Game Development FAQ: Cost, Timelines, IP & Process

A quick rundown of the questions we hear most, from first enquiry through to handover. If yours isn't here, ask us directly. We answer within one business day.

Working With Us

What does ZeroHint actually do?

We’re a Unity studio in Türkiye building games and simulations for PC, mobile, browser and VR headset. Around five million downloads across our mobile titles and over 100,000 players on our web games since 2022. Most of our work is full-cycle game development, educational and serious games, and browser-based multiplayer.

What is co-development, and do you offer it?

Co-development means we take a discipline or a feature set inside your existing project rather than owning the whole build. It’s the right answer when you have a team and a working core loop but you’re short in one area: engineers, backend, a platform port. You keep direction; we supply capacity and accountability for our part.

Can your developers just join our team?

Yes. Team extension is a large share of our work: our engineers join your repo, your board and your standups, taking direction from your leads. A milestone or a quarter, no recruitment process, no notice periods, and they leave when the work does.

How do you work day to day?

After the first call we agree a timeline to the first MVP, then split production into sprints. You get a playable build at the end of each one, a shared board you can open any time, and a producer reachable on Slack or Discord during your working hours. We’re on GMT+3, which gives full overlap with European hours and your US mornings.

I want to change something mid-project. Is that a problem?

No, and it’s why we work in sprints. You see progress continuously and redirect while redirecting is still cheap. Changes that alter scope get re-quoted openly rather than absorbed silently and then surfaced as a delay.

I haven’t decided on the design yet. Can you help?

That’s a normal starting point. If you’re still working through mechanics, target audience, feature scope or monetization, bring what you have and we’ll work through it with you. Often the most useful first deliverable is a game design document rather than code.

Cost and Timelines

How much does it cost to develop a mobile game?

Broadly, mobile game development ranges from around $3,000 for something small and tightly focused to seven figures for a full production. What moves the number most is scope, art volume, and whether there’s a backend. You’ll have a fixed quote before you commit to anything.

How long does it take to develop a game?

A simple browser or hypercasual game can be about a month. Complex projects with multiplayer, a backend and a meta layer run considerably longer. We give you a milestone-by-milestone schedule alongside the quote more detail here.

How do payments work?

Fixed quote, payment against milestones. You’re never paying for time you can’t see the output of, and there’s no open-ended hourly arrangement unless you specifically want one for team extension.

How quickly can you start?

One or two specialists, usually within a week. A full team, two to three weeks depending on the discipline mix.

Do you charge for the quote?

No. Send a design document, a build, or a few sentences and a reference game, and you’ll get a written feature list, milestone plan, team proposal and fixed number back within two business days.

Technical

Which engine do you use?

Unity, across mobile, PC, WebGL and XR, with Photon and Microsoft PlayFab for networked systems. One engine deliberately: a studio claiming every engine is deep in none of them.

Do you work in Unreal Engine?

It isn’t where our strength is, and we’d rather say that on the first call than discover it in month three. If your project genuinely needs Unreal, we’ll tell you and, where we can, point you somewhere better suited.

Can you port our existing game to another platform?

Yes! PC to mobile, flat to VR, native to browser. Porting is scoped and quoted as its own project rather than as a discount on new development, because the real work is rebuilding input, UI, performance budget and often the interaction model. Send us the build and the project and we’ll assess it honestly.

Can you build real-time multiplayer?

It’s one of our specialities. Photon Quantum for competitive titles needing deterministic netcode, Photon’s realtime products for lighter session-based games, PlayFab for backend and live ops. Our browser FPS work runs on Quantum, and our .io mobile titles on PUN 2.

Can a game really run properly in a browser?

Yes, and it’s a genuine speciality of ours, over 100,000 players on our web titles. The constraints are real (load time, memory ceiling, mobile browser limits) and we’ll tell you when a project is too big for the format. More on WebGL development.

Educational and Serious Games

Do you build games for schools, universities and institutions?

Yes, and it’s some of our strongest work: a digital citizenship game authorized by Türkiye’s Ministry of National Education and funded by the Council of Europe, a gene expression simulation with METU, and physical rehabilitation games currently in production with Hacettepe University’s Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation department. More on educational and serious games.

How is an educational game different from a normal game?

The order of work changes. We fix learning outcomes with your subject experts before any mechanic is designed, rather than building a game and attaching outcomes afterwards. Delivery matters too: Most of our educational work ships as a browser build so a teacher can open a link on school hardware with nothing to install and no student accounts to create.

What’s gamification, and is it the same thing?

No. Gamification applies game mechanics; progression, rewards, challenge: to something that isn’t a game: training, onboarding, an app, a loyalty programme. Serious games are actual games built for a non-entertainment outcome. Different tools, different budgets, and we’ll tell you which one your problem needs. Check out Gamification Page!

Contracts and IP

How do we sign?

You can prepare the contract or we can use our ready-to-use paperwork templates.

Do you sign NDAs?

Yes, before the first call if you’d like. Send yours and we’ll sign it; if you don’t have one, we’ll provide ours.

Can we see the work in progress?

Continuously. A playable build every sprint, plus a board you can open whenever you want. We’d rather you catch something in week three than approve it in week twelve.

Still Have a Question?

Send it over. If it’s about scope or budget, include whatever you have; a design document, a build, a reference game, or three sentences. You’ll get a real answer from someone who’d be working on the project, not a sales form response.