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Game Creation Advice


TheLeastEvil

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I have noticed a lot of large projects and very big concepts being formed by people wanting to program games. This worries me because these seem way to large to actually become successful, so I would like to give some tips for people working on any game, Pony  :pinkie:  or not  :mustache: .

 

1st - 3rd Games

- Do not show your games to people outside of close friends and family.

- Have, at most, 2 Major Mechanics (ex: platforming, shooting, physics, and encounters).

- Do not worry about optimization or small bugs.

- Make all models/sprites basic and minimalistic. (I started with rectangles and circles only)

- Never be heavily invested or emotionally attached to these creations.

- Set a deadline for completion, at most, 1 Month after starting.

4th - 9th Games

- Distribute this game to friends and watch them play to see what they like. Accept that they may not like certain features you like but may love things you never thought about.

- Avoid complex tasks like 3D engine creation and Network programming.

- Figure out what kind of games you really enjoy creating. (It is rarely the same as what you like playing.)

- Spend more time researching what people like in your games.

- Have a Maximum of 5 Major Mechanics.

- Set a deadline for completion, at most, 6 Months after starting.

- Do not get emotionally invested.

- Draw simple sprites/models

10th...

- Invest more time in creation.

- Work out all bugs you can find.

- Optimize for the platform of release.

- Try out harder programming tasks.

- Don't give up because of past failures.

- Know when to stop working on a project.

- Have fun or you are doing it wrong.

- Release game to the public and listen to criticism and suggestions.

- Finish the game whenever there are not any more things you can do to make it fun.

- People will hate the game but don't be discouraged from that.

- Never add features just for the sake of having more things to do.

 

I hope this advice helps you guys as you work on programming games. None of what I said is set in stone, it just helped me. I'd also like to hear what advice you guys have for aspiring game programmers.

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I have noticed a lot of large projects and very big concepts being formed by people wanting to program games. This worries me because these seem way to large to actually become successful, so I would like to give some tips for people working on any game, Pony  :pinkie:  or not  :mustache: .

 

1st - 3rd Games

- Do not show your games to people outside of close friends and family.

- Have, at most, 2 Major Mechanics (ex: platforming, shooting, physics, and encounters).

- Do not worry about optimization or small bugs.

- Make all models/sprites basic and minimalistic. (I started with rectangles and circles only)

- Never be heavily invested or emotionally attached to these creations.

- Set a deadline for completion, at most, 1 Month after starting.

4th - 9th Games

- Distribute this game to friends and watch them play to see what they like. Accept that they may not like certain features you like but may love things you never thought about.

- Avoid complex tasks like 3D engine creation and Network programming.

- Figure out what kind of games you really enjoy creating. (It is rarely the same as what you like playing.)

- Spend more time researching what people like in your games.

- Have a Maximum of 5 Major Mechanics.

- Set a deadline for completion, at most, 6 Months after starting.

- Do not get emotionally invested.

- Draw simple sprites/models

10th...

- Invest more time in creation.

- Work out all bugs you can find.

- Optimize for the platform of release.

- Try out harder programming tasks.

- Don't give up because of past failures.

- Know when to stop working on a project.

- Have fun or you are doing it wrong.

- Release game to the public and listen to criticism and suggestions.

- Finish the game whenever there are not any more things you can do to make it fun.

- People will hate the game but don't be discouraged from that.

- Never add features just for the sake of having more things to do.

 

I hope this advice helps you guys as you work on programming games. None of what I said is set in stone, it just helped me. I'd also like to hear what advice you guys have for aspiring game programmers.

I am planning on getting RPG Maker MV and start making a few games out of fun. 

I've used previous RPG Makers to toy around. 

 

This is great advice, and thank you for it! :) 

When I start getting into more productions, I will take this to heart. ^^

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I am planning on getting RPG Maker MV and start making a few games out of fun. 

I've used previous RPG Makers to toy around. 

 

This is great advice, and thank you for it! :) 

When I start getting into more productions, I will take this to heart. ^^

I look forward to seeing what you do. If you need an honest critique on your games feel free to ask. I can't provide as much help as a real person but I may be able to help you with the mechanics. :P

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Would highly recommend watching videos from this channel which covers game design (along with other things).

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz/videos

 

Examples:

 

Etc.

Edited by Luna the Great
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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow...if this is the right way to develop games, then I've been doing just about everything wrong:  I've been working on the same fangame project for about three years now, it's an ambitious project, and I'm slowly adding enough features to the game engine and editor for it to be capable of living up to my vision for it.  I don't have a set timetable for completion of the whole thing, nor for the completion of any of the features (I'd slide from it even if I did, plus I never ever have any kind of idea how long a feature will take to add), my IRL friends and family aren't really very into FiM, so I can't show it to them much, and I'm pretty invested emotionally in the project.

 

...Though I am having fun and investing a lot of time into it...!

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Wow...if this is the right way to develop games, then I've been doing just about everything wrong:  I've been working on the same fangame project for about three years now, it's an ambitious project, and I'm slowly adding enough features to the game engine and editor for it to be capable of living up to my vision for it.  I don't have a set timetable for completion of the whole thing, nor for the completion of any of the features (I'd slide from it even if I did, plus I never ever have any kind of idea how long a feature will take to add), my IRL friends and family aren't really very into FiM, so I can't show it to them much, and I'm pretty invested emotionally in the project.

 

...Though I am having fun and investing a lot of time into it...!

If ya dont mind me asking what sort of game? 

And when ever you finish it, I would enjoy play testing it for you. :)

 

I just got RPG Maker MV recently and began working on a small RPG project. ^^ 

Making a game is fun but pretty time consuming. 

 

So yeah, if you need a beta tester or someone to check it out, I would like to help you. ^^

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I look forward to seeing what you do. If you need an honest critique on your games feel free to ask. I can't provide as much help as a real person but I may be able to help you with the mechanics. :P

Wait... Are you saying you're NOT A REAL PERSON???!!! That's some impressive AI technology right there... Lol!

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I highly agree with "Do not show your games to people outside of close friends and family.", because let's say you post that you are making a game, and it's going to be full of stuff. People are very excited...then you decide to stop production or you get tired of it. All those people are let down. If no one knows about the game until it's released, then it's a win-win:

[if no one knows about the game until it's released, then...]

-If you stop making it: No one will be disappointed because they never knew it ever existed, and it's like it never happened.

-If you finish and release it: People will be very happy because there is a new game that's (probably) good, and they get it right when it's announced!

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If ya dont mind me asking what sort of game? 

And when ever you finish it, I would enjoy play testing it for you. :)

 

I just got RPG Maker MV recently and began working on a small RPG project. ^^ 

Making a game is fun but pretty time consuming. 

 

So yeah, if you need a beta tester or someone to check it out, I would like to help you. ^^

 

It's a platformer/shmup at the moment, and eventually I'd like to make it a platformer/shmup/sandbox game with some RPG elements mixed in.  My vision is hard to summarize here; there are some videos in one of the threads I have linked in my signature that explain it (and more videos on my youtube channel).

 

Now that I think about it, maybe my game is an exception to these rules, since it's as much a tool for making games as it is a game in itself, since it comes with an editor.  I'm hoping other bronies can and will use the game editor to make their own games and content.  It'd probably take a matter of months to put my game together once the tooling and the engine are complete, especially if I had some help putting it together.

 

If you want to try the game in its current state, here's a link to it---it's a pretty sizable download, and it's in Java, so it might take another download if you don't have Java on your computer:

 

http://s3.staticvoidgames.com/games/WeatherFactoryMeltdown/Weather%20Factory%20Meltdown%20sourceCode%20v0.2.0.jar

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Wow...if this is the right way to develop games, then I've been doing just about everything wrong:  I've been working on the same fangame project for about three years now, it's an ambitious project, and I'm slowly adding enough features to the game engine and editor for it to be capable of living up to my vision for it.  I don't have a set timetable for completion of the whole thing, nor for the completion of any of the features (I'd slide from it even if I did, plus I never ever have any kind of idea how long a feature will take to add), my IRL friends and family aren't really very into FiM, so I can't show it to them much, and I'm pretty invested emotionally in the project.

 

...Though I am having fun and investing a lot of time into it...!

If you are planning on having a career in the creative field. Yes you are doing it wrong. Emotional investment will only hurt you more when the game fails.

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