I'm developing a live wallpaper engine that lets users create interactive 3D wallpapers with rigged, animated characters, interchangeable outfits, facial expressions, and animations. It's still a work in progress, but a small group of people is already interested in it. Someone offered to pay me to add dynamic sound-system support, which wasn't part of my original plan. I expect the implementation to take roughly three or four days of my spare time, plus some future maintenance. Since I normally program as a hobby and don't have much freelance experience, how should I calculate a fair price?
2 Answers
Start by estimating the total time, including planning, testing, documentation, and likely follow-up fixes—not just the coding. Then multiply that by a rate that makes giving up your free time worthwhile. A freelance developer might use something in the $40–$80 per hour range, depending on experience, but as a hobbyist you can choose a lower figure if you genuinely want to support the project. Add a maintenance cushion, define exactly what “sound support” includes, and ask for around half upfront. If the feature will benefit everyone later, you could discount the requested price and treat the difference as an investment in the engine.
Be careful about the scope before naming a number. Supporting audio playback and events is very different from creating or recording audio assets, building an editor, synchronizing sound with animations, or supporting multiple formats and platforms. Write down what you will deliver and what is explicitly excluded. For a one-off custom feature requested by a single person, charge for the full development cost unless you’re intentionally accepting a discount because the feature improves the product for future users. The size of the eventual market matters less than whether the payment makes the work worth interrupting your other plans.
The audience may be niche, so I wouldn’t price it based on an imagined large market. I’d base it on the time involved and on what the requester is actually willing to pay, while avoiding an open-ended promise to maintain the feature forever.
I hadn’t planned to monetize the project at all; it started as a personal project that some 3D-artist friends became interested in. Three or four days of spare-time development plus maintenance seems like the realistic scope, but I’m not used to pricing programming work.