So the more I work on my game the less time and energy I have to play games.
I feel that it’s important to go back once and a while to rediscover the core of my passion, let off steam, and to keep track of where things are moving. But damned if it isn’t getting hard to do.
Then time aside, I’m finding playing games less and less fulfilling as making games. Is it possible to enjoy making games more than playing them?
I dunno, it just feels weird to me and I wanted to know where I am versus others when it comes to how much we play games.
None.I make tools and games…Testing them does not count. I do enjoy watching others play them. Never much of a keyboard warrior as I am still a hunt and peck typer with a habit of looking at the keyboard even though I don’t need to. I gave up games when my kids could whip my butt in Tekken barely out of grade two:)
Well, it depends on how well my project is going. Sometimes I end up running into something that I just can’t figure out. So I take a break and play a game (or, you know, exercise, etc). And then come back with a more fresh perspective and usually end up solving it. If my project is going really well, though, then I tend not to play games very much.
I do think that playing games is important, or at least useful, for making games. It gives inspiration. It gives ways to approach problems. It gives information about game design. And it can exercise your brain in ways programming doesn’t.
I’ll add that the only game I ever play is Minecraft - I’ve always loved sandbox/building type games. It’s great exercise for the creative capacity of the brain.
I used to play about 10-15 hours a week, since making games with Unity its gone down to a couple of hours a week lol, and a lot of that time is just trying out new games and looking how they’ve implemented certain things.
I play about from a few hours to 10 hours a week, whenever I have nothing to do or when I just want to relax and forget about everything for a bit.
This really depends on the game you’re playing and the project you’re creating IMO.
If you play a game which you really like and are working on a project with which you’ve hit tons of roadblocks, I feel like in this case you would enjoy playing the game more than working on your project.
But if you’re playing a highly competitive game with really bad connection and are working on a project that is going along nicely, you might like working on the project more.
I personally like to play games that have interesting mechanics or different ideas (and random ones that I just somehow enjoy). Recently I whipped out my old GameBoy Color and blasted through The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages and the Oracle of Seasons, and damn if it wasn’t fun. Hard, but fun.
But one thing I’ve noticed though; after I started making games, I started to analyze games more as I played them. It may or may not break the immersion of the game, but whenever I see something interesting in a game, I just stop and stare at it for a while, and think how it was done.
Same here, I really don’t play a lot of games anymore. And a lot of times when I do after an hour or two I’ll get the urge to continue working on my project. There are exceptions of course, the first two weeks that The Witcher 3 came out I spent pretty much all my free time on it. Whether the game was that good or I just needed to clear my mind for having lost a cat I can’t really tell. I know I really enjoyed the game and didn’t touch the project for a whole 2 weeks.
But yes everytime I play a game now I keep thinking “How did they do that?” or “How would I implement this thing if I had to code it myself”.
Why does this feel good?
What’s fun about this?
Why do I want to play this again?
Why don’t I want to play this again?
Why is this activity fun, why isn’t that activity fun?
Even if it’s just a couple hours or something, it’s so important to see different approaches to problems. For the game design side, playing games is really important I think.
I spend about 15 to 20 hours per week playing games. That time is split between retro gaming in web browsers on my laptop, retro gaming on my NES and Genesis and modern gaming on the PS3 and laptop.
No gaming yet today. So far got a bunch of exercise done. Worked 1 hour on my Unity game project (I just set a timer for 59 minutes. When it goes off I wrap up what I am doing including leaving notes of where to resume next time). And getting the grill all ready and the fire lit. Now it is time to throw the meat on the grill. Eat. THEN I will most certainly spend an hour gaming probably D3 on my laptop. Then stop and do the workout. Then do an hour of retro gaming. Then probably put another hour on my game. Then maybe some D3 again. 3-day weekends are awesome!
LOL “like heroin” … what a way to put it and I understand because my girlfriend is the same. She has always been quite a gamer. I bought D3 and the expansion for her on Valentine’s Day. Figured she would really like it. She had never played any Diablo games before despite loving fantasy action rpg style games and stuff in general. She now plays D3 at least 3 hours every day.
I completely relate! Quite a bit of my imagination creativity got dumbed down after I started making games for the first time, and limiting myself to what I can do instead of what I envisioned.
The best game I played recently was Batman Arkham City. I also liked the old Tomb Raiders and If they make anything as good as those with good characters and story I will play them. But I don’t just play any old thing. (Maybe people can recommend something?)
Mostly I prefer making stuff. Playing games seems like a waste of your time when you have stuff to do. (i.e. making things that will waste other people’s time!)
I think there are two types of people. Creatives and consumers. You’re either one or the other.
