Site Design/development questions

[TheGalaxyRose]

Hello everybody, I'm new to TGL hoping I posted this in the right place.

Who am I :

I'm TheGlaxyRose (TGR) or KatelynM. A Freelance artist of 11+ years who specializes in anthro art, human art, item art, character design and clothing designs while studying UX/UI in my free time. I have worked with a few adoptables and am apart of a few teams offsite. I have a passion for art, designing and concepts which has lead me to my long term passion project that I wanted to make into a fully developed pet sim site within the next few years or so. (If possible) 

The sketches of the creatures I brought commercial rights for along with permission from the original artists to line, shade and highlight them for the finish product. I have not started the line process just yet but I will be after finishing my current commissions.

I'm hoping to add my artwork examples to this site as well. But I had some questions after reading some of the fourms here that I felt I needed to ask.

What I did and the realization:

I've been working and planning for a while on this project and thought I knew what I wanted but upon looking at the "So you want to be a website owner" thread I realised I didn't actually know what I wanted coding and hosting wise.

Art and Design wise I have that down, I've been playing with a design on both AdobeXD and Wix even going as far as making a prototype on AdobeXD that's still a WIP. Unfortunately coding isn't my strong side, so I have a few options, learn coding myself (preferred but not a must) or hire someone to do it for me and be a permanent part of my team.

As a side note, I know almost nothing about coding, besides small website coding. I am looking into learning more code long term but for now let's say I have no knowledge of coding at all.

On another note, just in case. I am a very visual learner, if you have tutorials, videos or advice that you believe could help me that would be greatly appreciated!

My goal:

It's a mythology and fantasy base pet sit game, the first 4 species released will be dragons then other species of Mythology and Fantasy themes will be added in later. I currently have 7 dragon concepts ready for the line art stage for the game.

You will be able to name, feed, vet, breed, dressup, trade, buy, buy dressup items, join groups, interact with a community and adventure. Later on I would like to add some mini games but it is not a must have.

There is also good chance I may add an RPG area for players to interaction with characters I created/AI's once I learn and understand Unity better.

My questions:

What would be the quote for someone coding the game play and data base of a site that already has a design and prototype?

Would it be better to code everything myself or add coders to my team?

Do I get the full rights to the custom site code and only I get to use it or does the coder get to use it as well?

Since I'm not the best in coding right now is there a way to alter/add or take out files of art without a coder?

Is there sites that sell licenses/subscriptions to coding that someone like me could easily understand and still be able to use?

With the question above, if I buy a license does that mean I get to keep the coding without worry the coder can take it back? Same with the subscription?

Is there any videos on how to make PSD files into coded files for pet sim game?

That's my main questions currently, if I think of more I'll definitely add them here.

Thank you for your time!

 

[DaRule]

Hello and welcome!

A lot of your questions are totally dependent on what you negotiate with your programmer. I personally highly recommend you learn coding yourself and trying to code some of your ideas. At the very least, you can get a gauge of how much effort things are work-wise and also understand some of the core concepts. Hiring an experienced programmer is very expensive and there is always a possibility they can up and leave, forcing you to get more programmers familiar with your code base and causing possible security issues.

Realistically speaking, the virtual pet industry is hard to break into, and you need both talent and a lot of luck in order to succeed. It is also extremely time consuming and there are many expenses required. Can you see yourself still wanting to run it after 2 years along with doing freelance art and possibly an unrelated full time position? It is something you should consider deeply, and this isn't to scare you, but a lot of people have failed at this, and I would say the virtual pet industry has shrunk a lot since the days of Neopets and will continue to do so.

 

[TheGalaxyRose]

Hello and welcome!

A lot of your questions are totally dependent on what you negotiate with your programmer. I personally highly recommend you learn coding yourself and trying to code some of your ideas. At the very least, you can get a gauge of how much effort things are work-wise and also understand some of the core concepts. Hiring an experienced programmer is very expensive and there is always a possibility they can up and leave, forcing you to get more programmers familiar with your code base and causing possible security issues.

Realistically speaking, the virtual pet industry is hard to break into, and you need both talent and a lot of luck in order to succeed. It is also extremely time consuming and there are many expenses required. Can you see yourself still wanting to run it after 2 years along with doing freelance art and possibly an unrelated full time position? It is something you should consider deeply, and this isn't to scare you, but a lot of people have failed at this, and I would say the virtual pet industry has shrunk a lot since the days of Neopets and will continue to do so.

Thank you!  

I am looking into YouTube videos, small subscription online classes/courses for learning just to see what it would take to code everything and programs I can use with the limited knowledge I have now. Hiring a pro will most likely need to wait until I have a little more income first.

Is there a beginning area you suggest I look into first? And thank you for your honestly, I'll keep that in mind moving forward. ^ - ^

I got inspired to move forward with my plans a few years ago and I haven't lost any interest in it even when learning the time, effort and money that would go into it. Two sites I've been on for about 12+ years ,give or take, I have seen very popular adoptables that would like to be a site but don't know where to start or how to code or just don't move to that point due to fees. I would however like to start out my creatures as an adoptable first, then move to a smaller site for the members then move to a 2.0 version of the site that's fully running.

Most of the time I have been freelancing I have had either a full time job, a part time or two part time jobs at the same time until the past year when I went full on freelance. (relearning my limits Workaholic here) I am no stranger to having a large workload and I did enjoy doing my normal routine with art for my DA or my commissions during my other unrelated jobs. It can be mega exhausting if you're not pacing yourself correctly which I have learned in my younger work day years. T D T; I do enjoy art enough to keep going while having one or more jobs, freelance or unrelated. Luckily for me coding would help me with another job I was looking forward to having in the future, so let's say if the pet sim site didn't go as I planned I could get that job then use my free time to slowly work on the the pet sim, so there's no lose to learning besides time.?

 

[DaRule]

Thank you!  

I am looking into YouTube videos, small subscription online classes/courses for learning just to see what it would take to code everything and programs I can use with the limited knowledge I have now. Hiring a pro will most likely need to wait until I have a little more income first.

Is there a beginning area you suggest I look into first? And thank you for your honestly, I'll keep that in mind moving forward. ^ - ^

I got inspired to move forward with my plans a few years ago and I haven't lost any interest in it even when learning the time, effort and money that would go into it. Two sites I've been on for about 12+ years ,give or take, I have seen very popular adoptables that would like to be a site but don't know where to start or how to code or just don't move to that point due to fees. I would however like to start out my creatures as an adoptable first, then move to a smaller site for the members then move to a 2.0 version of the site that's fully running.

Most of the time I have been freelancing I have had either a full time job, a part time or two part time jobs at the same time until the past year when I went full on freelance. (relearning my limits Workaholic here) I am no stranger to having a large workload and I did enjoy doing my normal routine with art for my DA or my commissions during my other unrelated jobs. It can be mega exhausting if you're not pacing yourself correctly which I have learned in my younger work day years. T D T; I do enjoy art enough to keep going while having one or more jobs, freelance or unrelated. Luckily for me coding would help me with another job I was looking forward to having in the future, so let's say if the pet sim site didn't go as I planned I could get that job then use my free time to slowly work on the the pet sim, so there's no lose to learning besides time.?

After you determine the technologies you are using on the front and back-end, the best place to start would probably be programming a secure registration + login/authentication system and working on integrating your layout into the site. And yes, I agree with your last point, it is helpful to know how to program in a variety of positions so it is not a loss by any means.