Finishing a Game

[Felix Trapper]

That article is amazing. Very well written and informative, pretty much exactly what I needed to read. Thanks!

 

[andrew]

I guess this is a question I should address to people here who've finished projects of their own:

In your experience, is a game that you've created yourself still fun to play?

I think so, yeah. After I finish a game, I can usually sit down and play it, even all the way through, and enjoy the experience.

Finishing games is very tough because we don't like to do things we don't like to do. Even the most interesting projects are going to be stone-dead boring during most of development.

Just don't give up!

 

[Knightmare]

Good topic. I finished a project on RPG Maker 1 on PS1 many years ago and it took several months to make and a lot of testing from both myself and my sister. It was about a 20 hour game and although pretty limited in what it could do it did give me experience and at least I know I CAN finish a game if I want to. A lot of it for me was keeping myself motivated and enjoying the project and making it for myself (and my sister but she tends to like the same style games I do). So I think a lot of it is having interest in your project and doing WHAT YOU WANT not what others want. Sometimes in this attempt to please everyone the developer loses interest and just says "Screw it".

Although I have yet to finish a game on any PC RPG Maker I'm thinking I will with my current project even though its taking longer than expected but after several months I STILL enjoy working on it and its the same interest I had in the PS1 game I made.

Part of the reason from my perspective for not yet finishing a game on A PC Maker is because you can do so much! There's almost too many options and I want to explore them all sometimes, and of course that takes a lot of time and can sometimes get overwhelming. I learned that simplicity is often the best way to go about a project.

I'm speaking from a hobbyist standpoint, I understand if you're trying to go commercial and actually make some money you'll have to cater to more majority crowds.

 

[Daijou]

"11. STOP MAKING EXCUSES FOR STARTING OVER"

I can say I'm more than guilty for that one, in almost everything I do. Half the times when I pick up a game, I like to get a feel for how everything works, learn the systems, then start over because for some reason I think I'll be able to do everything better the next time around. I know, however, that my game will never come to fruition if I keep that state of mind. Already I've changed a few maps around, which then required editing the events attached to them, and it's frustrating. I'd rather not scrap an entire project and start again, especially with the magnitude that making an RPG is.

All in all, it was a decent article. Definitely points out a lot of typical things people go through when making a game, and gives me something to look for while I work on mine.