thanks!

I am almost 100% sure that Runescape is developed in Director. Sure it may use Javascript, but based on the game I would say shockwave is what they used for the engine. If I remember correctly the guys who built runscape were just 2 brothers who built it for fun. 100k for a game like runescape, ha no way. The only money that game needs is for servers and maybe staff if they even have any.

Truth be told, you could build a online multiplayer game in flash (wouldnt be 3d) for relitively cheap. You could do director for 3d, but I wouldnt suggest it.

I would have to disagree a bit with Prime. The servers and bandwith alone needed to run a game like runescape would be fairly costly. The time spent to plan, design and develope a game like that would also cost quite a bit (if you had professional game developers tahts probably easy $50-$75 bucks a hour). Then you need tech support, advertising, the whole shebang. In theory you might be able to do it for 100G It really depends what you are looking for as an end result. if it's just for you and your buddies to mess around with online you could do it for much cheaper. If you planto rival runescape... plan on spending some big $$$

i have learned over the years that if you look hard and long enough you can find what you need for free. i like your idea and im hoping to tone my game devolpment skills up to a lvl in wich i can make a game like rsc except with more creativity and a darker background

Sure, I guess in 80 years of searching, I'll be able to get that PowerMac G5 for free.

Probably five years.

Henry David Thoreau does software development... and by living off the land he means recycling manufactured building materials ... :-\

it all depends on your sources in the world the only thing thatmay take some time is getting enough bandwith to host it. but that won't cost that much so all i suggest is getting a part time job at mcdonalds

Wow 100k, i never realized these games can go up to that much! wow...

sry off topic, but amazed me.

Thats relativly cheap these days, some games run into the millions, the most expensive one I've heard of had development costs of 40 million (halo 2), this wasnt an online game though it can be played online. Linky

Displeaser

here is a post that pretty much explains the costs of some of the bigger mmorpgs out there pretty well
check it out

When I was working in the games industry a decade ago, the cost of a commercial single player game was several million (pounds or dollars) - it typically took a team of a dozen or so programmers and artists working full time for one to two years to develop. Salaries have increased substantially since then, as has the power of computers, so the trend is for games to get bigger and more complex. I have heard of large games with 50+ developers and costs in the tens of millions (someone has already mentioned Halo). However the rise of third-party middleware (3D engines, physics engines, AI engines) can help keep the cost down since developers can concentrate on the game logic rather than building infrastructure.

However for a MMORG than is only half the story. You also need to add the cost of running the servers and maintaining the game world. This can run into thousands (or tens of thousands) per month.

There are games that buck this trend - open source games written by a group of enthusiasts, using open source tools. However it is rare for these to come close to the standard and compexity of commercial games.

Dave

great link

Runescape is developed in Java, and they have over a million lines of code of their 'own' language called RuneScript.

Its not so much the development of the game that will cost you, its getting people to play it!