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Inspiration, and its effects

  • Marrend
  • 08/12/2011 11:37 AM
  • 8017 views
Certain events have occurred that cause me to question and consider what, exactly, the "Bludgeon of Inspiration" is, and does. Be prepared for a story!


The thing that comes to the forefront of my mind is that when inspiration hits me, I work feverishly, or generally do things without too much thought going into what I'm doing. Hasty decisions are made, and the possibility of looking like a complete idiot is a very likely scenario.

This game's title screen is an excellent example of this. I was just chugging along, not really noticing, or possibly caring, what I was doing, then *BAM*, I posted the title screen. I started getting notices for it shortly thereafter, mostly people saying how bad it was. Thing is, I was so blinded by all the stuff I've done, and how fast I seemed to be doing everything in, that it did not occur to me that the title screen I made was "bad" in any way, shape, or form. I can admit that it's bad now, but I really don't have anything better, nor have any ideas for anything better. I suppose I could use ShortStar's take on the title screen, but I would prefer to use something I made (no offense to ShortStar intended). This talk of criticism leads me to my next point.


I tend to take criticism, both good and bad, quite personally. The games I make are an extension of myself, my psyche so to speak. So why should I not take criticism personally?

I think all designers think this way, to some degree. Saying that, I've taken this idea to exeptional exteremes. As a perfect example, I took Liberty's Let's Try of Legacy Reborn too personally for my own good. Consider: the game is canceled, and the download torn down. I don't think I'll ever have the heart to touch that game ever again. I managed to handle Creation's Pass/Fail of Matusmori Days better, but was an absolute emotional wreak with just the description for RPGSnapshot's video for it's play of Matsumori Days, much less actually seeing the video itself (Full disclosure: I still haven't seen it, nor have the heart to.). So maybe I've not changed all that much. Which leads to my next point.


I can be quite resistant to change. Particularly with mapping. I have no clue when I made my first map (Maybe it was with RPGM-95?), but my maps have this tendency to be empty in some way, shape, or form. My very first map ever was, of course, the typical "first map ever" - a huge, wide-open area with absolutely nothing going on. The maps did, eventually, get smaller and smarter, but there was always an "empty" quality to them.

Don't get me wrong, I've played the games that people seem to like ripping graphics from: Final Fantasy VI, Treasure of the Rurda, and Earthbound. It's not that I don't know what a good map looks like. I just don't like the idea behind the expenditure of effort that kind of mapping requires. Which brings me to my next point.


I tend skip over problems that I think are small, but are quite large problems in reality. Overly tough monsters? Just grind a bit more in the previous area. Terrible mapping? That's not my strength, so why care? Underdeveloped characters? Players must be skipping the dialog.

I realize that this kind of thinking is not particularly conducive to making an "average" game, much of anything beyond that. That I still think these things, while realizing that it's not good for game development, is irony onto itself. However, while I'm ignoring these admittedly large issues, at the same time, I can be pretty picky about other issues. As an example, with Matsumori Days, I "had" to write Masako a certain way, or she wouldn't "be" Masako. She would fail as a character. Then again, as nobody, or very few, seem to be "getting" who "Masako" is, I end up failing as a writer in that regard. I'm damned when I "do", and damned when I "don't". Now that's irony!


Thus is the story thus far of the RMN user called "Marrend", and his struggle to be an amateur game designer. Perhaps this story is harsh, and perhaps the so-called "Bludgeon of Inspiration" had some say in what the content of this story was. However, do not come away from this story, thinking that inspiration is inherently a bad thing. No, far from it. Indeed, inspiration is what makes creativity happen. Without it, there would be no wheel, much less anything more technologically advanced, like video games. Take this story, rather, as a cautionary tale: that doing things by sheer inspiration alone can lead to disastrous results.


What does this means for future game development? No clue. All I know is that I still have 19 days to fix this game's title screen to something more acceptable (Whatever "acceptable" is!), and fix the game balance one more time to something less tedious. I don't care about the mapping, or the use of RTP resources. There I go again, concentrating on certain issues, while ignoring other issues. One of these days, one of these days...

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I think this is a pretty cool and honest blog post.

I'll just throw in my thoughts about this stuff. The way I think it tends to work is that you have a good idea, or ideas and because we, as "creative people" love to have a good idea - we can, sometimes, tend to latch fervently to that idea and in order to keep the "omfg awesome" idea from falling into obscurity and not coming to any fruition we can sometimes go into a very single-minded mode where we ignore our better judgement because the things our better judgement is saying to us feel like they could threaten the idea's becoming something other than just an idea.

I think the solution to this is to always, always trust your better judgement and listen to it. Most of the time it's not there to kill your idea off but to make it better.

And obviously on the flip-side of that be willing to make compromises where time, resources and skills would provide too much of an issue to completely surmount. That's the point where you have to let some things go and accept that those things will most likely attract criticism - But at the end of the proverbial day - the sum is greater than the parts when it comes to making games. People tend to be fickle and will overlook any "thing" if they like the whole enough.

Also what's worth remembering is the inspiration or ideas we have are no-doubt OMFG AWESOME - at least to us, as they appear to us in our heads. your job as a game developer is to translate that as accurately and powerfully as possible into something that another person can experience and be like - "I GET this!" hopefully on a gut-level. Each aspect of game making (graphical style, music, sounds, storyline, dialogue) is another channel of communication between your ideas and the player - the more you put those to use the more completely and faithfully that awesome inspiring idea or feeling can be given to the player.
From what you described, you have two options: either you start taking criticism less personally and just do whatever you have fun doing, or you work on improving the quality of what you do according to standards that are not exclusively your own. I don't think there's any aspect of game designing that cannot be improved: writing, mapping, numerical design, etc.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Part of growth is the overcoming one's weaknesses. With this blog, I merely took the first step: identifying those weaknesses. The next step, I would think, is to identify which of these I'm most willing to change, then change it, making sure not to rush the change.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
all this drama over a title screen

/unhelpful comment.

Perhaps slightly less unhelpful? This thread is not as much about what I thought it would be about, and I find the actual topic less interesting than what I initially took to be the topic from the title and the first paragraph or so. Ooops, that sounds a bit cold, which is not what I meant. It's just that I have less to say about what this thread's actually about than what I thought it was about.


On Topic:
Find people you respect. Specifically, find six people who you respect who tend to be critical and six people who you respect who tend to be supportive. Listen to them, and them only; only do not heed their advice when you feel that the very essence of your project is at stake.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
Oh and you mean its, without an apostrophe.
Dear Marrend, you and I are actually similar in many ways than you could ever imagine...But as someone who understands you and who finally grew out of this phase I have to tell you this:

Inspiration is a great thing but I think in order to do something you want to do, it's better to make your skillset wider and more efficient.

What I meant by this is that, DECONSTRUCT your favorite games, find out WHY they work and what MAKES them work in the first place. If you really want to make a game, make games which purposes are to improve your abilities.

When I was still in 2k3, everyone in GW bashed my game (I will not tell what my name was back then :P) because I only cared about is showing it and rushing into development without thinking about the Aesthetics. I remember one said that I had something in mind and with more planning I would be able to carry it out. So I went into hermit mode and made sure that I have enough abilities to carry out the game I want that is closer to my vision. This game will be later called, Night of Marian. (The only difference is that I never took it personally even if I worked hard for my game, instead I took it as an inspiration to improve and show them that they're wrong. Hatred is my fuel :u)

If I didn't take their criticism back then I won't have the skills I have right now. While I do admit I rarely finish my SOLO games, that is because I'm very meticulous and careful about the details of my personal games.

Don't be disheartened, your first 10 games will suck as they said. So instead of rushing and making things personal at such an early get up, why not make it fun to learn about the aesthetics of game making?

Just my two cents.
Well...What can I say?

I'll be honest, I thrive on constructive criticism when it comes to my writing. On the same note, my ex also knew how to push my buttons just the right way to over do it.

With that said...The internet's very much the same way. I'll be honest, I do wish that people knew how to offer more constructive criticism, and try to look for the positives in games, since hey, they're games, and they're something we're supposed to enjoy. When I play a game, or review it, I try to look at it through my eyes, as a gamer, not someone making games, and NOT looking for things copied from other games and what not.

Now I don't see the MAJOR problems with your title screen, nor did I mind Masako in Matsumori Stories (too much, haha), but the title screen...What's the big deal anyways? TBH, all the game's title screens made from RPM2k-RPMVX all look the same to me anyways. It's just one very minor element. I realize that Masako isn't such a small element, but she's also a fairly unique character (especially to the RPG world), which can throw a lot of people off.

Granted, those are beside the point, and just probably some of the things complained about. I think you should give it time, nobody makes a masterpiece their first time.

I feel inclined to disagree and agree at the same time with your assessment of inspiration though. When just writing, it motivates you, and you can go on with it, similar to when it suddenly dries out and you're stuck with a case of writer's block. Game making...Well, that's where I have failed before. Usually that's where all the technical stuff comes in for me, and I completely lose it.

Like I said, that's where time comes in. In my honest opinion, you've done a pretty good job with the two (maybe one and a half with this game?) games I've played, but there's obviously a lot of room for improvement. I'd say keep at it, hell, you could make a masterpiece and people would still complain about it. It's the nature of the internet.

I think, in time, especially with all the practice you're getting now, the more technical sides of game making will cease to be a hindrance, and you'll be getting much better feedback with future projects.

*steps off soapbox*
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
If only one thing, watch that video, it's far from being as bad as you seem to imagine it, otherwise it'll remain forever like a phantomatic scarecrow , and those are by far the worse, or an almighty divine finger pointing at you and saying : "you fail!", when it's far or rather has nothing to do with that, and it might false your judgment. As for the title screen I didn't think it was bad in itself, I just thought it wasn't fitting, otherwise, why not, it's not an uninteresting idea of a title screen.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Anyway, I know I'll eventually grow out of this mindset, and I know I'm probably blowing things way out of proportion. I say right at the offset of this blog that it's a story. As I like to say, "Life is a story. Which is the one that defines you?". But that's another topic altogether.
Creation
An avid lover of Heartache 101
1446
It's just one very minor element.

I strongly, strongly disagree with this statement. The title screen is the first thing the player will see when launching your game and it's easy to give a bad first impression. It's nowhere as important as the rest of your game but it's pretty important imho.

An example:


If you don't have any artistic talent, just go for something simple like a uniform color for background with some carefully selected font. If you don't know what you're doing and wish to experiment, post your creations for criticism before implementing them into your game.

skip over problems that I think are small, but are quite large problems in reality. Overly tough monsters? Just grind a bit more in the previous area. Terrible mapping? That's not my strength, so why care? Underdeveloped characters? Players must be skipping the dialog.

Yeah, it's easy to skip what you like the least thinking your strenghts will make up for your weaknesses. The thing is, things sometimes turn out that way but you need some really amazing skill in one field or another.

I think it's sort of related to maturity. When we're kids, we want to show our awful drawings to everyone so that we can get a pat on the head and be told we're good. I think what Ness has decribed is the realization that there is no shortcut and success only comes as the result of very hard work.

It's great to read that you don't have that unbearable loser's attitude to find excuses for your shortcomings (the mapping comment comes to mind). Being weak in something is no excuse to cut corners and give way to mediocrity. You might be fine with it but trust me, other players won't be.

If you know your title screen sucks and you choose not to change it, you can only blame your own laziness to put some effort into creating something somewhat nice to look at.

Same thing goes for other aspects of your game. No one is good in everything, find people who can help you with your shotcomings.

Frankenspriting is not all that hard. You could easily combine various elements of the RTP to create new, unique pieces for your game.

Have you ever heard of Aedemphia? Everything in Aedemphia is custom made, hand drawn. Two years into the project, seeing that his artistic skills had improved, he redrew *every* single element! Now that's dedication to look up to.

And this the kind of mapping you end up getting:


Anyways, I'm rambling. I guess the point is to be patient and polish every single element of your game before releasing anything (as opposed to botching what you don't like to do).
rabitZ
amusing tassadar, your taste in companionship grows ever more inexplicable
1349
author=Creation
Anyways, I'm rambling. I guess the point is to be patient and polish every single element of your game before releasing anything (as opposed to botching what you don't like to do).


Man, I take this TOO seriosuly haha.
The first 25 minutes of my game have seen like 2 revampings and polishings.

Anyway, good luck, Marrend!
With just patience and dedication, you can get better.
Just try to approach your project and the criticism it receives with an open mind, remember also to cultivate your attention to detail.

And like Max McGee said, you can ignore those criticisms that would mean going against your project's very essence.
Max McGee
with sorrow down past the fence
9159
IN MY HEART, IN MY SOUL, I AM OUT OF CONTROL
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
This thread is now about wither or not I should keep the title screen, evidently?

On a more serious note, I hope it's not expected of me to get anywhere close to where Aedephia is, graphically speaking, in the 18 days I've got left for this contest?
chana
(Socrates would certainly not contadict me!)
1584
author=Marrend
On a more serious note, I hope it's not expected of me to get anywhere close to where Aedephia is, graphically speaking, in the 18 days I've got left for this contest?

Lmao that is basically it. Extra polish i think, is the least of your worries as of now. Graphics are really important, but you need to build upon something you're confident in like story or gameplay. Just give the game a leg to stand on. People can forgive a game for weak points. Look at ABL, the game has a pretty bad title screen and horrible graphics, but it's popularity stems from obvious other areas. I played the demo (I wonder if im the only who did that instead of looking at the title screen FF CRYSTAL SCREENSHOT ANYONE?) and I can tell you, you need to make the battles a little more interesting than just slime fests.

Get the game done, learn from mistakes, improve your craft.
NOACCEPTANCE772
And the ability to summon the "Office Whores" to deal damage to the enemies.
553
Hey Marrend,
I'll Try making a cool title screen for weird dreams.
I'll report back soon.
NOACCEPTANCE772
And the ability to summon the "Office Whores" to deal damage to the enemies.
553
Oh,here it is!
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
Well, I don't think I can use it as a title screen, as title screens have dimensions of 544 by 416. However, I can call it fanart, can't I?
NOACCEPTANCE772
And the ability to summon the "Office Whores" to deal damage to the enemies.
553
author=Marrend
Well, I don't think I can use it as a title screen, as title screens have dimensions of 544 by 416. However, I can call it fanart, can't I?

K,maybe.(^_^)V
NOACCEPTANCE772
And the ability to summon the "Office Whores" to deal damage to the enemies.
553
So you can use this?

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