After doing the schedule, if I work 10-15 hours a day with no breaks until the end of Feb. I can get the game out at the start of March. Hopefully I can get it done faster than that but right now things take a lot longer because it’s my first pass, so I spend a lot of time refactoring code.
The big question mark right now on the release date is the people I hired. It’s possible they can help me with gameplay code, to get things done faster. It’s also possible that things might get screwed up and draw away my time. I’m going to have to be much less kind-hearted and drop workers that aren’t producing. Because I was too forgiving, I lost the first month of the project. I won’t make that mistake again.
Right now the total cost of the game looks to be 110K US, which is pretty cheap for an MMOG. It’s about average for a $20 on the shelf-game though. In order to make my money back in 1 year, after counting ongoing costs, I need about 2500 paying subscribers. Of course that is assuming I don’t pay myself. If I do, I need another 1000 subscribers or so.
I think this is still reasonable. Even the worst MMOG gets that many subscribers and although mine is a lot smaller and simpler, it’s still going to be a fun and nice looking game.