Working upwards

News & General Discussion
1

I am definitely for the concept of working on smaller projects in the process of gaining experience, before I work on my bigger, ‘dream project’. The issue I run into, and I know it’s not unique to me, is that I hate working on a lame project, plain and simple. I don’t want to think about the mechanics of a boring, tedious, and not-fun game that I don’t really want to make, when it’s so much more compelling to think about my big ideas.

Now don’t get me wrong, I want to make them good if I make them; and I’d never deliberately design a lame game in the first place (and maybe that’s part of the problem, but standards are standards I guess?). But I have a hard time ‘justifying’ poor quality and not-adding-everything-cool-I-think-of to myself; the same with making games for other people. I just try to make games for me; and if others like them, which I want to happen, then that’s cool with me.

So I’m wondering if there are any tricks to getting through the ‘this-is-stupid’ phase and maybe even psyching yourself up for it; perhaps also the process of beginning in the first place. I think it also falls under this category to determine when ‘sacrifices’ are truly necessary, and then actually making them. (Seems to me that all of the really inspirational stories come from people who wouldn’t sacrifice quality and what they wanted whatever they did to be; I mean, I know hard work was part of it, and they had to figure out how to do it, but still.)

I realize the big answer is going to be ‘suck it up!’ but I’m looking for a little more than that if I can get it, because honestly, for me that’s a very hard thing to do. I’m an idealist, and I don’t plan on changing that. Seriously, are there little mind tricks you put yourself thru, to get you to do things that are necessary? And how are you supposed to tell if it is necessary in the first place? It’s that doubt that keeps me from going as much as anything.
That, and I’m probably just complaining and looking for an easy way out… don’t worry, I’ll get over it. Provided I actually get started.
Please feel free to complain with me, or berate those complainers for doing so.

2

Find a smaller game you do want to make. You’re going to need all the motivation you can get.

Work on a Barbie or My Little Pony game, then you’ll understand the true meaning of “suck it up” lol

3

I suppose another related question here might be…
…How do I keep a game small? They always start small. But that doesn’t last long; I have a hard time de-cluttering; especially when it isn’t necessarily clutter.

4

Feature creep was my worst enemy until lately (well it’s still an enemy, but at least I’m battling it!). What I like to do now… is focus on a central mechanic or theme. After that I get a quick prototype up to see how it “feels”. Then the team sits down and tries to flesh out an “experience” the user should have. We go feature by feature at this point and cut everything that a) doesn’t add a LOT of depth to the game and b) is difficult to implement at the current time.

What we are left with is a tiny feature list for our first iteration. (We’re still currently at this stage!) But what we plan to do is evaluate the iteration, and continue the process until we feel that adding anything or removing anything no longer adds any value to the game as a whole. At this point we’ll really work on our polish and presentation and hopefully have something worth showing. I’m by no means an expert, but it wasn’t too long ago that I was in your boat. The good news is, you are entering a fun period of game development :smile:

Cheers and good luck!