Trying to Finish Projects So I Can Play Games Again

As I work towards completing my own game, I've been thinking a lot near finishing projects in general. I've noticed that there are a lot of talented developers out there that have trouble finishing games. Truthfully, I've left a long trail of unfinished games in my wake… I recollect everyone has. Non every project is going to pan out, for whatever reason. But if you find yourself consistently backing out of game projects that have a lot of potential, it could exist worth taking a step back and examining why this happens.

We've all had that feeling near at least one game, comic book, moving picture, etc., that comes out: "Gee, I could do better than this! This is overrated." Only it's important to accept a step back and realize that, hey, they put in the time to finish a project and I haven't. That'due south at least ane thing they might be better than me at, and it's probably why they have the recognition I don't! If you care for finishing like a skill, rather than simply a step in the process, you can acknowledge not simply that it's something y'all can go improve at, but also what habits and thought processes arrive your way.

I don't believe that there's a correct manner to brand games. Information technology's a artistic endeavor, so there are no hard and fast rules that can't exist broken at some bespeak. But as a game developer who has discussed this trouble with other game developers, I experience like there are some mental traps that we all fall into at some point, particularly when we're starting out. Beingness aware of these traps is a swell start step towards finishing something. (Between yous and me, codifying these ideas is partly my mode of staying on top of them, also!)

And so without farther ado, here is a listing of 15 tips for finishing a game:

1. CHOOSE AN IDEA WITH POTENTIAL

I've found that there are iii types of games that pique my involvement: games I want to brand, games I want to have fabricated, and games I'k good at making.

Games I want to make are games where the process itself seems really fun. Maybe the mechanic seems actually fun to experiment with, or mayhap there'southward a character I really want to breathing.

Games I want to accept made are games where I'grand more interested in the result than in getting at that place. Peradventure it's a "no-limits" concept ("OMG, GTA meets Final Fantasy meets Starcraft meets…") or just a neat idea that's not necessarily any fun to implement.

Games I'm good at making are games that are suited to my personality and which I have experience in making. Possibly there's a certain genre that y'all naturally gravitate towards and which you understand the rhythm and flow of very well.

In my opinion, the ideas with the most potential (to be finished, at least) fall into all three categories and also satisfy the requirement "I have the time and resource to actually brand this".

2. ACTUALLY START THE DAMN GAME

Writing your idea down is non starting the damn game. Writing a design document is non starting the damn game. Assembling a team is non starting the damn game. Even doing graphics or music is non starting the damn game. Information technology's piece of cake to misfile "preparing to start the damn game" with "starting the damn game". Just remember: a damn game can be played, and if yous have not created something that can exist played, it's not a damn game!

And then dammit, even creating a game engine is not necessarily starting the damn game. Which brings me to the next tip…

three. DON'T Whorl YOUR OWN TECH IF You lot DON'T Have TO

In that location are pros and cons to writing your ain engine. But inquire yourself, exercise you really have to? Is what you want to do impossible to do with what'south already out at that place or would you be reinventing the wheel? Of grade, if you lot write your own engine yous can arrive just perfect the way you similar it. But be honest, how often practice you lot ever get past the engine to the game itself? Do you detect yourself making game engines more often than you do games?

I fabricated the original version of Spelunky in Game Maker, and it's that "finished" game that eventually gave me the opportunity to piece of work on an Xbox 360 version. Then don't ever feel that game-making software or other simplified tools are somehow illegitimate. The important thing is the game.

Link: The Contained Gaming Forums Technical Forums

4. Paradigm

This goes with #two: epitome first with whatever yous accept available. Sometimes you find out right off the bat that information technology's a bad thought. Sometimes you stumble upon an even BETTER thought. Either way, I commonly find information technology hard to figure out what I want to commit to until I actually get-go making something. Then make something!

v. MAKE SURE THE CORE MECHANICS ARE FUN

Find core mechanics that are just fun to play around with. Information technology should be fun to execute the most basic interactions, because that'due south what players will exist doing the virtually when they play your game. Ultimately, you want this core to drive your development. This will make it a lot easier for you later when you have to cut out parts of the game (#thirteen) - you'll always have this core to autumn back to.

It's possible, while prototyping, that you discover a mechanic that's More than fun than what you originally thought the core mechanic was - consider making that the new core mechanic!

half-dozen. Choose GOOD PARTNERS (OR WORK ALONE As LONG AS You CAN)

Finding a practiced game-making partner is similar dating in a lot of ways. You may think that all that matters is skill: "Oh cool, I'1000 a programmer, and this guy's an artist… allow's Do THIS!" But no, there are other things to consider, like personality, experience, timing, and mutual interest. Like a romantic relationship, you don't desire to be in a position where either you or the other person is far less defended. Test each other out a bit with some smaller projects, considering information technology tin can really exist devastating when a cardinal person drops out later on months or years of evolution.

Some other great thing near having finished projects is that your partners will know what you're capable of and volition feel more comfortable working with you. Information technology'due south hard to convince anyone experienced to piece of work with you on an idea alone, considering how few ideas actually encounter the light of day (and how hard information technology is to see the value in some ideas until they've been executed). Skillful partners will want to see your finished games. So finish them!

Alternatively, find free graphics and music to use online, at least as placeholders (at The Independent Gaming Source we had a competition in which a lot of costless art and music was created). Employ ASCII if you have to. As an creative person, I know I'd much rather contribute to a project that is already washed but just missing art. And if you need a coder… consider learning to code yourself (if I can practice it, you can, likewise!) or picking upward some game-making software (see #3).

7. GRIND IS NORMAL - FACTOR It INTO YOUR PLAN

A lot of game-making is tedious and downright unfun. It's not play, information technology's work (and this is why you lot should choke out ANYONE when they joke virtually you "playing games all day"). At some point you lot'll all of a sudden realize that there's all this stuff y'all never thought about when you were planning your projection and prototyping - stuff like menus, screen transitions, saving and loading, etc. "Shoot! I was imagining this amazing world I was going to create, or this fun mechanic I was going to experiment with… I didn't think I'd exist spending weeks making functional menus that don't await similar crap!"Or, you lot know, there's stuff that'due south fun in small doses, similar animating characters, that becomes nightmarish when you realize you've set yourself up for 100 unlike characters.

Once you go through information technology a couple of times, you lot'll realize how important it is to calibration your project so that you don't spend as well much time in this inevitable quagmire ("too much time" being however long it takes earlier yous quit). You'll also realize that a lot of this ho-hum stuff is what makes the game feel consummate! A nice championship screen, for instance, does wonders to make a game experience legitimate.

viii. USE AWARDS, COMPETITIONS, AND OTHER EVENTS Every bit Existent DEADLINES

When Alec and I were working on Aquaria, the Independent Games Festival submission deadline forced us to make hard decisions about the direction we were taking and it as well forced us to look at our schedule more realistically. Had we not had that deadline, I'm not entirely certain we would have finished! Competitions are great to participate in because the deadlines are very real and because the rewards (recognition, awards, possibly coin) are very existent. Also, they can requite you a way to connect with a community of like-minded people.

Links: Independent Games Festival, Ludum Dare

nine. Push button FORWARD

Feeling stuck? Push forward. Start working on the next level, the next enemy, the next whatever. Not only is it helpful for motivational purposes, but you desire to become a sense for how your whole game will play out. Simply like writing - you don't want to go through it sentence by sentence, making sure every judgement is perfect earlier you lot move on. Go an outline down.

ten. Take CARE OF YOUR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL Wellness

Information technology can be surprisingly difficult to take care of yourself when you're focused on finishing a game. But honestly, you're only doing your game-making a disservice by not sleeping, exercising, or eating right. At best, you're preventing yourself from working at your full potential and making it more likely that you lot'll quit. Having some dubiety about your project is perfectly natural, but getting depression or falling into affliction is non. It'southward astonishing how much you lot tin can non want to work on your dream project when your heed and body feels like crap!

11. End MAKING EXCUSES FOR STARTING OVER

"My code's a mess. And I've learned and then much already. If I started over I could do it a lot better and faster, and then the balance of the game will go a lot faster, too!"

Cease. NO. This is true at some point during every game's development. Your code will always exist a mess. Yous will take learned a lot. It will never be perfect. And if you lot start all over, you'll find yourself in the exact same situation when you get to this signal again. Information technology'southward a terrible trap to think similar this.

Here's a joke: a man spends his entire life working on a game engine and so perfect that all he has to do is printing one button and the perfect game volition come out of it. Really, it's not much of a joke, because the punchline is that he never finishes information technology! No such engine or game exists.

If bad organization is really slowing you lot downwards, become back and do some surgery on it and so that you lot experience better. If it works just it'south a bit hacky, then be brave and printing on!

12. SAVE IT FOR THE Adjacent GAME

So partway through evolution y'all take this great new thought that's going to blow everyone'south mind, but you'll have to redo your whole game to implement information technology? Relieve it for the side by side game! Right? This won't be the last game you lot ever brand, hopefully. Save it for the next one… but finish this one offset!

thirteen. Cut. Information technology. OUT.

Oh shit, y'all're way backside schedule. Yous accept all these ideas only they'll colonize Mars earlier you lot take a chance to implement one-half of them. Oh woe is y'all… BUT WAIT!

Well, that's great, really! Considering now you're forced to determine what is really important to your game, and what you could cut. The fact is, if nosotros all had unlimited resources and unlimited time, we'd all make the same crappy, meandering everything game and at that place'd be no reason to play at all. It's our limited resources and fourth dimension that forces u.s. to make tight games that feel similar they accept a purpose.

If you lot've been building upon some core concepts that are provably fun, just keep cut until you get to the very edge of that core. Everything else is probably just fluff you lot could exercise without. Or worse, it'south fluff that's preventing people from seeing the all-time parts of your game.

14. IF YOU Practise QUIT, SCALE Downwardly, NOT Upwardly

Okay, sometimes it is time to call it quits. Maybe there'due south only no mode y'all'll e'er finish, and what y'all accept is too big a mess to cutting anything out. Possibly the rest of your squad has quit already. My hope in writing this list is to assistance people avoid this possibility, but hey, mayhap you're merely coming off of such a project. And sometimes… shit just happens.

If there's no salvaging it, at least make sure that you calibration downwards your next project. It'southward easy to set your sights higher and higher, even as your projects become less and less finished. "My SKILLS are improving! I'm learning from my failure," is a common excuse. But I think this is why it's of import to treat finishing as a skill, too.

Then get back down, down, down, downward to a point where you may even find it somewhat below you. For instance, instead of jumping from your 4x space sim to your 4x infinite sim IN 3D, try making a smashing game that focuses on one small element of space sims. And if you tin can't finish that, effort something more than like Asteroids. It'south very possible that information technology'll withal cease upwards being a bigger struggle than you thought (and/or more than fun to brand than you thought)!

xv. THE Terminal 10 Per centum

They say the last ten percentage is really xc percentage, and there is truth to this. Information technology'south the details that stop upwardly taking a long fourth dimension. Sure, maybe you coded a competent gainsay system in a calendar week… merely making information technology great and making it complex (and issues-free)… these things can take months. The honest truth is that you'll probably do a "final lap" dart many times before yous get to the existent last lap.

If this sounds discouraging, it shouldn't. While the concluding 10 percent is harrowing, I've besides found that is an enormously satisfying time in the development. Considering generally, stuff really does seem to "just come together" at the cease if you've been spending your fourth dimension properly, and turning a jumble of mish-mashed ideas and content into sweetness gaming manna is a magical feeling.

It'south all almost the details.

AND FINALLY… RELEASE!

Holy crap, you released a game! Congratulations, you but leveled up, large time. Benefits include: increased confidence, a reputation for existence able to complete projects, and an agreement of the entire process of game cosmos! The all-time part, though, is that you have a nice little game that I tin can play and enjoy! And I exercise similar playing games, well-nigh as much as I savor making them.

No more standing on the sidelines, friend: You lot ARE A GAME Programmer.

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Source: https://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game

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