Question about hiring coders

[Fox17]

Please excuse me if this is the wrong place to ask this question but where would i go hire someone to code an Atari 2600 game i designed. My name is Kyle Fox and I'm currently working under a man named Jace Hall who created Monolith games, he told me to come here and ask.

[+Andrew Davie]

You are in the right place, but your success will depend on how realistic you are about the time cost of doing a '2600 game. That in turn will depend on if you want a game in assembler, or one in the 'batari Basic' language. Both can produce excellent games, but the former is much more difficult to do than the latter. A well crafted assembler game might take 6 months or more, whereas a well crafted 'basic' game could possibly take just a couple of weeks. Finally how much are people willing to work for? Mostly you find it's not about money, it's about passion - because generally you couldn't possibly afford to pay a programmer for the time they'd actually take to do a game, so you will rely on their interest and passion in doing it essentially because they like it. As with any employee, too, you generally will get what you pay for. Some programmers are better than others.

[Thomas Jentzsch]

Very good points from Andrew.

 

Also you need a good concept which is feasible. To do it on you own, you must have a good understanding of the hardware limitations. Else you have to work through your concept with someone who knows.

[+Gemintronic]

I'd have to agree with almost everything Andrew Davie said. I've got quite a bit more experience with the batari BASIC side of development. It's not even about "difficulty" per se and certainly not expertise. With batari BASIC your underlying game "engine" is already made so you can focus on other things including gameplay and testing.

 

The scope of the project and willingness to work with the Atari 2600s constraints are big factors. I collaborated with an indie movie maker in Texas on a game called Conjoined that took around 6 months.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/575397277/conjoined-the-atari-2600-game-inspired-by-the-movi

[Papa]

Sure, whadayawant?

 

Honestly, though. I only code with BASIC anymore. Too much fun.

Edited September 30, 2016 by Papa