SLOCCount

Every once in a while, I (Tom) run David A. Wheeler's SLOCCount on the BattleMaster code, just to get a warm and fuzzy feeling.

SLOCCount (unsurprisingly) counts the Source lines of code (SLOC) and then does some calculations to get a very rough estimate of how long it would take and how much it would cost to replicate (i.e. write it all again) the program.

In other words: If you want to make your own BattleMaster, commercially, here's what you have to calculate for investment:

Total Physical Source Lines of Code (SLOC)                = 34,724
Development Effort Estimate, Person-Years (Person-Months) = 8.29 (99.51)
 (Basic COCOMO model, Person-Months = 2.4 * (KSLOC**1.05))
Schedule Estimate, Years (Months)                         = 1.20 (14.36)
 (Basic COCOMO model, Months = 2.5 * (person-months**0.38))
Estimated Average Number of Developers (Effort/Schedule)  = 6.93
Total Estimated Cost to Develop                           = $ 1,120,219
 (average salary = $56,286/year, overhead = 2.40).

That's the game alone, no hosting, marketing or other stuff. And most importantly: This doesn't include the creation of the game worlds with all their regions, the maps, the manual and other documentation, etc. That's just the code.