Blitz Games’ Andrew and Philip Oliver say this amount is ideal for the ”big things in store” for Dizzy Returns. AAA studios spend millions while indies are on a shoe string - Blitz ”in the middle”.
The Oliver twins company employs over 200 people with game teams ”typically made up” of between 10 to 70 staff. More content, more people, more money.
”At first glance it sounds like a lot of money to develop a game. Saying that, teams of hundreds of people at large studios create AAA titles for consoles and PC and spend tens of millions of dollars in the process. It’s also true that games can be made on a much smaller budget. There are independent developers creating mobile games for a fraction of that cost, sometimes individually or in small teams of just a handful of people,” posted Blitz on Kickstarter.
”Our company, Blitz Games Studios, is somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, employing over 200 talented and creative people, with game teams typically made up of anywhere between 10 and 70 people.”
”£350,000 may sound like a lot of money to develop a ‘simple’ Dizzy game. We have big things in store for Dizzy Returns that are far from simple! We want to provide hours of satisfying and rewarding gameplay, and a fun and enjoyable gaming experience for both new and old fans that stands shoulder to shoulder with games of today.”
They continued: ”This may sound like a tall order, which is exactly why we decided upon on our goal amount. If we’re successfully funded, we are confident that we can make an amazing game!”
”At its very simplest the cost of making any game is a combination of content, people and time; the more content there is in a game, the more people working on it and the more time spent adding and polishing features will always mean a higher cost. We believe that £350,000 is a realistic amount that reflects the number of people, the amount of time, and the amount of content we want to dedicate to Dizzy Returns.” As of press time, Dizzy Returns has just under £17k.
24 days remain for Dizzy Returns’ Kickstarter. The plan, if funded, is to developer a PC and iOS version side-by-side with the game’s content tailored to each device, and not just ported. While the original Dizzy games had an average of 20 puzzles, Dizzy Returns aims for ”over ten times that number” with each using ”unique items that have unique interactions with each other.” A full accounting of that £350k is detailed in their latest Kickstarter update.
”We want Dizzy Returns to be the best game it can be, and we know that with £350,000 we can make a game that we and our fans can be proud of,” added Blitz. They plan fully voiced characters and an original score.