A guide to not quitting development on your game.

[croc_god]

Hello! This guide is mostly to help me from quitting development, but hopefully it will help you too!

I have observed many games disappear over the years made on both the Eclipse Engine (touchofdeathforums, multiple years, at this point probably over ten) and the Intersect Engine (I have lurked for over 2 years)

 

So, where to begin? There's a bunch of tips and tricks to motivating yourself to do more work. I'll begin with bullet points.

 

• PLAN: The easiest way to not quit is to plan new things for your game. This is best done in my opinion by carrying around with you a pencil and paper with you at all times. It's good to write new ideas down on your cell phone, but as I say: cell phone smell phone. Your brain doesn't work as hard when you're staring at a screen vs. actually writing things down.
• DISCUSS: Tell people about your game. Get people who know nothing about gaming in general to test you game. This includes: technologically inefficient friends, parents, grandparents, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc. The more "normal" people you get testing your game, the better feedback you can get.
• DRAW: Draw, draw draw. Drawing stimulates mental activity and can easily help you come up with new ideas.
• WRITE: Write, write write! Next to drawing, this is the best way to churn out ideas along with drawing. It doesn't matter what you write or draw. You can always improve it later.
• THINK: Always be thinking about your game. When you're at the park or the movies, be thinking about your game. When you're talking to your friend, think about your game. This gives you an infinite well of ideas.
• READ: Read other peoples ideas. Read other peoples works. Read books. READ. Reading gives you GREAT ideas.
• GIVE FEEDBACK: Helping others with their problems helps you with your own problems.

 

These are all pretty self explanatory ways to think of new content for your game when you're stuck. Most people give up because they get stuck on an idea that they can't make.

My advice for you that if you cannot easily complete an idea immediately: MOVE ON!

It's like when you're taking a test and get stuck on a single question. Most people will stare at the question for a few minutes, wasting valuable time they could have spent working on other questions. Don't be that guy.

 

But what about when I'm really REALLY struggling? Okay, here's some more tips:

• STOP CARING ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINK ABOUT YOUR GAME: It's good to get feedback, yes, but let me tell you a secret. Most people are wrong. They have no idea what they are talking about. They see a sliver of your project and they bash it. Vice versa, they see your project and praise it when it is truly crap. Only you should really care about where your game is in it's stage of development. If it's crap: make it better. If it's good: make it better.
• STOP DREAMING (TOO) BIG: You dream of your game having hundreds of co-current players. 99% of people who have these dreams will fail. This is because you are making your game for other people, subconsciously or consciously. You want people to appreciate your work when it's not even done. You're stopping yourself from your true potential. The only thing you should dream about is making a finished product.
• STOP TRYING TO MAKE EVERYTHING (TOO) UNIQUE: Huh? Shouldn't my game be different from every other MMORPG out there? Yes, but focusing on being unique is a pitfall. Because you force yourself to come up with crazy features you don't have the skill, time, effort or patience to create. Often people will stray so far from what makes the MMORPG genre fun in the first place: having a world in which you can interact and fight with and amongst other players. This is a simple concept; don't bend it lest you are a true visionary.
• GO ON A WALK, TAKE A BREAK, BUT ALWAYS RETURN: Often you find yourself overwhelmed with what you have to do. The features you have to program. The life you have to live outside Intersect. You know how I said earlier you should always be thinking about your game? If thinking about your game hurts, stop. Go on a walk, go outside, play with your family. Often we get so cooped up working on something that our brains begin to short circuit. This is when you know it's time to STOP and go on a walk. Sometimes I am talking about a literal WALK outside. Smell the breeze. Other times I am talking about a 1-4 week walk away from your game. Give time to other things and avoid BURNOUT. Other time you get mini burnouts, often showers are the best cure for these.
• MOVE ON TO THE NEXT THING OFTEN: Once you find yourself satisfied with a little amount of work you've done, work on something else within the same area. Constantly moving from point to point is good.
• LAY THE GROUND BEFORE YOU SPRINKLE THE DETAILS: Having 1000 semi-empty maps is better than having 100 well detailed maps. Why is this? Because there is more to go to, more to visit. When I play games that are well detailed but very small, I quit fast. You're focusing yourself on such a small area which is nice, but it gets boring quickly. The human brain craves new details, new information, new areas. If you're always in the same few areas, your brain gets bored really quickly. Games like Minecraft and World of Warcraft are extremely successful because they both have large open worlds and not teensy tiny little ones. Games with instanced areas and small worlds are often less successful because they box the player in. And if you build a huge world, eventually those semi-empty maps will become more and more detailed over time, granted you actually work on them
• NOTHING IS SET IN STONE: Made a beautiful map, npc, item or creature? Good! But it's never complete. Once you think something is complete you box yourself in again by limiting your creative potential. Over time you will realize the things you made can be better. If you mark something as "done" you often stop thinking about it which could potentially stop you from turning that concept into something even BETTER.
• FINALLY: JUST DO IT: Like our old pal Nike (Or shia labeouf) once said: JUST DO IT. If you get an idea, immediately create a rough draft of it. We often forget ideas or they get morphed into better things in our head. WRITE IT DOWN, DRAW IT, PUT THAT NPC IN YOUR GAME!! Even if it's 1/100th of what you see it as in your head, PUT IT IN YOUR GAME! You can always build it up but you can't get anywhere if you don't start.
• Also one more little last tip: BE CAREFUL ABOUT WHAT YOUR PLAYERBASE SAYS. When people start playing your game, which they will, they are bound to come up with ideas for your game. Do not blindly implement an idea just to please one of your players. Do not implement an idea you think is awesome immediately. Instead, write a great idea down and see how you can make it work with your own ideas. Quickly you'll realize how you can change the idea into something better, or you might decide it doesn't fit into your game at all. It will hurt when you implement a players idea, realize it sucks, and then remove it. You just lost the trust of that player. Instead, do what I said.

 

I hope this has helped you work on your game! Remember, nothing I said here is bond.

If you don't like something I said or did, please don't tell me or complain about it here. I truly don't care.

Instead focus on what works for you. If only one out of these many bullet points helped you, then I am glad.

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[XTRS]

Awesome post! good job.