How big is the ArmA2 dev team?

[ta.maximus 10]

I can probably check the credits to try and determine this, but just out of curiosity, how many developers actively worked on ArmA2 during it's development? Considering that these days the development teams can easily reach between 60 and 150+ people for large games.

[.kju 3245]

Yup check the credits in the manual or ingame.

[dm 9]

Consider that the credits include all and sundry people like those who work at the various publishers etc etc.

[ta.maximus 10]

Yep, I'm at work though, but I guess I'll check it out tonight then if no one knows it of hand.

[vilas 477]

not big team, but very skilled

also Arma doesn't need to find way through bush of other games, cause OFP-addicted people use it and show it to others (personal marketing)

when someone asks me about hobby i say about OFP, Arma , and than people ask "what" and i show "look there is Polish army, there is tractor, there is...."

BIS is not big team, BIS is skilled team which had idea of making game ABOUT US here in central europe and BIS have enthusiast of it

dev. team of this for sure is much much less than your number 60 or 150 :]

but they are more skilled so even with smaller team they get better results than others

also this community makes game popular and working better (addons, patches, biki pedia)

so this makes strenght of game

other companies may work 100 persons and do shit that you play 2 days and stupid kids play 2 weeks

and they do "another the same"

[Leopardi 0]

but very skilled

NOT. They had skill in OFP times but they've lost the touch especially on singleplayer side when it comes to plot and atmosphere. OFP was soldier experience, arma's are squad leader experience which sucks.

[ta.maximus 10]

Sorry my intention is not to start a flame about how skilled the team is or not. I just find it impressive when small teams build such immense games. Bugs or not, it's still a very impressive engine.

[4 IN 1 0]

Till these day I am still impressed that they acturally managed to creat OFP and VBS and use this engine to creat arma1 & 2, do take notice that back in 2001 they are still a hell of a small team(core crew were something like 20?) and even till today they still seems to be within 200(with some of the work outsourced to other studio link with IDEA), even through there is bugs and sometime do make me keep banging and banging and banging and banging and banging the stupid PC and shouting like crazy, ranting about the bugs(or "non-features") :p

Edited October 6, 2009 by 4 IN 1

[maddogx 13]

NOT. They had skill in OFP times but they've lost the touch especially on singleplayer side when it comes to plot and atmosphere. OFP was soldier experience, arma's are squad leader experience which sucks.

There's a bit more to the game than just the campaign. The engine is what it's all about and - bugs aside - the RV3 engine really is awesome. Compare it to a certain other recently developed game engine that, despite being developed with much more financial backing, is about as scalable as a 60 foot high wall of ice.

If there's one thing BIS should be proud of, it's their game engine.

[ta.maximus 10]

There's a bit more to the game than just the campaign. The engine is what it's all about and - bugs aside - the RV3 engine really is awesome. Compare it to a certain other recently developed game engine that, despite being developed with much more financial backing, is about as scalable as a 60 foot high wall of ice.

If there's one thing BIS should be proud of, it's their game engine.

I fully agree with your statement MadDog, well said.

[Colossus 2]

Back to your original question.

I lost count abit in the end, but it is roughtly +/- 130 people internal and external under BI, that includes everything except post-production such as manufacturing and PR work. Then you have IDEA Games and 505 Games where there were mentioned roughtly 20 people each, organizations not included.

Edited October 6, 2009 by colossus

[Leopardi 0]

If there's one thing BIS should be proud of, it's their game engine.

It's an engine that has old unfixable problems, they should make a completely new engine.

[Rhodite 3]

Leopardi

You really didnt waste any time in taking this thread off topic to your personal opinion. If you persist you will lose your posting privilages.

[vilas 477]

over 100 persons ? ?

I lost count abit in the end, but it is roughtly +/- 130 people internal and external under BI.

impossible ?

130 persons do "ultimate military sim..." and noones notice wrong RPK corpuss, noone knows difference between AKS-74U and AK-74 ?

impossible :O

i know that making chernaruss is very very big effort, trees, houses etc.

i understand, but i wouldn't expecting such big number of people

[ta.maximus 10]

Back to your original question.

I lost count abit in the end, but it is roughtly +/- 130 people internal and external under BI, that includes everything except post-production such as manufacturing and PR work. Then you have IDEA Games and 505 Games which is roughtly 20 people each, organizations not included.

Sheez, thanks man, did you actually go and count them :O! It's actually still a very small group then considering the various aspects of the game. Just wondering how many is actually developers, then the number of artists and then the number of sound engineers as well... But it's cool, I'll go check it out this evening and do some counting as well. ;)

I'm well aware that a game isn't just a success just because of the coders - team effort and all, but I'm specifically interested in the number of coders as I'm a software developer myself and have been for over 18 years. And I'm not looking for a job though for those who are thinking I am, I'm getting too old for that kind of pressure thank you very much ;).

[4 IN 1 0]

Yes, 130 people for a game is a small team, most game now a days have roughly 300 to almost 600 people working on them, do a little maths then you see how relativily small BI is, but then bugs is bugs, I dont think people should defend them at all aspect, just keep in mind that BI really dont have many resource to start with that is

[dm 9]

130 people

Like I said, not all of those names are actually people who coded/created content for the game, you've got a lot or marketing people in there, and some beta testers (shock horror)

[Colossus 2]

Not so many under PR really. On BI's payroll you only have three on PR (Placebo incl.) and two on IT. However, QA involves 24 people. So looking at this on a purely actual developing you have about a +/- 100 people. I'm not going to count all 130 names again though, but I'm fairly curtain it is over 100 people under the term developing (I'm including voice actors as their actual physical work is included in the game).

Edited October 6, 2009 by colossus

[sparks50 0]

The number of people working on a project will vary greatly depending at what stage the development is in.

I think I read 70 people were working on Arma 2 at some point.

[MehMan 0]

and some beta testers (shock horror)

I would cut them out of the credits for doing such a poor job. Or maybe they did a good job, but BIS dropped the ball. Or something else. In any case, it's ragetastic.

[no use for a name 0]

NOT. They had skill in OFP times but they've lost the touch especially on singleplayer side when it comes to plot and atmosphere. OFP was soldier experience, arma's are squad leader experience which sucks.

I would cut them out of the credits for doing such a poor job. Or maybe they did a good job, but BIS dropped the ball. Or something else. In any case, it's ragetastic.

:rolleyes:

then go buy a game with a fraction of the content, replayability, and crappy community...but yet they have loads of resources/money. If anything you should be mad at the bigger companies for ripping us off if a small one like BIS can at least attempt all of this stuff, yet they (bigger companies) don't.

Edited October 6, 2009 by No Use For A Name

[MehMan 0]

ArmA2 is still an awsomely great game, but some of the bugs were far from hidden.

[Heatseeker 0]

I cant find a source but if im not mistaken there was an interview where Suma said they had 50 people working in Arma 2 and the most people BI had working on OFP at a time was 10!

OFP was the best game of its generation.

[W0lle 1052]

I would cut them out of the credits for doing such a poor job. Or maybe they did a good job, but BIS dropped the ball. Or something else. In any case, it's ragetastic.

+1 infraction point for that.

Your bashing of BI staff has absolutely nothing to do with the thread. And since the game works obviously I fail to see where either the betatesters nor the developers did a poor job.

And before this goes even more out of hand I'm closing this. Especially since the only ones who know how big the team is/was will never answer here. ;)