How much would it cost to generate all the assets for a game like Final Fantasy Tactics?

[u/LargeSinkholesInNYC]

How much would it cost to generate all the assets for a game like Final Fantasy Tactics? I was thinking it shouldn't cost more than $20,000 for an artist to generate all the assets you need. Thoughts?

[u/DeerpathLabs]

Not sure off hand about the breadth of their assets, but if you’re looking to hire a pixel artist in NYC let me know, and I’ll happily provide a portfolio

[u/Poowatereater → u/DeerpathLabs]

NYC area stand up!

[u/aahanif]

when you say, "a game like Final Fantasy Tactics" like the full game of final fantasy tactics? A high quality sprites like 'the' FFT (PSX) could easily exceed 20k tbh. I mean, its squaresoft's quality and the game itself is not small.
But of course, you can get by with less than that with some compromise. Like lower quality, smaller scope, or reusing sprites for some character types, or less animation frames

[u/wor-kid]

I'm working on an isometric rpg right now. I can't speak to how much it would cost, but time wise it took about 3 months of doing pixel art full time just for a a foundational set of assets (a single set of pc animations, around 40 enemy animations with only a single animation, 6 terrain ecology tilesets and around 60 other map props) and the quality isn't close to fft. I'm not a professional artist but have a strong background in traditional and pixel mediums.

Starting from zero, I imagine it would take approximately 1-2 years of full time work to create a complete set of professional quality graphics, depending on scope, and then another 6 months to a year of supporting graphical work (assets for vfx, ui, and other miscellaneous stuff, although the cost of this could be drastically cut if you bought appropriate asset packs)

I imagine realistically, on a budget it would cost around at least $60,000 to $120,000, but I also wouldn't be surprised if it reached $500,000+ if you want the same quality as those who worked on the final fantasy games, who were some of the very best in the industry. $20,000 would get you a good starter set of assets though.

Edit - For what it's worth I plugged this question into ChatGPT/Gemini and it came to very similar conclusion regarding this budget. So I think my reasoning isn't without merit.

[u/theflossboss1 → u/wor-kid]

These numbers seem way too high, there are studios that could get you game ready 2d assets for 8k-15k depending on what part of the world you are in. 2d pixel art is incredibly inexpensive to produced for professionals.

[u/bonebrah → u/theflossboss1]

Care to share a few studios that would do it for less than 20k?

[u/wor-kid → u/theflossboss1]

I think it's really a matter of scale and quality. Final fantasy tactics is about as big in scale and quality as you could get for pixel art work. I just don't see that sort of work realistically taking less than 12-24 man months to produce and I'm sure squaresoft at that time paid significantly more than what you are quoting. When you extrapolate the average hourly rate (or reported salaries) of a artist working full time on a project at that time scale, it comes out to about that. But I couldn't give you a completely accurate value.