You get a budget of $20k to create your own game

[cpvr]

Let's say you get a budget of $20k to create your own pet or SIM game, what artists would you hire? What coders would you hire? Where are some places you'd advertise with this type of money at your dispense? What features would you make sure your game opened up with? How many items and pets would you have?

So, discuss what you would do with a budget of $20k.

Personally, I'm spending $5k to get the site fully coded. Then, the rest on art and advertising.

[Callix]

I'd move straight onto the mobile platform with only a website for a community/blog/news purpose - 7k on programming, 3k on artwork and 10k on advertising gradually. I don't think artwork would be resource intensive really and I could come up with much of the artwork on my own since mobile graphics are still basic in comparison. I'd hope to push a website out on top of this after the project launched. $20k is about double what I'm looking to put in my own project :'( who knows what funding I can procure in the future though

[BigThinker]

I'd have my site completely recoded by a professional, have 10 - 20 flash games made, spend about 5k on artwork, pay for server costs for 2 years and use the rest for advertising and a handful of merchandise.

[bauss]

I'd only spend about $1000 out of the $20k on advertising, $2000 on coding, and everything else on art and graphics, because I think it's extremely important to have a ton of art for a pet site, and the more complete your pet game is when you launch the more interest that'll be generated from your members.

[Dog]

Let's say you get a budget of $20k to create your own pet or SIM game, what artists would you hire? What coders would you hire? Where are some places you'd advertise with this type of money at your dispense? What features would you make sure your game opened up with? How many items and pets would you have?

So, discuss what you would do with a budget of $20k.

Personally, I'm spending $5k to get the site fully coded. Then, the rest on art and advertising.

$5-8k for coding, though I don't know names so I don't know who I'd hire.
I would hire a semi-realistic artist, not something toon-y, so... I'm guessing another $5k on art.
Writing I can do myself, so I get off scot-free for that.
I'd try to advertise here. FA, definitely. Facebook. Tumblr. Twitter.
Then I'll, hopefully, have some extra to get me through the beginning months and emergencies. c:

[sunandshadow]

I would work up a design, then look for someone who was already trying to make their own similar game, demonstrating drive and skill (ideally programming skill), then I'd show them the design and offer to team up with them, providing the budget in exchange for design authority.

[cpvr]

I'd have my site completely recoded by a professional, have 10 - 20 flash games made, spend about 5k on artwork, pay for server costs for 2 years and use the rest for advertising and a handful of merchandise.

Why not aim higher and have more flash games designed and coded? Something like having just as many flash games as Neopets does if not more. That would really rock. You would need a good quality server with a lot of ram and good specs which would last you a long time. For features, what type of things would you made sure your site offered that others don't have? What type of merchandise would you get made as well?

Would your site have pet customization, human avatars or both?

What are some places you'd advertise on as well?

[BigThinker]

Why not aim higher and have more flash games designed and coded? Something like having just as many flash games as Neopets does if not more. That would really rock. You would need a good quality server with a lot of ram and good specs which would last you a long time. For features, what type of things would you made sure your site offered that others don't have? What type of merchandise would you get made as well?

Would your site have pet customization, human avatars or both?

What are some places you'd advertise on as well?

There are too many features that need to be coded before I invest more in games. I suppose if there is money left over at the very end, I'd get more games in.

No customization and looks like there won't be any avatars.

I'd advertise on google, youtube, facebook, through friends, cars, and businesses.

[Ardy]

As much as possible/neccesary should be put into the coding, a lot of sites think that they can "save" money on coding by hiring a sub-par programmer and then they end up recoding the site from the ground up a second time. The ultimate waste of time and money, so do it right the first time and don't sacrafice the quality of the site for pretty artwork. It's cheaper and easier to revamp artwork than it is doing a re-code. Plus there are a lot of amazing artists out there that can work at rates that won't break your budget, but there aren't many talented programmers that are willing to do the same. /end two cents