We'll have to invest a little...

Hello, there!

So in this last post I've listed tools I think of choosing as my primaries. But the thing is, we are all limited to how much money we've got! And when u decide to change your full time job or as in the case to start your own business, then you're probably a bit limited within your budget. So in my case I'm super limited... I live in Georgia and currently make 500$ a month. It's pretty enough to live here, but not a lot as u might expect. So I need to find a way to do what we've planed without big expenses.

Take into consideration that the purchases will have to take place only after you’ve developed a draft of a game on your PC.  Of course you can buy all these things beforehand, but you don’t have to! You use your good old computer, with all this software you didn’t pay a penny for until you understand that what you’ve developed can bring you money…

Let’s find out what we need!

First we need a Mac anyway. Even though all of the tools I've mentioned can run on a Windows PC , we'll still need something that runs OS X Snow Leopard to publish an app on the AppStore. You'll  have to use iPhone SDK and it runs on the OS only. So a Mac. The cheapest choice is a used Mac Mini... But it's not the one I prefer for the moment. The difference in price between the latest new one and the latest but used is not so significant. It will cost 612$ (well at the moment of writing it costs so much) to purchase Mac Mini on Amazon.com, but you can for sure find one in a local store.  I already have a display and other accessories and hope that so do u. If not, of course u need them too.

What we need next is a license of the software we use. 

·         In case of Airplay SDK it won't cost us a penny so far, just because we didn't make any money yet.

·         If we decide to use UDK we need 99$ for the start.

·         If our choice is Unity we'll have to find 1900$ somewhere. 

Of course Airplay is the cheapest, but it's not a game engine. UDK is good and doesn't cost u a lot until u make some money, but I'm a bit afraid of it just because it's pretty new to iOS. Unity is expensive for me at the stage. You just don't invest so much money in what you actually have no idea about, do u? But on the other side I really like it! So here is what I think. Create the first game with either Airplay or UDK and then purchase UnityPro iOS's license if we get enough profit. I guess it will most probably be UDK, but give me some time to have a closer look at Airplay. I didn't give it as much of attention as to the other's, to be honest.

So we've spent  100$ more for licensing the software. And we also have the game ready! What next?

 We need one more license....  Apple Software Developer's License so we could test the game on our device when we have the final binary version of it. It costs 99$ annually.

And here comes one more thing  which will take some cash from us. It's apparently an iOS device. iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. Now of course u can buy any of these but let me just show some of the differences.

·         iPhone/iPod touch apps are different from iPad's. iPhone apps can run on an iPad but not on contrary.

·         First generation iPhone can't run iOS 4, nor can the first iPod touch. The version of the OS includes features that are almost a must to any new app on AppStore today. (multitasking and Game Center).

·         And of course the difference in hardware! 4th generation of iPod touches and of course the iPhone itself have ultra high resolution (retina) displays, 1Ghz processor and better motion sensors.

 I believe u'll need a few of the devices of different generation for good testing, but u will necessarily need at least one for a start. Which one is up to you! If u're in a very tight budget as I am, I advice u to by an iPod touch. It has all that an iPhone has, except the phone function, which we're not so much of interested in now. Which generation? Well, I believe it will be better to test your game on a bit older device like iPod touch 3rd generation. It's just that what will work perfectly on your super latest model of might be a laggy mess on an older thing. So take it into consideration. Although to be honest I didn't. I couldn't help myself and just purchased iPod touch 4 from Amazon.com with this few clicks, so in my case it’s 199$. Actually I'm lovin' it! To be honest I write the posts using it! Although I do edit them on my PC.

So this is it! 612$+99$+99$+199$=1009$

I believe it’s not a lot.

 Now, as I said. You’ll need to spend the money only when you already have the game almost ready and running on your PC.  

Then the rest is up to how strong is your belief in yourself.