How to Build a VR Development Budget [With Template]

The virtual reality app development process is highly technical, and companies aren’t likely to have VR software development knowledge in-house to take on the project themselves.

From this perspective, working with a virtual reality development company is often the more cost-effective, stress-free solution to a daunting project. However, hiring development services isn’t necessarily a walk in the park. When it comes to managing VR app development costs, a thought-through budget is a must-have.

Whether you’re a startup looking to create a VR game or a healthcare company aiming to enhance education with a virtual environment, this guide will walk you through creating a VR development budget step by step.

What Goes into a Virtual Reality Development Budget?

When setting up a VR application development project, there can be seemingly countless expenses. However, the costs shouldn’t overwhelm you if you know what to expect. Keep the following categories in mind when building your budget to get a high-quality end product.

• Development Costs: These involve your development team of VR developers, programmers, designers, and project managers staffed to your virtual reality application. Also included in development costs are software licenses for software, game engines (ex. Unity or Unreal Engine), 3D models and animations, and audio production.
• Hardware and Equipment: Costs include any VR headsets compatible with your virtual reality technology, motion controllers, additional VR devices, and accessories.
• Testing and Quality Assurance: Funds any QA, bug fixes, and user experience adjustments that will improve the VR experience — this category is common for many mobile app development projects.
• Content Creation: cost of frameworks and execution of 3D asset production and sound design.

The purpose of VR technology is to provide immersive experiences that mimic and enhance those of the real world. While VR is especially popular in the gaming industry, video games are far from the only useful place for VR within a business.

7 Steps to Create a Solid VR Development Budget

Companies undertaking a VR development project may not be familiar with the process, which can make budgeting stressful. However, there are easy steps you can follow to achieve an accurate budget.

1. Define goals
2. Outline technical needs
3. Research development costs
4. Plan content creation
5. Budget for testing
6. Account for ongoing maintenance
7. Establish a contingency fund

Looking for more insights on VR game development costs? Discover how much VR projects on Clutch cost in our VR development pricing guide.

Define Project Goals

Having goals early on in the project will not only help you guide your service provider in the right direction, but it will also set you on a clear path forward internally. This is essential to your budget.

At this point, sit down with relevant stakeholders and determine VR projects objectives. A project with the goal of employee training will need different tools and approaches than a solution for architectural visualization.

Having project goals like these in mind will guide the project and, therefore, the budget.

Outline Technical Requirements

The technical needs of a VR project are a huge driver of end cost. They play a role in determining the complexity of the work and expertise needed to complete it.

While it’s not expected that you know everything about VR software and associated platforms going into the project, it’s good to have a general idea of how different tools will work together to yield the product you’re looking to create.

The main types of tools that you’ll likely need to account for in your dev budget include the following:

• Platform: There are various VR platforms to choose from, such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or mobile VR.
• Interactivity: This isn’t a tool but a level of determining the difficulty of developing a project. Solutions that need a higher level of interactivity will include several immersive elements like hand tracking, haptic feedback, and physical simulations.

Each type of technical requirement is critical in figuring out an ideal budget for prototyping, development, and deployment.

Research Development Costs

Now that you’re familiar with the tools and technologies needed to produce VR solutions, now it’s time to begin accounting for the cost of the development work that your outsourced business service provider will carry out.

Costs that will come up when you’re evaluating the cost of the development process will include:

• Software Licenses: Licensing for development software will incur a cost — talk with your provider to learn whether you will be responsible for providing these funds.
• Hardware: Prototyping, development, and end usage of VR solutions require hardware, which increases costs. Common hardware in the VR world includes VR headsets and controllers.
• Development Expertise: Research how much VR development companies charge for their services. Some companies charge more than others depending on location (ex., eastern Europe may be more cost-effective than Western Europe), level of experience, and the number of developers they’re devoting to the development project.

Plan Content Creation

Content creation is where backend development and architecture become front-end design, graphics, and animation.

Technical expertise is needed to create 3D models, animations, and photorealistic graphic rendering. Understand how extensive your animation and graphics work will be to get a good idea of how much support you’ll need for it.

3D interactive animations are a hallmark of VR products and must be budgeted for as such.

Budget for Testing and QA

Testing is incredibly important in ensuring your product is safe, engaging, and otherwise works as it should.

Your testing team can save your credibility for high-quality solutions down the line by ridding work of bugs and errors.

Testing occurs across the solution but can be broken down into the following areas for the sake of proper budgeting:

• Hardware Testing: Your choice of equipment — Gohar VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Google Cardboard, iOS, Android, or Samsung Gear VR — should be compatible with the VR software the team develops
• User Testing: The cost of VR testing and the collection of feedback from a group of real users that will point you toward product improvements.
• Quality Assurance: Costs associated with software performance optimization and debugging

Account for Ongoing Maintenance

Remember, VR development doesn’t terminate once a product launches. Following the release of a new app, companies are expected to maintain engagement and relevance by updating the app.

Updates over time cost additional money, but regular bug fixes and optimizations will keep the VR application functional and current over time. This makes your solution more sustainable.

Generally, companies are able to work with the same service provider via retainer to handle ongoing needs for a monthly fixed price.

Establish a Contingency Fund

No one expects their project to hit bumps in the road that delay production. However, unforeseen circumstances and scope creep are very common, even for businesses that plan and budget well.

When a project starts to get a little out of control, a contingency fund ensures your budget stays within your control. Allocating a fund of about 15% of the cost of the VR project will give you just the amount of buffer and wiggle room you need to remain confident in the face of issues.

A well-planned budget is a major player in the success of your project, and this preparation includes expecting the unexpected.

VR Development Budget Template

Download our VR Development Budget Template.

Factors That Influence VR Development Costs

VR development costs can vary significantly from project to project, but there are a few key main factors that drive changes in budget.

While there are many things that will sway costs, important repeat offenders include the following:

1. Complexity of the VR Experience: Interactive projects that are rich in graphics or physics need more extensive development time and resources, which increases costs.
2. Platform Compatibility: Developing for multiple platforms (ex., Oculus, HTC Vive, smartphones) increases development efforts and expenses. Each additional platform has different technical requirements and optimization considerations.
3. 3D Asset Requirements: 3D assets can get really complex in VR, so when you ask for detailed, textured results, you’ll spend more time on 3D modeling and animation and need greater expertise. This will drive up costs.
4. Realism: Above, we termed this as ‘interactivity level’ to emphasize the complex nature of Implementing dynamic, interactive features like hand tracking and haptic feedback. These things can add value to your end product but will bump costs upward.

VR Technology is Within Your Reach

While VR can come across as very expensive, budgeting correctly can make this technology accessible to businesses of all types and sizes. A healthy budget will include the expected spending for development, hardware, software, and testing.

About the Author

Sydney Wess SEO Manager at Clutch

Sydney Wess is a SEO manager who focuses on strengthening organic performance and building topical authority for Clutch.

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