How much does it cost for a map?

[kanette]

Like cs_compound, how much does it cost for map maker? 10,000 dollars?

Just curious because there aren't a lot of maps outthere. Maybe I can practice making map too.

 

[KoreBolteR]

10, 000 dollars , what the hell??

 

[kanette]

Yeah, if valve can spend more resources on cs map, it 'would be cool.

 

[Axyon]

Well, essentially, so long as you have Half-Life 2 and Worldcraft, then it's free. Many fantastic maps have been created by the community at no cost at all.

 

[kanette]

I guess you don't understood my question. Let me rephrase.

If I want to be a map maker. If I could make a map and sell to valve. How much will I get paid for one map.

I guess I can get 10000$

 

[pk1209]

Why would they give you 10K when they can make their own maps? Somebody flunked out of business school!

 

[Gunner]

I guess you don't understood my question. Let me rephrase.

If I want to be a map maker. If I could make a map and sell to valve. How much will I get paid for one map.

I guess I can get 10000$

I guess you don't understood the answer.

Nobody will pay you for a map, that's the silliest idea I've heard in a long time. Besides read the EULA, I'm pretty sure, the maps you make aren't exactly your property to sell.

 

[jmjneary]

not true valve is paying turtle rock studios to make some maps but if you say valve i wanna sell you a map they wont buy it

 

[Gunner]

not true valve is paying turtle rock studios to make some maps but if you say valve i wanna sell you a map they wont buy it

It's not the same thing at all, besides Valve didn't pay them to make "some maps", they made CZ.

 

[kanette]

Anything that has demand can make money; that's my business sense.

If I'm valve, I'll hire map maker to remake all cs map into cs:s map and I'll pay them 10,000 for each map. Because thousands of people are waiting in cs:s.

there are approx 30 good maps in cs. So, 30x10000 = 300,000$

Suppose you are Gabe, wouldn't you pay just 300,000$ for another 30 maps given to thousands of cs:s players?

I absolutely would.

 

[Exclamatio]

roflmao

damn kids get everywhere

you will probably get about £6 or £7 an hour

10k for a map? rofl

 

[Maxi]

Weell good luck, you'll most definately need it.

 

[Glo]

Weell good luck, you'll most definately need it.

what he needs is beyond luck

 

[Sgt_Shellback]

I'll pay you 10K a map.... You can get the map maker from me for $100.00... Just paypal it to me: http://[email protected]

 

[Slainchild]

Well i know that in the past this has happened.

Teddie (mapper) made remakes of DM-Deck16 and CTF-Face for UT2003, calling them DM-Deck17 and CTF-Faceclassic. Epic (UT developers) liked his work, so they payed Teddie for the maps, improved them a bit and released them with UT2004.

Although, I think that if you asked a company to buy a map you had made, they would say no.

 

[Gunner]

Anything that has demand can make money; that's my business sense.

If I'm valve, I'll hire map maker to remake all cs map into cs:s map and I'll pay them 10,000 for each map. Because thousands of people are waiting in cs:s.

there are approx 30 good maps in cs. So, 30x10000 = 300,000$

Suppose you are Gabe, wouldn't you pay just 300,000$ for another 30 maps given to thousands of cs:s players?

I absolutely would.

Your logic is flawless.

 

[PickledGecko]

In order to recoup that $300,000, he would have to sell another 20,000 or so copies of Half-Life 2. I personally don't think 20,000 people looked at Half-Life 2 and thought, "Hmm, maybe I would buy it if it had about 30 or so more CS: S maps. I think I'll buy some other game instead".

 

[kanette]

In order to recoup that $300,000, he would have to sell another 20,000 or so copies of Half-Life 2. I personally don't think 20,000 people looked at Half-Life 2 and thought, "Hmm, maybe I would buy it if it had about 30 or so more CS: S maps. I think I'll buy some other game instead".

OK, this looks like the answer for me.

But if someone says map cost approx few hundred dollars, then my logic isn't even more correct?

30 maps x 500$ = 15,000$

15,000$ for 30 maps world wide.

 

[Pauly]

you could get a job at valve if you are a good map maker and get paid money to work there. You can't sell them maps using the map maker that THEY made.

 

[jmjneary]

i know turtle rock made cz and they are making maps for css

 

[kupocake]

Maps are very rarely purchased by anyone. The developers tools shipped with games are done so on the condition that you specifically don't make money from them. I've not heard of Valve being the type of developer to purchase maps: the only exceptions to their rules are Competitions like the one to make HL2DM maps - this was primarily done to improve the HL2DM maplist, and Valve didn't have to pay the mappers for their work, they just chose to do so because the promise of cash draws higher interest.

As Slainchild points out, UT2004 was an interesting exception. A number of the maps were done in-house by Epic, but they effectively outsourced to developers (Scion Studios, Psyonix Studios, Digital Extremes and Streamline Studios) and even community mappers. The community stuff was a mixture of purchased and tweaked (e.g. Teddie's Maps) and commisioned works (e.g. Nathillien's ONS maps). Technically, AFAIK the commisioned stuff was through Streamline Studios though, who specialise in getting a team of content manufacturers in for jobs with tight-deadlines and such. Interesting stuff.

The thing is, no one has ever disclosed how much they were paid for their maps and it's not even certain that outsourcers are paid on a map by map basis. $10,000 is probably way, way off the mark though. I'd say $1,000 absolute maximum - a single map simply is not worth anything over that. The bottom line is that virtually no-one ever gets paid for their creations anyway. Maps for computer games by communities are down for the sheer love of it, not for getting paid. If you're good enough, you can win money on competitions or get noticed by a hiring company, but no-one will just come and find you and say "good work, here's $10,000". Which is a shame

Incidentally, the prize for winning the "best level" category in the "Make Something Unreal Contest" was $3,500

 

[Gordon's Brother]

Any map you made is basically valves since they OWN the sdk, they MADE it!

 

[KoreBolteR]

youde be lucky to get a piece of cheese, let alone $10,000

 

[PickledGecko]

Incidentally, the prize for winning the "best level" category in the "Make Something Unreal Contest" was $3,500

Yeh, and how many entries did they get? So they spent $3,500 and lets say 100 good maps were made as a direct result of the competion. Therefore, the going rate for 1 map is about $35.

 

[kupocake]

Yeh, and how many entries did they get? So they spent $3,500 and lets say 100 good maps were made as a direct result of the competion. Therefore, the going rate for 1 map is about $35.

Well, It was more like $10,000 for each phase because there were runners up and such. $40,000 over the whole course of the whole compo. Actually, double that because there were two map categories with a prize fund of $10,000 each phase. $80,000. If 800 good maps resulted from that contest, the going price was $100. But in truth, there were probably 200 decent maps max.