What does a mobile game prototype cost?
By 9th House Games ·
Studios that publish a price for a mobile game prototype ask for about $2,000 to $5,000: Juego Studio lists $2,000 to $5,000 for concept and prototyping, Pixent a fixed $4,500 sprint, GameTactics from $3,000. Clients posting new-build game projects on Freelancer set a median top budget of $250.
What studios put on their price pages
Three studios show a number. Each page was opened on 27 Oct 2026; prices change, so check before you rely on one.
| Studio | What the page says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GameTactics | From $3k for one prototype you can run an install-cost test on, with creatives, in 2 to 3 weeks. It lists a core loop, 10 levels, SDKs and 2 video creatives. A batch of prototypes is from $8k a month. | GameTactics |
| Juego Studio | $2,000 to $5,000 for the concept and prototyping stage. Its estimate for all stages of a hyper-casual game is $11,000 to $32,000. | Juego Studio |
| Pixent | Prototype Sprint, $4,500 fixed, defined scope, typically 2 to 3 weeks. | Pixent, as listed on Clutch |
Pixent's figure comes from a third-party listing of its package, not from its own site, which we could not reach. We looked at A+ Games too and could not find a price page, so it is not here.
What clients ask for on Freelancer
We read every game project posted on Freelancer between 31 August and 6 October 2026 that asked for a new game to be built: 144 projects. The median top budget was $250. A quarter of them asked for $30 or less and a quarter for $750 or more; the smallest was $4 and the largest $20,000. Thirty of the 144 are hourly, where the figure is a rate rather than a project price. Counting only the 114 fixed-price ones with a stated budget, the median is $391.
Puzzle, casual and arcade games are the closest thing to hyper-casual in that set. There were 25 of them, with a median top budget of $388, and 12 of the 25 asked for $250 or less.
A budget on a post is what the client asked to spend. It is not what anyone was paid, and the label for "new game" comes from keyword rules over the title and description, so a few projects are in the wrong box.
What those budgets bought
We also pulled 60 days of closed projects (27 August to 26 October 2026) and looked at who was hired. Of 428 closed new-build projects, 52 hired someone, and the median top budget on the 428 was $394. A few of the hired ones, with the budget on the post: a mobile duck racing game, $250 (UK); a prototype of a familiar game mechanic, $250 (US); a 3D Android arcade game, $839 (Belgium). More on that data in who actually gets hired to build a game.
Why the two sets are so far apart
This part is our reading, not a measurement. The posts mostly ask for a finished game that can go to a store. The studio prices above buy a test version, with ad videos and publisher SDKs in some cases, built to see whether a game is worth making. Those are different jobs, and a $250 post does not buy the studio one.
If your budget is nearer $250 than $3,000, what we see people get hired for is a stripped-down build from one freelancer. If you want a prototype a publisher can test, plan for the studio range and ask what is in it: some quotes include ad creatives and some do not.
Sources
- GameTactics, hyper-casual game development (opened 27 Oct 2026)
- Juego Studio, hyper-casual game development (cost FAQ) (opened 27 Oct 2026)
- Pixent Interactive on Clutch (opened 27 Oct 2026, third-party listing)
How this page was made. Studio prices are quoted from each page as opened on 27 Oct 2026. Freelancer figures are our own pulls through Freelancer's public API (31 Aug to 6 Oct for the 144 new-build projects, 27 Aug to 26 Oct for the closed-project data), counted again from the saved files on 27 Oct 2026.
9th House Games is the games studio of 9th House in Bengaluru, run by Rohan Kulkarni. We turn a game idea into a playable test build. If you have a game idea, send it to us.