How Long Does It Take to Build a Virtual World? Timeline, Costs & Best Practices
- The Doodle People
- Aug 18, 2025
- 5 min read
Updated: Aug 20, 2025
Hi there! The Doodle People Team here to help answer your questions on developing and deploying Virtual Worlds. Here’s a question that our team gets very often:
"How long does a small virtual world take to build?"
In our experience, a small branded world ships in around 4 to 8 weeks if you keep scope tight. In Singapore, our Starter package lands is optimised to deploy in 4 weeks (costing around SGD$9k–12k). Bigger asks (such as advance features or brand personalisation) can push the project to 8 to 12 weeks if custom content needs to be created. All of these timelines are highly affected by scope of work and management approvals.
When does a virtual world beat a webpage?
A webpage can’t host a live moment or community experience but a virtual world can! From previous projects, we found that clients pick a virtual world when they want reach plus interaction! For example**,** a virtual showroom people can walk through, not just scroll past. Going browser-first (3D in your browser via WebGL) removes app installs and eases IT reviews. Our clients say the real win are the signals such as ****where people go, what they click, how long they stay active. All of the signals translate into quantitative data that can be presented to management and most importantly, inform Phase 2 development, ensuring upgrades are focused on the all of the right features.
When do you not need a virtual world (being honest with ourselves)
If launch is in two weeks and assets aren’t ready, or the story is not yet developed and only exists as a brochure or a draft script, we’ll often recommend a microsite or livestream first. We’ve learned the hard way that interaction only pays off when it adds meaning! There are other factors but time is the biggest factor. The shortest timeframe that can hit client goals while also ensuring audience satisfaction is 4 weeks. Though we recommend at least 6 weeks if there are management approvals or admin that needs to be completed on the client side.
Here’s 4 quick tips that work in practice!
Scope for one room! The room will have around 5 to 10 hotspots. Don’t create anything new, reuse your strongest images/videos/models that are already performing well.
Aim for Browser-first, and get fancy later. Start with WebGL; add WebXR (browser support for VR/AR headsets) only if your audience truly needs it. This allows your team to focus on the audience interaction, developing the user engagement and the narrative / interactions of the virtual world to increase retention. We believe in “people first, tech second”!
Prioritise Accessibility from day one. Think like your audience and aim to improve their user experience. Captions, descriptive text, tutorials, etc. What we’ve found really helps a virtual world launch is having plain-language controls (e.g., “Press Tab to move focus”) and some copywriting or marketing materials that invite your existing audience to try the innovative and interactive virtual world experience.
Deploy, Monitor, Iterate. The virtual world track visitors, dwell time, and hotspot clicks. Clients tell us this loop builds internal confidence fast.
Let’s talk time & money
We’re being open with the budgets so that your team and plan ahead! We’ve found that this really helps smooth development and leads to a better deployment. Here’s what you can expect:
Initial World - One Room - Development would be around 4 weeks - Budget around SGD $9k to SGD$12k. This phase focuses on the single turnkey scene, branded, essentials only. Gets the data flowing so that Phase 1 upgrades are not guesses and are instead based on what is working.
Phase 1 - Your first full Virtual World - Development around 8–12 weeks, budget between SGD $12k to $50k. This phase has more custom assets that align with the brand visuals, a simple guide/NPC, light gamification, focused analytics on specific areas to tackle engagement and retention.
Phase 2 - The Complete Virtual World - Expect development to take at least 20+ weeks, budget needed will be high, starting at around SGD$100k+. The Virtual World will have multiple scenes that connect together, custom logic, custom game development and deeper integrations.
From experience, we recommend an iterative approach that goes through the initial world and phase 1 as this creates buy in from management and also allows your team to get comfortable with the virtual world project. Most importantly, locking scope early saves time and money!
How we help minimise risk!
Performance (runs slow): We keep our 3D models lean, our texture sizes small, and test on mid-range laptops/phones to double check that our world runs smoothly for the majority of your audiences.
Capacity (big crowds): Large audiences split into parallel copies of the room (each room can have up to 50 people!), what are called instances, to stay smooth. We plan content and wayfinding with that in mind. The instancing happens automatically when the number of people reach the max capacity for the room.
Accessibility (people can’t use it): We aim for basics: captions/transcripts, keyboard operability, clear focus states, high contrast, descriptive alt text. There’s always an alternative path (video tour or 2D mode) to help those in need.
Safety (brand risk): A short code of conduct, report/mute tools, and real humans for live event moments. Our clients say this keeps spaces welcoming without feeling policed.
Integrations: start simple, go deeper later
From our Singapore pilots, the fastest pattern is:
Phase 1: invite link or access code + a lightweight form + basic analytics. Export to your CRM (customer database) after.
Phase 2: add ticketing, with proper QA and security reviews.
Data & privacy: We align with PDPA (SG) or GDPR (UK/EU). Keeping Phase-1 data simple speeds approvals.
Mini-FAQ
How fast can we really go?
The Rule of thumb we use - if assets are ready and scope is tight, 4 weeks is realistic. Custom 3D or heavy integrations pushes development into 8 to 12 weeks.
“Web vs downloadable client”, which first?
Our default is WebGL for reach and accessibility (no installs). Native apps come later for ultra-high fidelity or offline constraints.
What slows timelines?
From our experience, approvals, heavy custom assets, and integrating with client side platforms. Lock the pilot script and reuse assets to stay on track. Develop in iteration, testing for audience fit first and focus on engagement and interaction.
How many people can be “in the room”?
Expect between 20 - 50 people per room (depending on what’s in the room as the more people, the slower the loading time). For peak moments, the server automatically spins up multiple instances. We can also add in a lobby to help smooth initial congestion and can embed live streams to help handle any slowdowns.
Takeaways
Pilot first: deploy the virtual world in 4 to 8 weeks, learn, then scale.
Keep it light: browser-first, one scene, your best assets that are currently available.
Be inclusive: design to help your audience enter, play and stay in the world while offering a simple fallback (such as a video walkthrough).
Quick glossary of terms
WebGL: Tech that draws 3D in your browser with no app install.
WebXR: Browser standards that talk to VR/AR headsets.
SSO (Single Sign-On): One login to access multiple systems - great for your project team.
Instancing: Splitting big crowds into parallel copies of the same room to keep things smooth.
Need help developing a virtual world? Not sure where to start? We’re here for you!
From experience, a short call with us helps client improve their scope, timeline, and budget ranges so you can ship in weeks, not months. Our clients say it makes internal buy-in a lot easier as well when their information comes validated by our past development experience.
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