[Development]"The Game Development Necessities." Options

[Steve1993]

I wanted to post this tutorial up on the site, but first I would like to know if it is any good or not.
Anyway, here it is:

[Show/Hide] The Game Development Necessities

This is my first tutorial, but I feel that it has a lot of useful information.
If you want to start developing a game of your own, heed this advice:

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1. Make sure you have an idea of how the game is going to be made and how it's story will be developed.
Don't just rush in without a solid game plan first.
Take time to create a detailed and interesting story, as well as game concepts and mechanics.

Of course, if your prefer to start off simple and develop as you go, that can work too. Just use the right precautions and guidelines.
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2. Don't just work on a game for a week and then say it's finished. The more time and effort you put into your game, the better it will be.

Taking the time to make your game great will also keep you motivated during production. You need to make game design worth the while. If you work too quickly, without putting forth the best of your ability, you may find yourself loosing interest in the project. This is the kind of thing that leads to the producer becoming bored with making the game; thus cancellation of the project.

A word of warning:
Once you start loosing interest, it's hard to get back into development again. Do your best to prevent this from happening, rather than trying to solve it after it's happened already.
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3. Make sure you have time to devote to game development.
An hour or so each day or two can go a long way in terms of game design. Don't simply work for hours on end each day, or for one day of the week. Pace yourself so that you can still have the strength to keep up with your daily life.
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4. Announce your game ideas to others and gain support!
Nothing makes game development more enjoyable than the though of people wanting to play it. If you don't have anyone backing your project up, the work you put into your game becomes empty and almost meaningless. (Unless the game is for self enjoyment/amusement.)

Hiring people and volunteers can also be a big help.
Others can sometimes make contributions to the game development process that you would be unable to do alone.
It also helps to distribute work amongst multiple people.
For large game projects, this is a must.

Also, if you happen to find another game that you really like, support it yourself! You'll be doing the developer(s) a big favor. "Treat others as you would want to be treated," right?
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5. Trust your gut. Sometimes game ideas don't come across well, even when the person who created the idea puts his/her heart and soul into making it. All you can really do is rely your instincts and hope that others will accept your project.

Fan service is a difficult thing, all right... But you can only do the best you can, so keep on going and continue working your hardest. If you do this, then your game will most likely succeed.
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6. Try not to take breaks from development that are really long. (About 2-3 weeks or so.)

Always keep yourself interested and avoid stopping game development as often as possible. This is another way to lose interest in your project.

I'm not saying you should never take breaks, though!
Just be careful not to stray too far from your work.
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7. You can take constructive criticism however you'd like. Remember, though, it's meant to help you and to give you ideas that can make your game better or more pleasing/enjoyable to people. Don't take it as a negative comment. We all have to realize our imperfectness and some point. We're only human, after all.

Be sure not to beat yourself up over mistakes. We all make them; it's part of our nature. Just be sure to improve on them and learn from them. It's like this phrase:

"Mistakes are only mistakes if you don't learn from them."
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NEW!
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8. The most important guideline of all: Have fun making your game!

If you are getting really stressed out and overworking yourself with your project, then you're doing it wrong.

Keep your work interesting and amusing, and try to get support from others. Always try to stay positive and be sure make changes to your developing methods if things get too rough. Hey, making a game is supposed to be fun, right? Unless you're making a game for profit, consider your project as more of a hobby; something you can do in your free time. It helps to think of this as a prevention measure for overworking.

Besides, who would want to purposely add more stress to their life? To me, that's just pointless.

So developers, don't make your work a pain in the butt. Make sure that you can produce a game and still keep a smile on your face.

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I hope that this advice will help those looking to start game development. It is a lot of hard work, but it can also be a lot of fun!
Just know what you are doing, and keep your goals in sight. A game is only as great as the developer wants it to be.

Well, how was it?
Please post comments here.

This post has been edited by Steve1993: Oct 22 2008, 03:19 PM

[gunsage]

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Shenrai]

Yeah. You pretty much covered everything I could have hoped for you to. Although, if I may, I'd like to make a small suggestion for something you could put in #4.

Basically it could simply be "After development of your project begins, give yourself a while to mull things over and get some real content down before you go showing off your concept to others. A week of design consideration could make a big difference in how worthy people see your project is."

In more or less words, of course.

Just think it'd be nice to add that in, since so many first-time project designers make this mistake and post little to gather interest in their projects.

[The Tao]

Really good advice for people to follow, I don't think I doubt any subjects covered.

Just quickly gonna note something:

3. Make sure you have time to devote to game development.
A hour or so each day can go a long way in terms of game design. Don't simply work for hours on end each day, or for one day of the week. Pace yourself so that you can still have the strength to keep up with your daily life.

Should be An Hour.

But still great advice

P.S You avatar is awesome

[GalzaRPG]

1 - To a lesser extent, yeah I do agree with section 1. I'm pretty loose in design stages though.. like I get a vague idea and then I'll just start with it and see where it takes me.. sometimes to a dead end, sometimes not. What I'm saying is, as long as you know the general direction you want to go, just dive in and start. Worst thing that could possibly happen is that you come across a good plot point and discover you need to edit the early parts of the game to make it fit better - I've done this several times. It's nearly unavoidable. Ohh but to add to this, create a text file with all your important notes in regards to plot points. They don't need to be really refined, just keep them on call.

2 - TOTALLY agree. Unless it's something simple and silly. You probably only need a week for that.

3 - Ehh, kind of on the fence about this one.. to a degree I see where you're going with it, but on the other hand, we also have lives outside of RM Game making. As long as you keep your notes handy you can always come back and pick it up where you left off anyway.

4 - support is always good.

5 - Get that a lot.. mostly clunky plot development and story stuff that doesn't seem to fit. ._.

6 - (see number 3)

7 - Ya know, I think people are usually to easy on me.. or they just ignore my stuff.. either or. But I do take what they have to say and consider it.. if it's something I can change or not.

Pretty good tut though..

[Steve1993]

Thanks for the comments! I wasn't able to check on this until today, sadly.

...Though now that I see it, there is one other thing that I need to add. Something that I need to start doing with my game development.


EDIT: Just added a new section. Tell me what your think of it.

This post has been edited by Steve1993: Oct 22 2008, 03:19 PM

[entropicdecay]

Seems like good advice to me.

Although I'm not sure I agree entirely on "don't take long breaks". I realise they can mean you end up losing interest in your game, but at times they might be able to help. If you're getting burned out on your project and feel like you're running out of ideas, I think what might be able to help for some people is: take a long or semi-long break. During the break, keep a notepad or text file around. If an RPG-related idea happens to come along, note it down. At the end of the break, play the current version of your game, not in a beta-testing mindset but in a more just regular game playing mindset. That way, hopefully, you'll be able to return to your project with a few new ideas and an appreciation for the work you've done so far.

So I think maybe it should be, if you're getting burned out, if you think it's necessary, and if you're fairly sure you can make sure you won't end up abandoning the project, it can be okay to take long breaks. Although of course, it varies depending on the person.