HOW DO SOME OF YOU COMPLETE GAMES SO FAST?

author=harmonic link=topic=3215.msg63523#msg63523 date=1235580302

author=Craze link=topic=3215.msg63511#msg63511 date=1235576755
Tacking onto kentona's post: I love setting up the groundwork for games (like the tons of nice systemz that he has for Hellion) but then it's like "shit. Now I have to make an actual game...?"

this

We should never team up, Craze.

Our game:

36 Characters with fully developed skill systems!
Over 1000 pieces of equipment!
A crafting system for weapons and armor!
A custom spell system!
Skill chain system for battles!
Party switcher in battles!
Fire Emblem-Style "War Mode"!
Relationship/Support system, with 2nd generation children that vary!
And more!

Minutes of gameplay: 0

....Abandoned Project!

*sigh*

I did most of that with HR. No wonder it took 2.5 years.

I think people finish games because they lack ambition/skill/interest in at least one area but don't spend all their time worrying about it. The more you try and make everything perfect, the less chance you are going to finish the game off. For instance, I doubt Max would've finished Iron Gaia if he tried to make the graphics and mapping perfect instead of simply creating a functional environment in which to tell his well-written story in (maybe IG2 fell into this pitfall, having seen the pretty screenshots...)

This is pretty true and pretty insightful. I completely agree.

Tacking onto kentona's post: I love setting up the groundwork for games (like the tons of nice systemz that he has for Hellion) but then it's like "shit. Now I have to make an actual game...?"

I didn't use to be this way, but this has been the case for most of the projects I've attempted since returning to the community.

I honestly don't know. I usually work on my games once or twice a week, sometimes one or twice in several weeks. I just do whatever I can, whenever I can do it, and just keep at it.

I guess I just work fast. It reminds me of my friends from who school who study hours to pass exams, where as I study for only 20 or minutes for a class but score higher grades than they do. I'm not bright, but I'm hasty. :P

It also helps that I don't quit my projects after like, three months. I like to complete things, even if it'll take 3-4 years (for some reason, it will get done.

Oddly enough, I have the exact opposite problem as F-G. Once I finish a map/skill/NPC/etc. I don't want to ever touch it again. This is why I never release the same project twice. :<

I go back and change my dialouge a lot, but I don't ever re-do maps, aside from making minor edits. I will never be an excellent mapper. As long as my maps aren't complete trash, I'm good.

author=MayorAnime link=topic=3215.msg63512#msg63512 date=1235576867
That's why professional developers create a full design document, then follow it like it's the game's Bible.

Some do, some don't. The design document for God of War was mere pages, and nobody will argue against it being a highly polished, blockbuster title. The design document mythos is propagated primarily by amateurs.. The more successful game designers have a liquid formula.

I don't really design anything. I have a basic idea in my head and I just go with it. Everything else will fall into place eventually.

Gears of War isn't a great example because it also is a piece of shit. It being a polished blockbuster doesn't make it good or even not stupid.

That said I'm not a big fan of design documents/paper architecture.

I have been working on my game for months and I have yet to complete one map. Anyone got like a guide or something on how to plan a game?

When you're making custom graphics you really should make a design document, or at least a list of what graphics you need for your game. And I don't mean vague entries like "a forest chipset", but a detailed list of what such a chipset has to include, complete with tile dimensions, e.g.
- grass (1 tile)
- road (3x3 autotile)
- tree (2x3 tiles)
- canopy (3x3 autotile)
- and so on...

Same with enemy sprites, charsets (make a list of PC poses complete with frame count (don't go overboard here) and NPC sprite list (decide which ones are worth making a full walk cycle for, which one will require only a single pose and so on), battle animations... everything.

This way you don't keep on doing graphics which you think COULD be fun to make and include and end up not using, because they have no place in your project.

The above also applies to music and coding, of course.

A comprehensive design document reduces the amount of time you waste on doing things which are unnecessary and won't be included in the end product. It's especially important in amateur game making when the only thing which keeps you going is motivation.

Scratch that--God of War's design document wasn't a few pages--it was zero pages.

http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2008/04/ok-i-should-probably-keep-my-mouth-shut.html

You need 5-15 pages to get the concept across. And then little emails for the rest of the project sent to the folks who need and want to know the rest. None of the GOD OF WAR games had a game design doc and we did just fine.

author=kentona link=topic=3215.msg63848#msg63848 date=1235745757
Weird! All of my games have at least 10 pages (in a .txt file), if not more. AND I usually have an excel document filled with MORE data.

I find that if I don't write something down when I think of it, it's gone forever.

Writing your ideas down is different than mapping out your entire game in a Word document and then following it to the letter once you get started. Pretty sure everybody writes things down.