Game Development Cost Estimator

A simple mobile game (casual or hyper-casual) typically costs between £5,000 and £40,000. A mid-complexity mobile game with custom UI, monetisation, and analytics can range from £30,000 to £100,000. Complex mobile titles like RPGs or multiplayer games can exceed £200,000. The final cost depends on art style, feature set, content volume, and backend requirements.

PC games generally cost 10-30% more than mobile equivalents due to higher resolution assets and more complex input systems. Console development adds further costs for certification, devkit licensing, and platform-specific optimisation. A mid-range PC indie game typically costs £50,000 to £200,000.

The biggest cost drivers are:

• Game complexity and genre - an MMO is fundamentally more expensive than a puzzle game.
• Art style - pixel art, stylised 3D, and realistic 3D each have dramatically different production costs.
• Content volume - a 2-hour prototype costs a fraction of a 20-hour campaign.
• Team size - larger teams deliver faster but cost more due to coordination overhead.
• Starting point - porting or building on an existing codebase is significantly cheaper than starting from scratch.

Yes. Many successful indie games were made with modest budgets by focusing on a tight core loop and minimal viable scope. We recommend starting with a prototype to validate your concept before committing to full production. Our game design services can help you scope a realistic MVP.

This tool provides a planning guide based on your selections. Costs may increase or decrease as we review your assets, codebase and technical requirements, or as your feedback and requested changes affect the scope. We confirm the scope and pricing basis before work starts and agree any later changes with you before carrying them out. Contact us to discuss a project-specific estimate.

Yes. For fixed-price projects we typically work with milestone-based payments; a deposit, then payments at Alpha, Beta, and Gold Master. For ongoing co-development we offer monthly retainers. Visit our How We Work page for more detail on engagement models.

A larger team costs more in total pay even when it finishes sooner, because more developers means more communication channels, more meetings, more complex version control workflows, and dedicated project management. This coordination overhead is related to what Brooks's Law describes: adding people to a project that is already running late tends to slow it down further, rather than speed it up. A solo developer working for 12 months is typically cheaper in total than a 6-person team completing the same work in 3 months, though the larger team delivers sooner.

When porting, the core game design, assets, and much of the codebase already exist. The work focuses on platform adaptation: input remapping, performance optimisation, UI scaling, and platform-specific certification. This typically costs 40-55% of a greenfield build. Our porting and optimisation service specialises in exactly this.

Timelines vary enormously by scope. A hyper-casual mobile game can be prototyped in 4-6 weeks. A mid-range mobile title typically takes 4-8 months. A full PC or console game with multiplayer features can take 12-24 months or more.