How do you guys do a work flow for a game?

[Carnage123]

This is my very first project and I would like a little feedback on my workflow. To me, I think it will be fine, but would like outside eyes.

I have the majority of everything in my head and creating a story flow chart to put things in order. I also am putting tabs and links to plug in dialoug, names of cities etc. After that flow chart is done. I will have a nice list of all my cities, monsters, etc and artwork that will need to be done. After I do the concept art, I will proceed to open up RPG maker and start taking the concept art and making it game art, then start building the storyline ingame

Is this a proper workflow? To me, this seems to be the most organized way to do it. I feel like if I just jump right in there in RPG maker, things will just be a mess and there wont be any type of structure.

 

[Andar]

Yes, that is one possible way of doing it - especially if you plan for a larger game it's a lot better than just "jumping in"

I'll do it a bit differently, but that's mostly because I plan for a non-linear game where the story won't fit into a single flowchart.

However, if this is your very first project then you're missing an important step: Learning the engine.

Making a flowchart of everything is a good way if you already know how to implement that flow chart, but if this is really your first game I would suggest putting it aside for a months and make a very simple gaming project just to learn how the program is used, to do the tutorials and decide which scripts you might want to add to your engine.

After that month you can scrap this learning project, but the experience you gained in working on it will speed up the work on your primary project after that.

Follow the link in my signature to more explanations and links to other tutorials.

 

[thecretanhound]

For me it involves a lot of screaming, arm waving and running around.  Eventually a game a appears.

On a more serious note, I usually take voice notes of ideas while walking, jot notes on paper when at the office or even typing things into note apps while lying in my tent camping before I fall asleep.  Start drawing and flushing out ideas later on either on paper or just typing away.  I start to list the big items, what is the world, the setting, who lives there, what troubles ails the world, what is the tech like, etc...

After that its sentence number 1 again for a bit, then I start to focus in again, and start to flush out more story, and add a how does this story end, I then start the beginning and usually flesh out the in-between's last.

As for the tech side, honestly I started making a game with just the base tutorials off RPG VX (while using ace) and just started making my own world based off those tutorials.   the more I learned the more I started saying, in my game I would like to use this, hmm I wonder if someone made a script for that? then I would search, and play with what I found.   Now there are a lot of people on this site that know their ****, so I also posted A lot of questions when I was stuck. People will help. 

After that its all just slave away until it is done.  The hardest part is focusing and finishing a project I find, 

 

[thomas_surles]

The best way for me is to have a good idea of the game before hand if it is a long story, write down all the different scenes and things like that, and fill in the rest as you work on it.

 

[Solo]

Well, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to accomplish in my game before I started out (loads of documents and character designs already laid out). But even that vision evolved over and over again over the course of the project. I did all art and database specs as I went along; the variety really helped to keep things fresh. Meaning, I didn't do all the data for the characters, then the items, then the monsters, then FINALLY the playable game itself - I was continuously adding to everything.

Late in development, I realized some things needed to be changed/rebalanced, and got awesome ideas for new features and even new in-game locations and storyline elements; now I can't imagine the game without them... they helped cement its identity. So don't be afraid to make drastic changes midway through a project; your game will be better for it. Rigidity is the bane of creativity. Don't just follow your "blueprints" like a robot, that takes all the joy out of the dynamic creative process. Creativity is to be expressed freely and without limits; therein lies the joy.

So have fun. Making games is the best thing ever!

 

[BestsellingFictionPodcast]

Best way to write the story is the get a friend or two to help you role play out interactions. Keep a guideline of where you want the story to go, but allow your story to run its course down the new and interesting tangents that will come along.

A lot of story writing is tossing ideas around and rolling around with the improvisation. If you have a basic understanding of story structure and story tropes, you'll do fine. I think this is how most stories are done.

Here's a story my brother and I invented when we were playing Deadliest Warrior on PS3. It's a very gladiator-style fighting sim with generic fighters and no storyline. The story began naturally as he kept playing Viking and I kept losing as Ninja. Persistence set in and soon I was calling him Son of Odin and saying You didn't kill me. That was just my shadow clone. So he came up with his own ideas too. When he'd lose, he'd say, That wasn't Thor. That was just his brother. But you can't fight the TRUE Son of Odin yet. You must fight Loki first.

The story started with a ninja trying to defeat a viking. We just kept finding ways to step it up, because neither of us wanted to be the loser in the series of battles. We'd make up silly reasons. Eventually the reasons get complacent, you need to find more grandiose ways of stepping them up and more creative ways of why you can't be defeated or why things happen. Ass-pulls like this happen all the time. Who cares as long as it's consistent, makes sense, and is fun.

This is the result of our story:

A powerful and unstoppable ninja seeks vengeance against the House of Odin. He takes the fight from Earth to the gates of Heaven where he infiltrates the powerful House where he destroys the entire bloodline one son at a time. Finally he faces Loki, and eventually Thor. After destroying both of them in the Colosseum, he takes on their father Odin himself. Odin proves a difficult foe. He becomes more powerful as he strips off his armour to reveal himself in the flesh. Odin kills the ninja, but this causes his true power to awaken. The ninja is now clad in dark, deathless armour. Odin is defeated. Their souls ascend to the final battle. In the higher dimensional realm, ninja strips off his armour to reveal that him and Odin are one and the same.

There is a plot twist. Odin and Ninja are brothers. Odin was adopted. Ninja should have been the true ruler of the Nine Realms. Odin reveals himself to be nothing more than the son of a long line of treacherous pirate lords. Heaven has been under the control of villains since the very birth of Ninja and these plans were set into motion long before he was born. Ninja wants to reclaim the throne, restore order to Heaven, and reclaim the dignity of his royal family bloodline.

The only way Ninja can kill Odin is with the Spear of Destiny. Their battle takes them back to Earth and before he can land the final blow, Ninja is vanquished. Odin goes back to Heaven to rule. Ninja wakes up to find that he is not dead.

He returns to Heaven to finish what he started. Only this time he must fight his own soul. After defeating his own soul, he is now a complete person with an equally powerful power boost. Of course he was never able to kill Odin the first time: Odin was in possession of his soul from the very start. This is also why he could not die. This is why he could not finish the job.

Ninja murders Loki and Thor, finishing the job he started. They are no match for his new powers, unlike the previous decisive battles.

Ninja faces Odin in the colosseum and easily defeats him. All of Olympus witnesses the defeat. Before Ninja can speak the truth, Odin's grandfather intervenes to fight Ninja. Odin's grandfather is a pirate as well. He vanquishes Ninja, forcing his awakened form. Ninja kills the grandfather but is shocked to find that he returns without a scratch. That is because he is possessed by an evil time travelling spirit that is the true mastermind behind the events in the story. Ninja kills the grandfather again but jumps into the time vortex before he can come back.

The final battle takes place in the time stream between the Evil Spirit and Ninja, who is now armed with the spear of destiny, his reunited soul, and the combined powers that the souls of his entire bloodline has lent him. The souls of his entire timeline of the house of Olympus - all of his forefathers and future descendants - converge into him to grant him the ultimate power of Olympus, making him into Odin the True God King. Unlike the previous Odin, whose armor was dark, this Odin's armor is white as heaven.

Whoever is defeated will be erased from not just every timeline that has ever existed, but also from every parallel reality branching from this convergence point.

The final decisive battle is swordplay and gun action with bullet time, because the evil spirit is able to slow down time. But True Odin is able to anticipate the actions and counter with his own manoeuvres. He defeats the evil spirit, retcons the time stream, and becomes a mythical creation myth to the people of Olympus and to the rest of the Nine Realms, effectively becoming the God that his people had worshipped since the creation of the world.

Most of it was throwing ideas at each other. Then backwards rationalizing why something occurred. My brother had selected Ninja at one point and said You have to fight your clone. 

I thought WTF. But instead of arguing, you just fit that surprise into the story.

I've done similar things in my brother's online role-plays, where my character would Frick his **** up, just because. He'd get mad and say, I didn't plan for that! I had this whole plan and you just ruined it.. lol. When nothing goes according to plan, it leads to very interesting developments that are often better.