AVOIDING THE SELF INSERT

I'm honestly a little confused, but I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

Projecting yourself onto a project isn't bad, per say. In a loose quote from Rohan Kishibe, the best work is based on reality. Of course, there are definitely exceptions, but touches of real experiences can help guide the game if used right. When I try to work on my secret projects, often times I write my characters based on aspects of my self or those I know. However, usually I take just one personality element and go original to build off it.

So basically, if I express my own real life issues or feelings, I let it be a base for themes/tone/etc. and build upwards, and not simply making a reiteration of real life events or whatnot.

Probably easier said than done for some, I can restrain myself and separate work from life with no problem... ._.

I don't think I've ever noticed myself accidentally or unavoidably projecting my feelings into a story. If a character thinks the same way I would about a situation, it's only because I find it easier to write believable characters if they think the same way I do. And while they all have certain things in common with me, and some have certain things in common with where I've been in the past, none of them are more than 10% me, and it's a different 10% for each character. The only reason I do it is because it makes the writing better.

The events I write about are just things I think are cool. Neat ideas that I think create good tension and interesting settings and proper pacing. Themes and conflicts that are based more on the type of fiction I enjoy than on anything in my own life.

I've never really made, tried to make, or even briefly wanted to make a game just because I felt a certain way. Or even a major aspect of a game, really. Unless you think "my life is kinda boring and I'd like to go on an adventure like you see in RPGs, oh hey what is this RPG Maker thing, maybe I'll write a game like that" counts. I don't think that's what you're talking about though.

Yeah, but I feel like he's talking about inserting the part of you that is upset with being ignored and abused by your authority figures, or the part of you that thinks the established church should be abolished by force because of how they mistreat people like you, or the part of you that is desperately trying to resolve the trust issues your children have with you.

Not, like, the part of you that thinks ancient giant robots made of cast iron are awesome, or the part of you that is annoyed when characters get new powers out of nowhere in a fantasy story, or the part of you that thinks the accents villains use in old noir movies are hilarious.

Those are two very different types of things. Inserting your life situations vs. inserting your tastes.

Risking being totally off the mark, i'll leave this here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1oZhEIrer4

JS, I used to think that way about how my life might be reflected in my projects or individual parts of my projects, but I don't think it's quite so cut and dry. I've struggled with depression over the years, and found there's a balance you have to figure out. See what works, and what doesn't, but trust your feelings.

There is kind of an evolution to how you work creatively though. These days I think less about my fluctuating moods themselves and more about the projects. Like the video ricifidi posted alluded to, I decide what to get done at a given time, and put as much effort into it as possible. I recognize that some days I won't get much done, and I'm okay with that.

Regarding moods affecting the actual content of your projects: You can kind of use it to your advantage. For example: When I'm in kind of a bummer mood, but still want to get something done, I either code or make/remake graphics. The more tedious, the better, and by the end of the day, you'll still have more than what you started with. When depressed, I get some weird results though. Dialog tends to be more on the boring side, and maybe even angry, but in general, I spend more time on the graphics & presentation.

When I'm in more of an excitable or elated mood (usually due to caffeine), my writing is a lot more fun and whimsical, but the flow of speech isn't as good and requires more rewrites later on. In the coding realm, I start the more ambitious tasks in this state--things that would feel incredibly daunting in my lower moods. Finally, there's that "normal" sweet spot where you can look at your work rationally and be able to tackle any challenge with ease. That's usually when I do things like rewrites and bug fixing, and simply level out the other stuff I've worked on.

For example: I wrote this really dark and broody cutscene one day that I instantly thought was perfect and reflected what I wanted to show. As more days passed, the more I didn't like how it came out, and thought it was too dark, angry, etc. so I went back and rewrote it... again... and again... until I was satisfied with it. The content itself remained very similar to how it was at first, but the mood was a little lighter, and more mysterious, which was what I wanted. It more closely matched other parts of the story.

I guess what you can take from that is to worry less about the actual content and just focus on the task at hand. The content might reflect your mood on a given day, but so what? Just roll with it, and change it later if it doesn't work. Don't censor or limit yourself in those early stages because you won't totally be sure of what you want.

I'd do it, too! Imagine a huge city-size mech smoking a cigarette and wearing an old city-size duster...

Real talk, I love using the tagline "makes games about reality disguised as games about fantasy". My supreme hope is that someone plays a game of mine and goes "Damn that was a blast and that final boss was so hard and shit did I just learn a life lesson??"

There's nothing wrong with using some of your life as inspiration. Just don't go overboard.

Using some stuff in your real life as a way to flesh out a story, or even as a base for a story isn't a bad thing. You write what you know, after all. Making a game that's ONLY based on you, or literally putting yourself INTO a story is a lot more likely to go wrong though. Use your experiences as a tool with care, and it will definitely make the game more interesting.

Just remember: Do what is best for the Story.

Like, for example: The background plot of my current main project (Mayhem Maiden) has the recent Ex-Boyfriend of the main character going on a mission to save her from a giant tower (when she's breaking out with relative ease all on her own). That background plot that comes up briefly in between dungeons is actually inspired pretty heavily from my own breakup (which happened LITERALLY just after I was done the combat system and was just starting on the story, believe it or not), and is also heavily informed by my recovery from it and the epiphany I had along the way.

Is it front and center in the story? Not really. It's a background thing. Short little (usually somewhat humorous) cutscenes between each dungeon. The actual game follows the four kidnapped girls breaking out of the tower they're kidnapped in and overcoming their personal flaws and hangups along the way. Still, that one aspect of the game is based on my personal experience, and thus I'm able to bring more life into the game that way.

In the end, basing that part of the game on my breakup and recovery made it SO much more interesting than just "oh hey, boyfriend is on a mission to save his girl, but it turns out she didn't need help, and he went on a silly cliche adventure for nothing! Yay!". Now it's "Ex-boyfriend grappling with his emotions wants to do the right thing and save the girl, but is struggling with his doubt and hero complex about whether he should do it or just turn around and go home. Also, he's dealing with the fact he's on a cliche RPG adventure and it's really irritating him to run into the usual cowardly soldiers and Totally Pointless Resort Town Episodes when he's on a journey he REALLY doesn't want to be on".

Art is life, and life is art; basically, people always project parts of themselves into what they do. It's unavoidable, because everything you create is biased from what you've experienced in life. This doesn't have to be as obvious as giving your main character your personality and background in a genre adjusted setting, but this also goes for more subtle things like your biases, perceptions about things, and what you know.

How subtle you want to apply this is sort of dependent on your skill, though. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together was written from Matsuno's study of the Yugoslav Wars, for example. Can you tell?

author=JosephSeraph
During these last 2~3 years i've been under a pretty large downer period and I'm having a hard time dealing with this. I don't want to make bland, tasteless games as I've been doing (and ditching, endlessly) but I also am afraid of connecting with what I do and actually creating another direct projection of my life, such as Provolone and LOVE (a game I haven't posted here) which are things that are meant for me and for me only.

How do you guys deal with this? How do you push these kinds of sentiments away from your creations and separate them from your lives without losing the "connection" that gives them their real life, their real flavor?

TBCH there's nothing wrong with making a work that's self-indulgent and just for you.

If you're really wanting to make games for others as well, I'd suggest leaving the work you've done for a week/month or so, then coming back when you're not in the same mindset to check it out with fresh eyes. Does it still resonate? Beyond just reminding you of that time? If not, it's time to tinker with things until it seems like it works better, then repeat the process. If it does resonate, have someone else try it out, and see if it clicks for them as well.

Art is basically trying to communicate something to other people, so if you can get someone else to empathize with whatever's going on in the game, you win! You did a art!

There's nothing inherently wrong with a self-insert of any kind in art. It only becomes a problem when it's not a thing the audience can get into, and that's got more to do with how well the creator's sold the stakes in a story. Ego-based self-inserts tend to be unappealing because only one person has a reason to give a shit what happens to the character, and that's the author. (They also tend to avoid the sort of things that make a narrative compelling to most people- risk and failure.)

tl;dr the question shouldn't be one of avoiding self-insert, but of communicating things so that the audience is cool with going on a ride into your self.