About game development budget, and some advices to judge if a project is okay or not.
First, I write this all based on my own experience. I saw some people has been misunderstood about game development budget and progress, especially those for otome, and I think I need to talk a bit about it. Remember, some of these might not apply to other developer.
1. Good art, doesn't guarantee that developer is professional and the game will be finished. It's very easy to get good art nowadays. You simply need to check DA etc, and hire pro artist. But again, it has nothing to do with development. It's true that good art will be eye-catching and make the developer look professional, though again, it's only professional artist, if the developer has no experience in making game before. Finishing a product is a great achievement, even if it's only a short game. At least it's proof that developer know how to make a game, how to handle the branch, and how to handle the team. Also it's important that dev have the experience in making game with the same genre before. Usually some programmers will say, making VN is easy (yes it's true VN is relatively easy to program), but they ended make VN without VN basic functions, as they don't know what is necessary.
2. Having over 10k budget for a simple otome game, is not something common. (at least for me) Honestly, I've never spent that much if it's for outsourcing only (I never calculated how much I should pay for my own self for what I did on my game though). Before, I got an email asking me to be a sponsor of a new developer to make a new otome game, saying it's only 20k USD and my eyes roll out. 20k usd is like my 1~2 year income(;´･ω･) urm... yeah my game doesn't sell that much so you're free to blame me for that. But again, some people seems to be surprised when I tell them about this. It's very hard to sell otome and get earning over 10k usd to break even. Especially now, that so many AAA translated games which made players become more picky; not all have the time to play so many otome games, and most will pick famous otome games, especially if it has anime and others. Last time I spent over than 6k and I need a year or more to break even. I asked some people from the industry in Japan, and mostly said, usually a game, success or fail, can be judged from if it can break even within the first month or not. It's pretty tight, honestly.
3. Over 200k words etc might sound wonderful, but not all developer can really finish such a long game, especially in short time. Moreover if they are inexperienced newbie, or if it's voiced. Usually long story can trigger inconsistency, which need to be checked frequently, to make sure if the flow is okay. And if it's voiced, it will take more time to record, and check voice for such a length, not mention, if the game is voiced, it's nearly impossible to fix the sentence after the beta/alpha test (test after voice has been implemented to the game), as it will cause voice mismatch with the text, unless the VA is able to retake, even if at the last minutes. (usually not all VA able to do this)
4. Not everyone can work for the same project for years. This is pretty obvious. Even within few months everything can change easily. The more staffs the development team has, the more human drama and other problems might occur. Usually I use the method: if the staff doesn't reply the email within a week, I need consider to find someone new. The problem is, if the development leader has no solution how to proceed the development with the member who has quit (like if she/he can't do XXX, which is the core part of the development). Also, depends on how they've worked, there is a chance that developer needs to change all the old asset because of the staff who has quit. This might make the progress eternally unfinished. My suggestion is, as far as you could, find out about the person who will work with you. Game development world is not that wide. It's very easy to find information here and there. But again, if it's about years, anything can happen as we don't know what happen in future. It's the best to keep the production time short. Actually within my game's development, there are 2~3 times where my staff underwent a surgery because of light~serious sickness but luckily it didn't affect the development itself. Case like VA disappeared also happened, but again, luckily they're all after the game is finished, so it gives no effect. I must say, VA runaway is the most common thing in game development, beside the case artist runaway. But as far as I know, it's not because they quit being a VA (there is case like that but rare), it’s usually because of they got better chance of job (like stage play actors etc) and getting busy, or family troubles, or want to concentrate to personal project, or... the worst... flame/ woman trouble (yeah it happens a lot, especially if it's studio recording and the male VA flirt the female VA when they met and~~~) Though, I must say the most uncommon things I know, is from a friend, about one day she turned on her TV only to find out her VA got arrested by police... like what I said, no one knows about future.
My suggestion is, finished all the scenario first before getting the VA, then fast, get them to record, check it thoroughly (how clear the pronunciation, acting wise, make sure they read everything correctly), and done. Don't make them wait too long, because sometime, they will forget and think the project is canceled.
5. Not all VN developer can get earning over 1k usd per month, especially otome. (Some can, but in my case it’s very hard to reach that amount) Otome developer, especially indies, is not a promising job. I won't be able to be a full-time developer like now, if I didn't choose to move out from Japan. And now, I can't say my earning is good enough to continue making games yet (I keep trying though, idk what I'll be if I can't make games...) Some people might think otome sells good, as many people talk about making otome on the internet, but if you check through steam spy thoroughly, only some titles are good (mostly AAA) while other got forgotten. I can see that mostly otome players are quite picky rather than galgame player, who mostly buy the game because of the cute character. More otome players wait for the reviews (and while waiting some will forget), or checking the money balance at that time. I'm not saying it's bad, but it's the fact that it gives developer less earning.
Last, I'm sorry if this make you worried of the project you might already back now...
