CAUSE OF DIMINISHED INTEREST IN GAME CREATION

Perhaps multi task eating with game making will make it better
(or something you enjoy)

On this subject I'd like to say a lot of newer persons such as myself(I have been throwing ideas around like mad with little or no avail(due in part to lack of commitment on my part)) also lack the knowledge that it isn't easy to develop a game, no matter what maker or engine you use or borrow, alone. Its easy to want to do something grand without realizing how much work is involved. That's of course why game developer's(as in the companies) have a team of designers and such.

author=Little Wing Guy
RPGs have so much development time that it often feels like you're doing a whole lot of work for nothing and not gaining any praise for it. Once the initial compliments and comments from your game page start to end, so does the motivation.

That's why where ever you go, screenshot topics are so popular. People don't necessarily always want constructive criticism, they want a quick ego boost and screenshots are so easy to dish out.

this is why i strongly advocated a piecemeal release format in my 2008 article 'why rose chronicles is the perfect rpg maker project'. you get a continuous stream of praise and feedback and your audience has something to enjoy, discuss, and take inspiration from on a more regular basis. your colossal rpg video game does nobody any good when it is just 50 hours of content sitting on your hard drive B..B...BUT IT ISNT DONE YET

Pre-planning can do a world of good. If you're aimless, you will more often than not fall victim to loss of motivation and interest, especially if there is no plan in place. If you've set your goals, written the scenario, and completed the basic functions of your game (like Ghost said), it's far easier not to be led astray.

A lot of times, games are just thrown together in the editor without much pre-planning. This can be a recipe for disaster, depending on who you are. Some people make their game as they go. This is not an inherently flawed way of doing things, but it's not what I would recommend.

- - - - -

Pre-production
~ Scenario writing and planning
~ Work on basic mechanics and gameplay features
~ Concept art and art direction
~ Laying out the skeleton of your maps

Production
~ Implementing basic mechanics and gameplay features
~ Development of the story in-game
~ Actual mapping

Post-Production
~ Music
~ Gameplay balance
~ Quality control

- - - - -

Of course, all of this helps if you have just a rudimentary understanding of the programming and eventing. Most people just jump right in before knowing the basics, which is a big no no. This chart is something I'm doing for my own game, but it's by no means perfect. Find what works for you, and go with that. Things can change midway through the development cycle.

Every time I try to plan a project out ahead in detail, it never gets past the planning stage. I abandon it there.

However, if I've actually started working on a project, I'm far, far less likely to abandon it. I feel like I'm more invested in it, and so I don't want to stop. It especially helps if I've done enough work to create something playable - even if it's tiny and awful so far, I'll want to keep going.

If I have ideas that I can't implement immediately but want to do later, I do usually try to jot them down. But a lot of the time, writing my plans down takes as much time as just doing them, if not more... so I just do them. 20 lines of writing and 20 lines of code aren't that different time-wise, unless you aren't sure how to write the code.

author=LockeZ
Every time I try to plan a project out ahead in detail, it never gets past the planning stage. I abandon it there.

However, if I've actually started working on a project, I'm far, far less likely to abandon it. I feel like I'm more invested in it, and so I don't want to stop. It especially helps if I've done enough work to create something playable - even if it's tiny and awful so far, I'll want to keep going.

If I have ideas that I can't implement immediately but want to do later, I do usually try to jot them down. But a lot of the time, writing my plans down takes as much time as just doing them, if not more... so I just do them. 20 lines of writing and 20 lines of code aren't that different time-wise, unless you aren't sure how to write the code.

Then you write the design documents truly bad or the code is too simple. For me, writing a portion of the game with all its contents maybe will cost max 1hour. Creating that with all the graphics, maps, combats, scenes, balance, design... it took a lot more. But a lot lot more.

That 1hour of design saves you a lot of trouble. Because if i plan the dungeon before doing it well, i can get any error and chague it erasing only one line, imagine redoing all the work in the map...

Also is very important to know what are you doing and where are you going. You can balance things and do it very well. If you sketch the history you can create a better history, because you can see and modify all the hitory in the same moment. If you just go straight forward cant do this, or you can do that but you eill be forced to redo things.

author=Ghost
^

This, it's better to just release your game in segments. Create the core system, the basic functions in which you can later add upon. Then the rest is just maps and graphical works. You should already have your scenarios ready to be implemented and a story + character stuff done.

Actually, my current project works like that but its going to be a larger scale thing with each part being capable of stand alone play but also being attached to a larger game. Although I must regret it is still in the extreme beginnings of pre production, including the ever wondering 'How the Hell am I gonna do this' phase.