This is by far the longest I’ve worked on a single game. I generally realize at some point along the way that my idea just wouldn’t be that fun - either to work on or to play - and abandon it. This one is different on both accounts, which has provided enough motivation to keep me going. Once I pool together enough money to replace my programmer art, a stage I’ve never made it to before, I can hopefully start to go more public with it.
How about you? What long term projects have you worked on? Did you finish? Still working?
Depends on perspective really, if I include re-writes which modify the actual design of the game probably about 2.5 years. If I say from current prototype to now, probably a year…
About 150 hours is the most I have worked on a single project. But only 1/3 of that time was spent on the actual game. The other 2/3 was spent on trying different approaches to figure out the best way to do it in Unity. And ultimately it was never done.
Of the games I’ve completed the longest has been around 60 hours (5 weeks). Anything between 30 and 60 results in a completed game.
I kind of wish I had tracked hours, but I’ll just have to do a really gross estimate once it’s done. Well over 60 though.
I’ve definitely rewritten major portions of mine so far. Went through 3 versions of AI (goal oriented action planner, utility, behavior trees), some major refactoring to support threading once it became clear that was going to be needed (pathfinding for a couple of hundred units), and so on. I’m hoping that major refactors like that are done and I can really start moving forward on fleshing out game play.
I’ve started the occasional shorter game like you prefer. Finished 3 versions of one of them (early iPhone, Xbox 360, Windows Phone) and made enough to pay for a nice laptop. But the games I enjoy making are just much more complex than that so it’s hard to stay motivated on those sorts of games.
Congrats on completing some smaller games already. I definitely get the refactoring. It just comes with the territory I think. No way of knowing really what exactly is needed until we’re down the road a ways then it becomes clearer and need to circle back and overhaul.
Although I greatly enjoy tiny game projects (and games) I am also very interested in doing bigger games. I wanted to start with tiny games because every time I started on something that was much bigger it seemed like I wasn’t making much progress.
So I went way back on scope again kind of starting fresh. The idea is each little game will build on the lessons learned and tech made for the games before it. This way I don’t have to deal with challenge after challenge all on one game. Instead I can tackle just a bit of that in each new game.
Ah, my bad conclusion based on the website. 4 years then, wow. Any ideas how much longer before a release? I have some slim hopes of putting out an early alpha release sometime next year, but that remains to be seen.
Probably 1-1.5 years or so. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to actually release anything. Been programming for years now but haven’t released a game. Why? Because I’m a programmer. Releasing a game requires more skills: marketing, art, music, etc. I specialize in programming and not the others.
In either case, I work on projects to improve my programming ability. My current project has been going for about 2 years, but I took a 9 month break at one point to do other things before returning to it.
You’re even more part-time than I am! I generally can sustain about 12 hours per week on this stuff. But 12.5 hours per month for your game. Wow! Shows that even a little time can really produce something nice over a long haul.
Do you generally just work on your game 1 day per week or two for 3 or 6 hours or working several days per week like 30 minutes each?
I’ve been working on and off my space game kit for quite a while, probably a year or so now? - at various points (before I announced it) it was going to be a space game of my own and then I would change my mind again (which of course meant a rewrite!) But aside from large stretches where I put it on hold and did other stuff, I spend only about a third of my game development time specifically on it - most of the time is building up my skill in everything from scripting, shader programming, modelling, customizing blender, and a million other things. I like to go off on a tangent for a week or two to make a quick assessment of something that might have a use for what I’m ‘officially’ working on, such as practising making modular kits, or a promising procedural sound effect generator I want to finish developing in the near future, that is already being used for the kit.
I tie it all together around the space game kit, so although a lot of things I work on aren’t specifically designed for it, they all push in that direction, and it keeps me from having a clash of different projects. And I suppose the space game kit is really part of a push for my upcoming game(s).
I am curious do you guys work on 8 hours a day, every day or just work whenever you feel like it spradoically, where your putting in like 12 hours a ay and sometimes you wont work on it for a few weeks.
I have a day job, but generally average 3-4 hours a day on my game project. My productivity level goes in waves (might be slightly bi-polar ). Sometimes I’ll do 16+ hour days just on my game and make huge progress, sometimes will have nothing mentally for a few days so nothing much gets done. I do try to do at least one thing on it every day, even if it’s something that just takes 5 minutes. Daily progress.
I have a hobby project…Worked on it with two different engines, and wasted a year on each…I have been rebuilding it in Unity for past 4 months…The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence…Unity is very time saving…In 4 months I am already to the point I was in a year with the other engines…Go Unity!..
Mine goes like this… start new tiny game project work 1.5 to 2 hours per day until it is done. Release then take 1 week (or more) off before starting a new project.
Not written in stone though. And now I have 2 projects going on… one with another dev and my new solo project. Only done a bit on each very sporadically over the past 2 weeks.
I think it was just the change… I was just sort of “getting in the groove” knocking out games again. Then decided to try teaming up with another person and it just seemed like it added so much overhead and extra work it kind of broke my momentum. I think we’ve got that sorted out now though.
Tonight I will be focusing on my solo game project. It’s another I can knock out in 2 to 3 weeks at most if that is the only one I had going on.
I did the concept art for mine in January 2008.
Which means I was never inspired by minecraft.
Didnt start with Unity until the PC version.
Before that I was poking around with Java+Slick for 2D isometric.
). Sometimes I’ll do 16+ hour days just on my game and make huge progress, sometimes will have nothing mentally for a few days so nothing much gets done. I do try to do at least one thing on it every day, even if it’s something that just takes 5 minutes. Daily progress.