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71b12181
Community Member

Estimate for Board Game Art

I want to charge a fixed price for the artwork of a board game I'm designing. I'm not sure what to charge and it was suggested in another forum post to ask the UpWork community for estimates before posting the job.

 

What would the estimated artwork cost of the following be?

 

1 Box (approx. 11.5” x 11.5”)

1 Manual (approx. 14 pages)

1 Main Board (20” x 30”)

1 Player Board (4” x 10” - there are 4 of these but all the art work is the same)

1 Time Line (3” x 10” - there are 16 of these but all the art work is the same, just different text)

3 Planet Tiles (1” in diameter - purple planet, white planet and brown planet)

1 Wormhole Tile (approx. 1/2” in diameter - same design for 4 player colors)

2 Time Ripple Tiles (approx. 1” hexagon with text - same design for 4 player colors)

4 Specialist Tiles (.78” x .78” science, communication, military, and technology)

1 Mission Complete Card (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - same art work on front and back)

1 Quick Reference Card (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - mainly text, different on front and back)

1 Statistician Card (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - different front and back)

4 Event Cards (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - different backs, same front)

14 Action Cards (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - different backs, same front)

 

Theme of the game is time travel. Will need sci-fi futuristic look and outer space elements.

15 REPLIES 15
prestonhunter
Community Member

re: "I want to charge a fixed price for the artwork of a board game I'm designing. I'm not sure what to charge and it was suggested in another forum post to ask the UpWork community for estimates before posting the job."

 

You mean that you want to "commission" artwork for a board game you are designing.

 

You will will not "charge" a fixed price.

 

You will "ask for fixed-price quotes."

 

There is really no way to do that here in Forum. We can not provide you with fixed-price quotes for artwork. Individual artists can provide you with fixed-price quotes. Different artists will have different prices. Some might ask for $100 to create a box design. Some might ask for $5000.

 

You will need to post your job desription on the main site at Upwork.com, and ask freelancers to provide with fixed-price quotes.

 

You really should not try to do this all at once. This is a big project. If you want to save money, you need to post a job for somebody to ONLY do a small piece of this, or to ONLY provide you with some concept sketches. If you hire 5 to 10 artsits, you should have a good set of results to decide from when it comes time to commissioning the full project.

silw
Community Member

Glad to see someone actually asking while being unsure.

 

If you are an artist, usually you see within a second if someone can deliver or not.

For an untrained eye Preston's approach isn't the worst.

It might seem like losing some money, but it's lowering the risk of losing a lot of nerves, time, AND even more money.

It is not just about an artist's abilities.

 

Seeing a freelancer's portfolio or the samples he sends you is great.

 

But what if you hire a really talented artist, and he simply doesn't send you any work?

 

This has happened to me.

 

When I have had deadlnes and I have hired artists, then hiring more than one artist has sometimes meant the difference between having something, or having nothing.

There is no way to answer this question. Everyone is different, and depending on whether you want original art or stock art you might need one person to do the illustrations and another to handle the manual, packaging, game pieces, etc. Someone overseas will charge less but you will have time differences to deal with and possibly language barriers.

 

What is your budget? It will be easier for you to come up with a number you're comfortable with and then have designers choose whether or not it's worth their time than the other way around. IMO

Or you can find artists you like and pay them their hourly rate.

mtngigi
Community Member


Jonathan P wrote:

I want to charge a fixed price for the artwork of a board game I'm designing. I'm not sure what to charge and it was suggested in another forum post to ask the UpWork community for estimates before posting the job.

 

What would the estimated artwork cost of the following be?

 

1 Box (approx. 11.5” x 11.5”)

1 Manual (approx. 14 pages)

1 Main Board (20” x 30”)

1 Player Board (4” x 10” - there are 4 of these but all the art work is the same)

1 Time Line (3” x 10” - there are 16 of these but all the art work is the same, just different text)

3 Planet Tiles (1” in diameter - purple planet, white planet and brown planet)

1 Wormhole Tile (approx. 1/2” in diameter - same design for 4 player colors)

2 Time Ripple Tiles (approx. 1” hexagon with text - same design for 4 player colors)

4 Specialist Tiles (.78” x .78” science, communication, military, and technology)

1 Mission Complete Card (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - same art work on front and back)

1 Quick Reference Card (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - mainly text, different on front and back)

1 Statistician Card (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - different front and back)

4 Event Cards (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - different backs, same front)

14 Action Cards (approx. 2.5 x 3.5 - different backs, same front)

 

Theme of the game is time travel. Will need sci-fi futuristic look and outer space elements.


Jonathan,

 

It's possible you may find someone to do it all, but doubtful. The artwork created is what will dictate the look of the box and the manual, as well as the cards. My suggestion is that you get the artwork created first. Once you have that, you'll want to find a freelancer who does print and/or package design (or both). That person will be able to do the cards, box and manual.

 

Make sure the artist you hire knows how to ensure the artwork being created will reproduce and print well. Get the main game components established first - the rest will follow. 

71b12181
Community Member

Thanks to all for the replies. The reason why I was asking for a fixed price is because I am doing a kickstarter campaign to fund the artwork. I need to know ahead of time what this will cost so that I can set the amount needed to raise in the kickstarter campaign. I should have mentioned that in my original post.

re: "I need to know ahead of time what this will cost so that I can set the amount needed to raise in the kickstarter campaign."

 

Thank you for elaborating.

 

There is nothing inherently wrong with your desire to get a fixed quote ahead of time.

 

There ARE TIMES where you are able to commission work and know ahead of time what it will really cost.

 

Just be realistic about your expectations.

 

What if somebody quotes you a cost or $750, but never delivers any work? That can happen.

 

What if somebody quotes you a cost of $400, and actually DOES deliver the work, but you can't use any of it because the quality does not meet your expectations?

 

Or what if the quality is really high, and your partners decide to go with a Jungle Safari theme instead of a science fiction for the final product? And then the freelancer refuses to change all of the artwork for free?

 

The future hasn't been written yet.

I would never post a contract on Upwork to get this much work done, as part of a single contract. It's simply not realistic.

 

This is a massive undertaking.

 

The larger the undertaking, the more likely it is to fail. That is why when people do big tasks (such as building the Space Shuttle, or making a movie, or creating all the design/artwork/packaging for a board game), they divide the work into smaller achievable tasks.

 

I would, instead, break this down into small, achievable tasks, worked on by many people, and continue working only with the best freelancers who are actually delivering work. Even if I was hiring only a single person (for some reason), I would set up a contract for one small sub-unit first. I would want to have something completed, and in my hands, as soon as possible. That approach may actually work. But to set up all of this as a single task, a single contract, and expect to get it delivered to me six months later, all completed? That rarely works.

If it were me, I'd pay out of pocket to have someone come up with a logo and the game board or some other small piece of the puzzle as Preston said, and then you would both know if you can find one person to do the design and the illustration, and you will have something to post on kickstarter to get people excited about the project. And if it's kickstarter I would certainly go higher rather than lower. Even if you don't reach your goal at least you'll have some capital to work with.

when you create a job listing, suggested freelancers are given to you to invite during the listing creation process.  Scroll through that list looking at their hourly rates and then come up with a idea of the going rate for different skill/experience levels and choose the level you want and then multiply that by the approximate hours you think it would take to do the art.  Boom there's your price idea.  Also, when you create the job, people will bid higher and lower than the price you list so the price you list does not matter entirely so you might not need to worry too much.

The problem is I have no idea how many hours of work this is? So I can't just multiply their hourly rate by the number of hours to come up with a number.

 

Here's another problem with just putting a bid out there. This has happened to me before. I estimated how much it would cost and invited a freelancer that I really, really wanted to work on my project. They declined my job becaue the bid was too low. I would be willing to pay them more but now I have no way to message them and tell them that I was just estimating how much it would cost. This system seems very flawed.

silw
Community Member

An artist charging by hour already is a bit weird to be honest.

 

@jonathan

 

its okay to have no idea how much something should cost or how long it takes.

i am recommending you hire an art director or senior artist to have a look at your project and give you an realistic estimate.

that will save you lots of nerves and shows you where you are standig at.

re: "An artist charging by hour already is a bit weird to be honest."

 

An artist charging by the hour is a person getting paid for his time, just like anything else.

 

Nearly all of the artwork I have commissioned on Upwork was paid for using hourly contracts. I am very pleased with the results.

I am sure you are happy by commissioning hourly.

Not going for value-based prizing is neither industry standard in the creative fields, nor is it very clever by the artist.