I don't think it would literally be $16 million to do a 2d RPG, but I could see it being maybe 2-5 million, with a small but experienced team.

Like I said before, it boils down to time- and while technology has improved, and some things are much easier to do, it's still not THAT much easier. A full featured game takes a long time to make. Even if you start with a pre-made engine, you still have to break down the whole game into smaller tasks as ask "how long will this take?" With a high number of features, the answer is always "a long time", and usually ends up taking longer than you originally expected.

I was super excited to bring this thing back to life

There's always the "small team of indies working for free in their spare time 'cause it's what they want to do" approach, or crowdfunding, but you'd need to sell people on the idea first. Or do most of it yourself and just recognize that it's going to take years to get anywhere close to done.

I was super excited to bring this thing back to life

There's always the "small team of indies working for free in their spare time 'cause it's what they want to do" approach, or crowdfunding, but you'd need to sell people on the idea first. Or do most of it yourself and just recognize that it's going to take years to get anywhere close to done.

Is there a section in these forums for "kids that work for free in their spare time because that's what they want to do?" Because I'd go that route and then crowdfund the game so I'd be able to give them their just deserts. I'm 27 years old and I am very well aware that starving artists can't eat off of publicity and "exposure"

If you mean a section to try to recruit people to help you with such a project, then yes: the hobby classifieds forum. Read the sticky threads there before posting.

If you want to discuss some aspect of making the project work, or a specific technical or design question, here is fine.

Is there a section in these forums for "kids that work for free in their spare time because that's what they want to do?" Because I'd go that route and then crowdfund the game so I'd be able to give them their just deserts. I'm 27 years old and I am very well aware that starving artists can't eat off of publicity and "exposure"

If you mean a section to try to recruit people to help you with such a project, then yes: the hobby classifieds forum. Read the sticky threads there before posting.

If you want to discuss some aspect of making the project work, or a specific technical or design question, here is fine.

Have you guys seen anyone come here as just a game writer (designer?)

Yes, frequently.

and have success in recruiting help either pro bono or at a low cost?

No.

Out of tens of thousands, I have seen a handful that had moderate commercial success.

The vast majority stop with "Let's make a cool game!", day 2.

Of those that survive, most stop at "this project is way bigger than I thought," about day 10.

Of those that survive, most stop at "I don't feel like I'm making any progress," about day 15.

It is rare to see projects that last more than a month. They generally have a small core group of people who know each other in real life, meet together frequently in real life, and have a long-term shared goal to make something that they all have taken the time to mutually understand.

Sometimes projects do get completed -- with various definitions of 'done' -- and then die when people discover they built a game that has no viable target market, or that they are unwilling to invest in marketing costs to reach their potential customers, or make the discovery that they forgot to include a path to financial viability other than "we'll use ads".

kids

Just a thought -

You do "get what you pay for" in terms of recruiting "free" work. Lots of hobbyists are amazing at what they do, but just as many might not be very good at all. That's the nature of a hobby. I would venture a guess that most very skilled workers are already putting that talent to work and getting paid for it, so you're still only working within their spare time if they agree to help you.

starving artists

That's another reason why I said "spare time". If you don't have the money, then you have to substitute time in that place, which means that (aside from literally starving), the only option is to do that work as a side-thing while maintaining a regular job.

Have you guys seen anyone come here as just a game writer (designer?)

Yes, frequently.

and have success in recruiting help either pro bono or at a low cost?

No.

Out of tens of thousands, I have seen a handful that had moderate commercial success.

The vast majority stop with "Let's make a cool game!", day 2.

Of those that survive, most stop at "this project is way bigger than I thought," about day 10.

Of those that survive, most stop at "I don't feel like I'm making any progress," about day 15.

It is rare to see projects that last more than a month. They generally have a small core group of people who know each other in real life, meet together frequently in real life, and have a long-term shared goal to make something that they all have taken the time to mutually understand.

Sometimes projects do get completed -- with various definitions of 'done' -- and then die when people discover they built a game that has no viable target market, or that they are unwilling to invest in marketing costs to reach their potential customers, or make the discovery that they forgot to include a path to financial viability other than "we'll use ads".

I was going to pay for basically the entirety of its creation. I had hopes of creating this game and submitting it to steam. If I had a budget of say $20 thousand. Would that be a feasible amount to create something that plays like, we'll say, chronic trigger.

You mean Chrono Trigger?

No, that is nowhere near enough. Looking it over, that game was about 2 years in development with about 70 people based on their credits. That's about 140 work years, or about $16M in salary.

You can probably hire someone to make an extremely simple game that follows the same style of Chrono Trigger. $20K will give you about 2 months of professional work, or about 5-10 months of amateur work. That won't get you very far, but it could make something that vaguely reminds you of Chrono Trigger.

Although it's worth mentioning that many of those developers weren't working on Chrono Trigger for the entirety of it's development - at least half the development team is credited on at least one other Square game that was in development at the same time, which includes Final Fantasy 6 (which has 35 shared credits with Chrono Trigger just by itself), Live A Live, Front Mission, and Seiken Densetsu 3.