Concept art is one of the first and most integral stages in the development of any game. Before modeling characters, environments, and gameplay, game concept artists first visualize it’s key visual components to form the overall tone and style of a game. There are many reasons why concept art matters, so serious gaming companies take this task seriously.
So what is the relevant cost of such services if you need professional concept art design? This article will tell you about the average price of concept art development services in different countries. Moreover, we’ll advise you on the most reliable and profitable game art outsourcing company that will help to make your game stunning.
Key Factors Affecting Concept Art Cost
The first thing to understand in order to determine the relevant cost of the service is which factors influence the process. After all, if you know what the process consists of, it is easier to determine fair compensation for the effort spent. Thus, we have identified the main components of the price for the service of concept artists.
Developing a concept for an entire game is a rather laborious process in itself. Especially when it comes to imagining and visualizing characters, props, and environments. The format of the game creates additional complexity.
For example, concept art for a 2D game takes comparitively less time and effort, considering that the concept of a 3D game requires creating a 360 view of each object, while 2D requires creating flat images. In addition, some projects are subject to specific development requirements, which can complicate the process.
The profession of a concept artist is quite creative, as it is necessary to come up with original and catchy characters, as well as a harmonious environment and important details. However, concept art specialists also need to be skillful and experienced.
In order to visualize their ideas, they need to be capable in using professional software and tools. These skills are important in order to bring concepts to life as quickly as possible, as ideas already take a long time to form. Thus, the more skillful the artist is, the faster the concept will be ready, and the less money will be spent on paying for the specialist’s work.
The level of detail is often influenced by the game’s format and the release’s target platform. For example, if a 3D game is planned to be launched on PC, then such a game will generally require much more attention to detail than a 2D game for mobile devices.
It’s all about how high the resolution is and how the game camera is placed in front of a gamer. After all, if you want to achieve the success of your product, it must look high-quality and natural. Especially if a product is planned to be released on consoles or VR platforms.
Sometimes it happens that a publishers strongly underestimate the amount of time that concept development takes, leaving crunch periods. Thus, time is often limited, but quality cannot be compromised, either. Such an express project requires extra specialists and working hours, so the price rises accordingly.
Concept art development is a process that each detail can influence. For example, a customer provided incorrect references, and as a result, he did not get exactly what he wanted. Editing and communication to come to an agreement about how a project will look takes much time and increases the price accordingly.
In addition, it happens that a game owner needs not only a standard art design for characters, environment, and assets but also many detailed scenes. Such a process can be compared with a complete game design instead of single concept art development.
Are you looking for a concept art development for the optimal price? We can cover it!
How to Calculate the Cost of Concept Art?
One of the key components of concept art cost is a qualification of a specialist and their location. Some people do not understand why the cost for the same services varies for different countries. In fact, particularities of geopolitics, a country’s economic level, and quality of education influence the cost significantly.
So how much does concept art cost in top countries providing games services? We’ve highlighted the average pricing according to the UpWork service platform.
Concept Artist Average Rates Worldwide
Country | Rates/hr |
| USA | $46/hr |
| UK | $41/hr |
| Germany | $47/hr |
| Ukraine | $27/hr |
Why are prices so different from each other in the countries above? The quality of execution is pretty similar in each, but you can overpay just because of you hire from an expensive local labor market, and it hurts your bottom line. That’s why thousands of companies worldwide choose specialists in Ukraine for work on different projects.
Despite the numbers above, it’s better to consider that each project is unique, so the price can still be sky-high with an affordable team and a vast scope of work. Thus, the most appropriate way to calculate the game concept art cost is to consult a reliable game art company.
Choose Outstanding Concept Art Services for a Reasonable Price
Considering all the factors affecting its price, concept art development is a vital but complex process that can take much time and effort to achieve a shining execution. Thus, if you need to get an optimal price-to-ratio concept art development, you can undoubtedly rely on one of the many concept art outsourcing studios operating today that will save your time and provide your project with a stunning result.
Game-Ace is one such studio with an experienced team, focusing on all services related to the gaming industry. We can design stunning concept art for an optimal timeframe, and our specialists have many years of experience and all the necessary resources to create true masterpieces.
Are you in need of top-notch concept art design? Contact us to discuss the details of your project and calculate a relevant price for it!
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