Nobody can be good at everything. I just saw this: Three Hundred Game Ideas. They’re all pretty good… very unique, different. I think any one of those ideas is better than any game idea I’ve ever had. Which confirms something I’ve suspected for a while now. I’m probably not that talented as a game designer. Which is weird to say, because I pretty much always thought that was what I wanted to be. What’s even weirder is I don’t care very much, it’s kind of a relief.
I mean, I understand the fundamentals of what makes a game operate and I can crank out a generic game in no time. But, I can’t come up with any ideas what the player should do or where they should go. I can’t come up with any ideas, really. On average… the amount of time it takes me to come up with something to go in a game is like 100:1 over how long it takes me to implement it. Which has got me to thinking… what the heck am I???
I mean, I’m obviously not going to be a world class game designer unless I get struck by lightning and gain super human learning abilities or something.
So, am I just a run-of-the-mill game developer? Something else? Is that what that means?
I’d like to focus on my actual abilities, rather than trying to develop something that I have no affinity for.
I think you’d be my perfect partner. I on the other hand can crank out pages upon pages of game mechanics and design that I’m simply never able to implement upon.
My goal in life is to create a semi successful video game, and then use that money to start a video game development company (I have an associate’s in business administration, and am currently working towards my bachelor’s).
I want to be the guy who understands the business of the industry, but at his heart is a true gamer. I want to bridge that gap and release amazing titles. I want to design the game and let somebody else put in the code. Unfortunately as I understand it, the most feasible path towards my goal is to first learn how to develop. I hate developing with a passion but I see it as the price I must pay for my dreams.
I typically come up with vast expansive game ideas, but two nights ago I came up with a game concept I think would really be popular, and would require a lot less on the programming side.
So, if you’re interested, maybe we can collaborate on something?
Oh yeah, sorry for off topic but I saw the opportunity and decided to take a shot.
Um, I guess you’d just fall under the category of programmer or developer.
I was going to say - maybe you should team up with one of those “idea guys” that frequently post here in the design forum, you know the ones who have great ideas, but don’t even know where the learn section is, and haven’t gone through any parts of the documentation, don’t know code, or logic and really can’t draw all that well.
But that was just being silly.
Really though - I agree with Gerald - you are probably a great person to have a 2 man team with. From what I know about having friends who are opposite me, a programmer to my artist perspective, we each feed each others concepts and ideas, while I’m sketching and talking grandiose visuals they are writing weird symbols and talking gibberish about systems and odd alien speak.
I bet if you found/find the right person to partner with you guys could crank out something very interesting, and probably more complex, definitely more polished than any one person could do in the same time frame.
I can kind of relate - though I believe design is something that can be learned through iteration and prototyping just as art and code can. Though in relation to your position, I have booklets of game ideas, concepts and designs, and I think I’m pretty good on the art side - it’s the implementation area thats the snag for me, but I’m working on getting better.
Thing is I’ve made nearly a dozen little incomplete games… I’ve only released 2, mind you… but the others that I demo’d were getting good feedback on the graphics and all that, just never good feedback on gameplay. Which… ironically, never registered more than a “huh… how bout that” from the back of my mind. Seems I don’t really care, even on a subconscious level, about anything but the technical challenge of the game’s development.
I have begun to doubt the whole “learning creativity” thing, especially when I now see that it’s not even important to me.
Gee, I guess I’ll be spending the next couple days looking through this and not on getting my engagement cycles paper out. Sure the thing is basically done, and I’m really just trying to find the energy to wrap it up and post it; but it’s totally your fault that I can’t drop this bomb that might have totally blown your mind into a perspective that would have been totally transcendent. Totally…
I make no guarantees about the aforementioned mind blownage. With the way it’s written, it’s a lot of stating without really trying to prove any of it. I personally think a lot of it is obvious when thought of consciously, but doesn’t have any say in unconscious thinking, so it becomes an issue of making it seem like it’s not something people are always doing already.
So was the feedback direct like this works but it feels like crap doing it. Like yes I can turn the car, but with some subtle lean in the chassis this would really feel better.
It could also be you might not be getting the blunt truth feedback needed to relay the information properly. Sometimes - we need to hear something sucks bad to understand how it could be improved.
Huh - how bout that.
Maybe your more of an engineer type than a developer/programmer.
Afaik - in engineering there is no real creativity, once the design is in production. It either works as expected or there is still work to do. Game mechanics for games requires creativity to get that perfect feeling of flow and - feel.
I started watching dragon ball in parallel with this, and I’m in the middle of the android arc. I’m not sure when I started this, but I’m pretty sure it was a long ass time ago.
I’m basically at a point where I don’t want to change or add to it, just because trying to make it more readable would balloon it to at least 5X, and it’s not like I’ve got a book deal.
Many of these are bound to be very interesting, but I just realized his list doesn’t actually hit three hundred yet. Additionally a number of these appear to be re-using mechanics to some degree. Entry #196 incorporates part of #29 for example.
Does this count as three hundred mechanics? Or is it simply three hundred ideas?
I gave you a like for expressing this very interesting human emotion.
I’m on the far side of “mechanic implementer”, very far away from game designer. I can implement mechanics really well… and I can expand the mechanic to a point where it seems to be intentionally designed to be part of a game… but I’m not great at the “big picture” design for games. Even simple games I just get lost in what to do next after I’ve spent a few hours making cool mechanics.
I’ve even laid out game design docs in college for classes and put together just large interactions between different mechanics with no purpose. We might not capable of being a solo designer, but we will definitely be good on the job forums / asset store
If you are willing to accept it, there’s nothing wrong with being a cog in someone else’s machine.
Very interesting topic. I’ve realized during my first big (still unfinished) game project that I don’t enjoy gamedesign and I’m probably also not very good at it. I have good analytical skills though and can often even say why I don’t like a gamedesign choice in a game. But I have so little interest in the whole gamedesign aspect, that I get distracted in a heartbeat. I have come to the conclusion that the smart thing to do would be forcing myself to make a rough game prototype with cubes only(!), because I’m not even able to use placeholder assets without getting distracted by art questions. I know this is what I should be doing right now, yet I’m procrastinating with “at the moment meaningless” stuff like reading about shader programming because that interests me a whole lot more.
The thing is though, that a big part of what draws me to game development is that I DON’T want to collaborate with other people. In theory I’d be suited for the “cog in someone else’s machine” thing, but for me personally the whole point of indie gamedev is NOT to bet that.
The “solution” for me is to try and see how far I can get with making my level design procedural and generic and adding lots of stuff that can explode to compensate for my lack of vision as a game designer .
You might go a ways down that road and end up exactly where I am. To know for sure, though, you’ll have to take that journey yourself. I can tell you that when I started I NEVER wanted to work with anyone, ever. I was like, 100% a solo guy. I reluctantly started little collaborations but then I always tried to run the show… and now I realize, that I don’t even want to run the show, either. I just like seeing games come together… and I enjoy the complexity and challenge of coding things together.
Also, for me, the point of being Indie is that I am not an industry professional… being indie is actually something that I am reluctant about. But, at the same time, I am not going to just not make games. Nothing else interests me this much.
I liked the list, and the author recognizes he like to revision ideas a lot. But I agree that some of them are actually more like detailed concepts than new mechanics.
I love collaboration and I can’t imagine building a game without it. As this entire thread has shown, different people have different strengths. Putting those together can create a much more complete product. Collaboration does not mean a “cog in someone else’s wheel”. It means working together, bouncing off ideas, teaching each other, and putting all those strengths into the project. So if one lacks something, such as the logic to code well or the creativity to design, together you have both.
Many many indie teams are collaborative and often those are the ones that are successful. Yeah, lots of one man teams out there, but even these often have a friend/wife/business manager to help them along.
I started as a writer many years ago in a large team and from my colleagues, I learned much about design, about game mechanics, and while I cannot code, I can explain things to the programmers in “pseudo code” and I can understand what can be done, what can’t be done, and what may someday be done.
However, I would never want to do go it alone. Not only would be it less fun, but something would always be missing. I very much admire those that can do it, but I don’t believe “indie gamedev” is designed to be solo. It all depends on how well you collaborate with others, if you can find team members you can trust, and how well rounded you are in your own skills.
Yeah, finding my true purpose would be nice. Thanks and good luck on your journey too! I actually might end up with a similar mindset as you have now. But as you said, there is only one way to find out and I have to walk that road myself.
Perhaps I should clarify that I don’t see collaboration as bad in general. If you have a constellation of people that you work well with and where everyone is like a piece of a puzzle and has a different specialization that’s awesome! Treasure it, it might be a rare thing to happen.
I could imagine to be happy in a collaborative environment, but at this time I’m not ready to make that leap of faith, trust strangers and risk dissappointment.
Also I don’t feel like I’m a good “puzzle piece” for a team of specialists because my biggest strength is that I’m rather versatile and good at learning new things. I can work on art assets, write code or compose music, but I don’t really excel at any of those. That versatility is hard to put to use as a freelance service provider because companies are mostly looking for specialists. There isn’t much of a games industry where I live either. Making a game alone almost feels like the logical conclusion to me. And it’s one of the few things that fascinated me almost my whole life. So I think I’ll give it another shot.
Longterm I think I might even be happier in a cog-in-the-machine-situation where someone hands me tasks like “learn how to write shaders and make one that does x y and z” or “see if you can optimize this from average 50 fps to solid 60”. I like clear cut tasks which have a clear “winning condition”. I don’t like open ended creative processes that never end and always “could be better”. I do realize that making a game alone is far more of the latter. But I don’t have the portfolio to get work that suits me better in that regard. Yet.
Monetary needs aside, I think if I could do whatever I want and didn’t have to worry about money, I’d still try to make games on my own. That’s perhaps the main reason why I feel like going further on that road for now.
I think most indie teams are very aware that a lot of us are still learning. Like you, I do a myriad of tasks involved in the game. Some I do better than others but you need to give yourself a break and realize that you will improve and sometimes working with others will help you improve at a much faster rate.
I get the distrust though. It is tough with folks you meet online.
