I feel it honestly depends a lot on experience of the candidate(s) chosen. Need someone with a college degree? That may cost more.
You might be able to get a startup for little more than $10-$15 an hour. But to hire a seasoned artist/musician with industry experience, could very well run $35-$50+ an hour.
If you can only offer a lower price... it may also provide incentive if they can do the work from the comfort of their own home.
Lastly, for small jobs, you might also look at something like Fiverr, and browse the really high-rated artists/musicians with impressive portfolios.
Just some food for thought / tips.
I always wondered how the "per hour" thing works, at least in the indie scene. How do I even know how many hours they spent on their work? ...Maybe you mean as in physically going to a place, which is not possible in my case. The collab would be entirely over the internet.
I said "per week" as in maybe use a Scrum methodology with sprints of 1 week.
I see. If you can't find someone to agree to work that way (Scrum), and don't want to pay by the hour (which has its positives and negatives), you might also be able to negotiate based on each overall asset.
Even asset prices can differ, though. While a tree sprite might cost $10 or less, a fully animated 2D main character could reach $30-$50+. Factor in a bit more than that if we're talking 3D, especially if the animations that are needed are complex.
Hmmmm, I see. That might be a good alternative, because the per-hour model presents me with a little problem right now...
Assuming that I hired one $15 startup and the work schedule would be the normal 8 hours a day, that'd make: 15 x 8 = $120 a day.
Assuming a normal 5 days a week (with saturday and sunday to rest): 120 x 5 = $600 a week.
A month has about 4 weeks: 600 x 4 = $2400 per month.
Now, assuming a small team that includes 1 animator, 1 artist for things like backgrounds, tilesets and GUI, and 1 composer: 2400 x 3 = $7200 a month for that team.
I'd need over 20 times my current subscriber count on my Patreon to even afford that! So I either pay per asset or look for an alternative way of gathering up the money, such as working for others first (assuming these others even have any money to pay me with).
The best way to go about this in my opinion is to look at what you're currently developing and see what assets you need for it, then hire people to work on those specific assets.
Let's say you're starting a 2D game and need a tilemap for a cave. A main character that can just move for now, your first monster with movement (since we're not working on a combat system yet) and maybe a main music loop. Create a spreadsheet of the people you need and their price, for example:
| Asset | Link to Fiverr | Cost |
| Cave Tilemap | John Doe | $30 |
| Main Character Sprite Sheet (Movement Only) | Jane Doe | $50 |
| Slime Sprite Sheet (Movement Only) | Jeff Doe | $30 |
| Music (8-bit track - 2 minute loop) | Josh Doe | $25 |
| TOTAL | $135 |
Now you have your base game assets which you're going to need to build out the layout for, create the cave scene, set up the sprites and creature AI for etc.. All that is going to take you some time. During that time plan out your next system, maybe it's the combat system, list out what you need for assets and save up for the cost.
Keep in mind each person will charge differently based on what you need and the complexity of it and each person will take different amounts of time too. You might get your music track in a week, but the tilemap in 2 weeks. - At least you're paying for a final product and not hourly for an undetermined amount of time.
I'm just going to add one thing to this comment, which is really good.
I believe this is the approach most solo devs take. But it's important to note that, specially if you're taking the fiverr route, making sure the art/music is cohesive for the whole game is crucial.
For this asset per asset method to work, you have to work with the same person to ensure consistency. They have to be involved in the game somehow to understand what you're trying to make.
Just giving people a brief from time to time of what you're trying to make is not a good plan. So communication is very very important with this approach.
Good luck!
I am currently a composer looking for work right now and I am trying to build my portfolio so I am willing to do it for free. You can check out my portfolio (https://witheredgods.com/portfolio) if you are interested.
