GAMES AND WHY YOU MAKE THEM

*shoots self in head*

I do not know why I make games, really! I am getting a little old for it considering I don't plan to do it for a living, so I guess it is just an enjoyable way to pass the time. The way I see it is if a few people enjoy it, that makes me happy, so why not?

1. Since around 2004. That's when I started making pen and paper RPGs. It was around 2005 that I started making software games.
2. To be honest, I haven't considered not making games anymore since I got serious about it 2-3 years ago. About a year ago, I made the choice to pursue it as a future career, and I've never changed my mind since. Even if I can't get a job as a game developer, I want to continue making indie games on the side.
3. In spite of the fact that it's so much work and mental strain, it's because when it comes down to it, making games is fun. That's like asking "what's your motivation for writing?" or "what's your motivation for painting?". To me, it's an art form that feels satisfying and liberating to express myself with.

To give a less philosophical answer:
I started out making pen and paper RPGs to play with some of my friends. I really got into GMing because I enjoyed making them laugh or get excited or have fun. They were enjoying themselves and I enjoyed creating a situation in which they would enjoy themselves. Although in a less direct manner, the same thing still applies now. I like to make games that cause people to get enjoyment. It's fulfilling for me to know that people enjoy my work.

post=135750
Awesome post Feld, really kicked off the discussion in a positive way.

I'm sorry. I guess all of these philosophical introspective topics are really draining me! I wish we could talk more about the purely fun, imaginative parts of games rather than the scientific elements of it. In fact, that sort of ties into my answer for your question; I make games because it's fun. I love getting my ideas into a tangible form; watching the characters, situations, dialogue, and settings in my head come to life. More points of course if other people enjoy it as well!

As much as I like the "THE CONCEPT OF FUN: A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE" discussions every now and again, at the end of the day there's really nothing more relaxing than letting yourself go into a good game.

I'll let Solitayre tackle the 'why aren't people playing games' issue because while I recognize it's an issue, it's not nearly as big as he thinks it is. At least that's what I think.

Heh, scientific perspective of games. Who does this.

Back in my day we just smoked some drugs and had hallucinations about game ideas. These new breed of designers don't know how to do things right!

ps: Didn't we have this topic before.

1. How long have you been making games?
I started working on my first game back in 2002 unfortunately I didn't back it up and my CPU crashed. I was turned off after that until 2006 where I got the urge to create another one and have been working on that ever since.
2. How often do you feel like not making games any more? What makes you keep doing it? (Anecdotes are good.)
I usually feel this way when I decide to put my time into something else, like playing console video games or MMO RPG/CardPlayer game. I keep coming back because it's something I'm determined to finish it.
3. What is your motivation for making games? (Do not be facile: You do NOT just do it because it is fun. Lots of other things are fun, and less work, and you could be doing them instead. So fun is part of it, but it's not the whole reason.)
Other then being a huge time sink, I feel that game making is a good way to express my personal interests, art and ideas to other people.

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Man I feel like I'm in a segment of Buttons and Mindy.

Mindy: What are you doing?
Me: Working on a game.
Mindy: WHY!?
Me: Because I feel like it's a good way to express myself
Mindy: WHY!?
Me: Because it's fun.
Mindy: WHY!?
Me: Because having fun feels good!
Mindy: WHY!?
Me: Because I'm human
Mindy: Okay, I love you!! Bye! Bye!

Here we go again for the 200th (?) time...

1. How long have you been making games?
I found RPG Maker in early 2005. But I started working with it 6 months later. I wouldn't call my first tries ''games'' though. Oh man, my first finished game... I wish I'd still have it. ;__;

2. How often do you feel like not making games any more? What makes you keep doing it? (Anecdotes are good.)
I will stop it this August, because I will have no more time. But before I will release my last 2 games.

3. What is your motivation for making games?
1. Because it's a way to make your fantasy living. As a kid everyone drew some shit inspired by video games or had the wish to make his own cartoon series, right? So RMing is a way for poor people to do these kind of things.
2. Because an empty game profile looks like crap.

Y'know, at one point, I might have had an answer to this that matched several other ones already here. But I've recently found that the biggest reason I like and continue making games is simply "I like to figure out stuff".

The last time I spent any dedicated time on my 4th RPG was when I hit the 'Super Porygon 3D' part of it. Because that was when I was trying to figure out how to make the platform do something it wasn't designed to do in an entertaining functional way. And that was fun as hell!

Then I got back to the usual stuff that RPGs entail, and I lost all my motivation nearly instantly. Back when I first started making RPGs, I burned through three complete games before I got bored, because I spent all that time learning the ins and outs of RPG Maker, and it was still this fascinating enigma to me. Now, I know all the tricks, and it just doesn't hold my interest anymore. I'm gonna have to force myself to finish PH4.

Anyway, then Tastes Like Spelunky came along, and I was obsessed with making that up until just a few days ago when I finally finished it. That was also tons of fun because it was a new program with a new language that used concepts I could understand from RPG Maker. Plus, I had an already-complete game's data to work with and learn from and figure out.

So, if I have a vision and a puzzle to solve to make it happen, that's all the motivation I need to complete a game. It's not for the downloads or the e-cred or some false hope of getting noticed. It's for the love of the game; the game-making game.

1. How long have you been making games?

- At the "implementation" part of making games, and not just planning, it's 8 years. If you count just planning and getting ideas, it's about at least 14 years. I've been playing games ever since the commodore 64, NES and all that stuff.

2. How often do you feel like not making games any more? What makes you keep doing it? (Anecdotes are good.)

- I don't feel like doing the animation and the story parts for games and that tends to turn me off since I know that's something I would have to do. But the satisfaction of getting it done and having a bunch of ideas I want to try out keep me doing it. I try not to make my games overly long so that way I can actually get things done and then move onto a new idea.

To mention an old game: The process of making Island Sky was something like "I want to make something where the player can unlock parts of the overworld and go where they want", and the rest of the game was built on after that. Of course I didn't take that far enough, but it was pretty early on in my RPG Making time. Also, I'm a pretty patient person so the long stretches of code and copying and all that are just something I go into without really thinking about it, and I just have music going on in the background.

I'm also silly and like to put in completely random stuff in all my games. You check a box and you find Friendship, fat guys jumping into the water and causing a huge wave, NPCs who spin around because a spell was put on them, collecting random frogs and getting blessings from the goddess of frogs...

3. What is your motivation for making games? (Do not be facile: You do NOT just do it because it is fun. Lots of other things are fun, and less work, and you could be doing them instead. So fun is part of it, but it's not the whole reason.)

-Wasn't that pretty much also asked in #2? Well, I think game making is interesting even if it does require some effort and parts I don't like. I did want to be a game developer back then. I like seeing my game actually getting somewhere, and I like learning new things. When I finish making a game and get reviews on it, I can see what other people thought about things that I either intentionally or unintentionally did, and can think about that for next time.

And as kentona said, it's actually more fun for me than it is to play games! I willingly spend a lot more time game making than I do game playing. I got FF13 recently, I like it but I spent way more time making a silly small project on RPG Maker. I do want to make something I would be proud of, so I do take the time to put good effort into it.

1. How long have you been making games?
Many years, though for most of that time I didn't release anything to the public. I kept my RM2K projects confined to friends and some family members. I used RM2K up until 2007, when ArtBane and I started Master of the Wind and decided we would give RMXP a shot.

2. How often do you feel like not making games any more? What makes you keep doing it? (Anecdotes are good.)
I have never felt an urge to cease all game-making...nothing anyone says on an internet message board will upset me to that level and even if it did, I wouldn't give them the satisfaction. What I have done is take a hiatus every so often, and I spend my free time in other ways until I feel the inevitable urge to get back to work.

3. What is your motivation for making games?
"Facile" as it may be, fun is still a major component. Cause if it's not fun, why bother with the time and effort towards a hobby you're not getting paid for? Praise is nice, but it's not a high priority, and if you release a project anticipating loads of it, you'll likely be disappointed....especially here. The motivation stems from a desire to create stories and RPG Maker synchs up nicely with what I like about storytelling. Writing prose is tough for me because I get impatient with descriptive language and whatnot. I just like to get right to the dialogue, and in RM games the exposition is almost exclusively handled by dialogue...plus the engine allows you to make some "directing" choices to an extent, using lighting and music and other options to create atmosphere and tone. To me, it's empowering.

If I can make some tangential comments, I think people get way too invested in the reception of the projects, to the point where the fun of it gets dimished...and really, nothing is worth that. Some people have such ridiculous expectations of projects, unwilling to acknowledge that not everyone is an expert at spriting, scripting, custom artwork, etc. You would imagine these folks would have utterly perfect projects of their own...but generally, these are also the people with no finished projects to their name.

It's important to develop your own personal filter when it comes to dealing with criticism. However disappointing it can be to read at first, good enough criticism tends to sink into my head after a while and I realize "You know, they were right." The very first release of MotW in 2005 had awful mapping...we were brand new with RMXP and it was obvious. We got reamed for it all the time, and at first I was irritated with the tone of the complaints and would think "Who cares what these blowhards say? MotW's about story and puzzles." But you know....they had a point. And as we got more practice with mapping, it became clear that the older maps needed a redo. And it's probably still not good enough for some folks, but we did what we could to improve it.

Now sometimes you get criticism that is obviously uninformed, or based on false assumptions and arbitrary standards. It's annoying, but in the end, you can take what is worthwhile from it (if anything), and discard the rest. I guess my point is not to get too wrapped up in "navel gazing" about the reception of projects and just make them for as long as its a satisfying experience.