Does anyone else experience this?

[L.W. Flouisa]

Sometime around 2016 I recounted from memory the entire story I had in mind when I was first wanting to do an RPG Maker game. (It was around the RPG Maker VX era). I ended up basically completely rewriting it, as the original didn't really have an ending. But now it not only has an ending, but actually expanded.

It was my first science fantasy story ... almost ever, so I think it was inevitable I wouldn't finish it yet. And yet now it makes me wonder why I never bothered finishing it.

Setting was a bit like if you combined Conan (but with a female MC), and Cyberpunk. I don't think I originally intended the branching narratives though.

Oh Tiamat from the original concept, turned out very differently.

 

[MushroomCake28]

So we're talking about not finishing a project? Been there, done that lol.

Especially the first project we ever come up with, we tend to dream too big and not be able to go through with it.

 

[SolonWise]

@L.W. Flouisa I think I know exactly how you feel. I also have a RPG Maker story that I never managed to finish. It all started back in RPG Maker 2000, before even RPG Maker 2003 came out. I did a 40 hour gameplay game about this story, but it neve totally finished. Then I remade it in RPG Maker VX, with a LOT of different things in all aspects of the game, but the essence was the same. I didn't manage to finish it either. Now I'm thinking in redo it in RPG Maker MV, again, with a lot of new concepts.

I don't know why these things happen. I would lode to finish it someday, especially because I think it's a good and complex story. I really like it. And I don't know if I encourage you to keep doing changes until your story becomes perfect for you, or if you should stick with the original idea, finish it and move on to the next adventure. By the way, I've read a little bit about The World of the Potato District. Quality material there. Guilliotines and cyborgs is a combination I never tought I would see. And please, take it as a compliment.

But about your primary concern, there is one more thing I would like to add. I don't wanna, by any means, compare me or yourself to J.R.R. Tolkien, but take a look in this text I just found in the internet:

"It would thus be more accurate to suggest that it took about 17 years (allowing for some breaks) from start to finish for J.R.R. Tolkien to write The Lord of the Rings. And yet, even after the book was published he continued to make changes. There was only one formally announced 2nd edition of The Lord of the Rings, which was published in 1965, but it would not be until 1987 that nearly all of Tolkien’s textual changes would be incorporated into a new edition edited by Douglas Anderson (the so-called “white edition”)."

I think what I want to say is, maybe it's natural for creative people like you to feel in love with their own piece of art, and because of that, the artist will do anything to make their work the best it can be. And I don't think it's wrong.

Man, I could talk about it for hours, but I will finish my post here.

 

[Hyouryuu-Na]

I am going through that right now. And in the past too. I got mv in 2017. And its 2019 now... no notable progress. I know very well how to make my game at this stage. Skill isn't the factor. I just procrastinate too much, dream too big and I'm a biig perfectionist. Anything even sliiiightly out of place gets on my nerves. Trying to fix those till they're pixel perfect takes up all my time. I've gone from traditional rpgs, romantic dating sims, horror in the woods to creepy dolls in mansions. I scapped all of them cos they weren't perfect enough lol. I'm pretty happy with my current project though. I have something I can nanage. Still dreaming big though. But I've taken it as a challenge so it's pretty fun. Procrastination is still a problem... but I'm working on it >_< Let's see how long it takes cos I'm not giving up on this one.

 

[bgillisp]

Well, considering my story I started writing in 1994...let's just say you are not alone here. Granted some of them were meant to be different games completely instead of the main game, but every summer I always sat down for 1 - 2 weeks and wrote the plot from start to finish...again.

Sometimes I got good updates to the story, sometimes I got something that was completely different from the original (I got a few that I call the game idea that is good but doesn't fit anywhere in the world), and I got a few that were so bad that I just nuked them at the end. In fact, one famous one was written in 1996 by me with the help of a friend, and it got so cringy that finally we both ended it with "And then aliens invaded". And this was a fantasy RPG, so no sci-fi supposed to be in there anywhere.

In fact, I still joke about using that ending sometimes when a plot or idea is going off rails.

 

[L.W. Flouisa]

Well, considering my story I started writing in 1994...let's just say you are not alone here. Granted some of them were meant to be different games completely instead of the main game, but every summer I always sat down for 1 - 2 weeks and wrote the plot from start to finish...again.

Sometimes I got good updates to the story, sometimes I got something that was completely different from the original (I got a few that I call the game idea that is good but doesn't fit anywhere in the world), and I got a few that were so bad that I just nuked them at the end. In fact, one famous one was written in 1996 by me with the help of a friend, and it got so cringy that finally we both ended it with "And then aliens invaded". And this was a fantasy RPG, so no sci-fi supposed to be in there anywhere.

In fact, I still joke about using that ending sometimes when a plot or idea is going off rails.

Ah you too then? Yea I'm still wondering how I came up with mine, I ended things very differently from how I do now.

Although the concept was taken to completion in later stuff.

Granted, it's probably better it ended there, then right around the final boss fight. (Yes, right at the boss fight. Not a moment before or after.) A bit like if you got to the final battle, and your little brother turned the power off.

 

[Basileus]

I've been working on a story for years now. I got some characters I like and some scenes I would want to include, but every time I try to make a cohesive plot out of it I keep thinking it's terrible and put it on the back-burner again. I've dropped and re-added tons of stuff in a new context over the years too. At least I feel like I'm learning a lot and I can better analyze and critique the media I watch now.

In the meantime I just endlessly make test chambers for puzzles and weird gameplay ideas I have instead.

Edit: I should also mention that I have finished a couple of games so I know how to start and end a project. They were awful and I never uploaded them. I also finished a few multi-chapter fanfics so I know how to write arcs, foreshadow, etc. They were also awful and I never uploaded them anywhere. But having some completely terrible finished projects taught me a lot. I could easily make a bad game from start to finish. But I've made a couple bad games already so I don't mind waiting to work out an idea that is actually decent now.

 

[woootbm]

I'm in a similar spot now. The game I'm working on now is based on ideas I had around 2003-2005. I was still in that youthful stage where my creative ideas were just rip offs of stuff I liked (everyone goes through that stage, right? ), so it was my take on Tales of Symphonia. All these years later it seems almost unrecognizable as I've developed my tastes in story-telling and character creation. And I'm still re-working stuff to improve it. Thankfully, in my case, there was enough unique in the idea that I had something I could work with. I look at some of the ideas I had in the 90's and... I just laugh, heh.

I will say, though, that all these rewrites make me feel like using one's ancient ideas is a bad plan. There's just... so much stuff that needs to be fixed. My previous game was based on an idea I had mere months before I started working on it. As a result, it was pretty much a breeze to work on in comparison. But perhaps that's more of an issue of how terrible a writer I was versus how much I've grown

 

[bgillisp]

@woootbm : In my experience it depends on how much you use the old version. When I've done it I use just the general plot idea, and nothing more. That way I'm open to possible tangents and different implementations. Usually all that is the same is the final bad guy in the end, or the final mystery the heroes are trying to unravel.

 

[woootbm]

@bgillisp I'm in a weird place because there are bits and pieces that I really like, so I'm trying to use those, too. I've fought to get certain things in and make them work, but also had to cut some things that were unsalvageable. So yeah, your method would have been better. I actually don't remember how I originally planned the whole story to go. I think my current plot is very similar to it, I'm just picking the most interesting, tasty bits to keep and emphasize to make it more unique and less generic JRPG (although it still looks that way on a surface level, so I'll have to really get promoting it right).

There was... a lot of fat to trim. I dropped a whole 3 playable characters. And there's still more trimming to do. So yeah, I would go so far as to say you could post that as solid advice. "When using an old story idea, only keep the biggest and most necessary pieces. Drop everything else and make it more fluid to fit your current style."

 

[Aesica]

Ha! I've wanted to properly tell the story I tried to tell in a crappy flash bullet hell shooter I made back in 2013 or so. After I finish my current game, I'll probably try to (finally) give it the love I seem to think it deserves so those poor characters can rest. I actually started remaking that game as my first RM project, but stopped myself when I realized I should really make a learner project instead of my "dream" project. I'm glad I did, because when I look back at what I made, it's pretty obvious that I can do a lot better and that I definitely don't want to present those characters as lame chibis in an RTP world.

It'll be my all-out project, I think. Commissioned character art, music, maybe some tiles, the works.

 

[somenick]

Happened to me last year with a game I was developing. I realized that I had to beta test it, and then I found that doing so would be boring. Now, if I didn't want to play my own game, then something must have been trully wrong. So I shelved it. Will eventually sort of remake it but will make things a lot more dynamic and will cut out the parts that tend to drag on too long for no reason.

 

[TheoAllen]

I did have my first "dream" project since 2010. It was a quite ambitious one like everyone's else dream project ever. I composed the soundtrack myself, doing a world-building, fleshing out the character's detail, personality, connection, backstories, and other "dreaming" activities without actually developing it into a working game. I was afraid if I didn't plan it, it may not be developed well. As time passed, the project became too big (in the GDD) for my little knowledge to handle such a big project, namely, the lore and story.

Then for some reasons, in 2014, I sidetracked to make a little fun project that is just a demonstration of my battle system. Something fresh with new characters, away from anything that I've been working previously. I learned something that I didn't know before, namely, the project management (managing variables, switches, database, picking features, what to add and not to add, and formula balancing from start to end of the project). That opened a whole new world for me.

In late 2017 (went hiatus for 2 years), I continued to develop with these new characters and tried to write a story for them. And even with that, up today I've rewritten the story for at least 4 times if not more. Integrating the portion of the story and actual gameplay. Looked back to my first "dream project", I noticed that the thing I planned were absurd beyond reasoning. This project I'm working on is supposed to be just for learning actually structured better than my first "dream project".

Now, even if I believe this "dream project" might not actually get delivered to the public, I may try to revisit it sometime later to see what can I change. I still do want to finish it, if I'm able to. The "I don't want to screw up in this project" mentality is probably the biggest obstacle to get the project done.