Questions About Completed Games

[Orgaya]

I'm on the verge of completing my project and submitting it to the "Completed Games" section, but I have a few questions for anyone willing to answer.

1. How complete is "complete", really? How does one know when to quit tweaking, adding stuff, removing stuff, etc.?

2. Does being "complete" prohibit me from adding or changing anything later on?

3. I just spent like five thousand years on this thing. What do I do now?

 

[TheSkullWolf]

Do you want it to be free or sell it? You can always update things, just look at all the games out that still get updates. Are you happy with it?

 

[ChampX]

Time is the enemy of good; perfect is the enemy of done.

Essentially your game is never really complete and can always be improved, but you also want your game done and sent out the door. Deadlines are one way to ensure this happens. You can always add more through patches to fix issues, but the meat of your game is basically done. Once released your main objective will be to take what you learned from this experience to make the next game a better one. See how your players react.

You also haven't made a game if nobody is playing it so it's important to eventually just release it into the wild. If you work on it forever, nobody will ever get the chance to play it.

 

[Orgaya]

...

A part of me wants to sell it, but that's because I've worked very hard on it and I'm broke. But I'm unable to due to using scripts that don't allow for commercial use.

As for if I'm happy with it, this is a good question. I suppose I am. I think as its creator I mostly see it as a big pile of little things that could be improved, which is why I'm questioning where I draw the line. I see people with many games under their belt and wonder how they could leave a project behind to work on the next. But as it stands I get excited at the prospect of anyone experiencing what I've played, so there's that, at least.

...

This is good advice. I know I'm always going to be working on timing and sound placement and the like, and I've designed my game to be easily modifiable (as in I can always add more stuff later), so it's good to know I can continue to work on it despite having its "finished" title. Like Minecraft, I suppose.

I've released several versions of it already, each new release making me wonder why the hell I released the previous version for being as unfinished as it was.

Now I just need to rope in players who are willing to talk about their experience.

 

[TheSkullWolf]

Well, you want to sell it .... ask permission from the script owners and who knows maybe you can work a deal out with them, like they get so much for each copy sold or simply credit, I guess it depends on who made the scripts.... OR remove all items and scripts that can't be commercial and replace with ones that can be. Then have fun selling copies There are many places you can list it. NEXT: Having tons of finished games under your belt isn't always a great thing. (Personally, I fall in love with my characters and story, all I wanna do is expand it lol.) But, a finished game is a finished game and feels good when you reach that point and you'll be ready for the next

 

[TheSkullWolf]

You also haven't made a game if nobody is playing it so it's important to eventually just release it into the wild. If you work on it forever, nobody will ever get the chance to play it.

I love that, you said that perfect So So true....

Edit: I didn't mean to post twice this was suppose to be an edit. Can't figure out how to delete this I know not to post twice, but how do you delete it if you make a mistake ??

 

[Poryg]

Hmmm, these questions look kind of philosophical, but I will try my best to answer them.

1. The game is complete once it is complete, there is no going around that. Complete means story is closed, playthrough is closed, the game is balanced to the poibt where you won't tweak it any further, and bugs are more or less eliminated. There is nothing that will say "The game is complete" apart from you rhough. So basically the game is complete once you think it is complete, unless your players prove you otherwise.
2. Of course not, it is still your game, you can do anything you want. Sometimes the game needs it though, sometimes it is better to leave it and for example make a sequel.
3. If you spent such a long tine on the game, I suggest you call the closest burial service, because after 5000 years you don't have much lifeforce in you. If you don't feel like dying yet though, you can spend another 5000 years on another game for example.

 

[kirbwarrior]

Creators always look at the first thing made as a huge learning experience. And even the biggest game developers continue tweaking their games (Nintendo fixes gamebreaking bugs, Square-Enix rereleases games with better graphics and more solid programming, you mentioned Minecraft and it's continued updating, etc). But then the next game comes along...

Really, the best way to answer "Am I done?" is;
Is the game what I want it to be? If you went out and made (for example) a Dragon Quest Clone with an all animal cast, then see if you succeeded at that.
Is the game playable and beatable? Simple enough. You already know this through beta testing.
Can I release this game if I stopped working on it this second? Chances are, yes (or you just need to finish something really quick) if you think you are close.

Release the game. You might like it. You also might think it's a horrid, bad, "why did I think others would be okay with this existing" piece of work. Think about how many webcomic artists cringe when they look back at page 1. If you enjoy making games, then you already want to make another one and learn from this one.