That feeling of "Something's missing"

[kerbonklin]

Have you ever had this troublesome feeling with one of your projects? Like you're working on your game's plot or systems and start thinking "This doesn't feel good enough, what can make this better?"

This has been a serious roadblock for me recently. I feel like my game's battle system is "incomplete", and I have no idea how or why it is incomplete. I'm trying to aim towards something semi-complex, is it because my ambitions are too high? Or is it something I just haven't thought about or discovered yet that my battles could need?

Discussssss.

 

[KanaX]

When it happens to me, it's usually because I have a need that has not been satisfied yet. And it's mind-numbingly impossible to figure out what. Then, when you do something random it just SNAPS in.

It's not a matter of ambition, I think. People with high-ambitions tend to find the result bad, or immature, not that it's missing something. If you think that the battle system is alright in general, but there is one key component that is missing then it's another story.

I'd suggest you take a break from the development of the battle system for a while and focus on other things, both in real life and the game. It'll probably come to you.

 

[Warpmind]

Suggestion: Pick up some dice or cards and play completely different games for a bit. Tinkering with completely different game mechanics sometimes help by giving your noggin a little nudge from a different perspective.

 

[Archeia]

Have you ever had this troublesome feeling with one of your projects? Like you're working on your game's plot or systems and start thinking "This doesn't feel good enough, what can make this better?"

This is me, all the time D:

I don't know much about your game and  I'm not an expert on this either, but what I'd do is make TONS of Tech Demos that are really simple but have all these base mechanics that appeal to me or related to my game. If something works, then I try to build on it, not making a new game, but just systems. If I like that, then I'll go with it and integrate it to my game in an excel with list of pros and cons as to why it would work on that game. It's important to have a solid discipline on not starting a new project though with all these discoveries. This is like something I just able to do recently (focusing on 2-3 projects, 2 of which are not mine) and it does require some serious mental training, but it's worth it. But as a friend/mentor that told me before, if you shelf an idea and still want to go with it after a week, it's possible that game is something you would want to do in a long run. 

So if you had that feeling, it might be worth going with that game's idea instead.

Oh wait, what was I talking about ;;

 

[Another Ned]

For me, this usually means one of two things (which are quite similar to each other):

1) Something doesn't fit and needs to be cut. If I cut it, (ideally) things begin falling into place.

2) The "core" at my system isn't clearly defined enough. With this I mean what pretty much every other system/mechanic/etc. is built around. This may also work for plot: If I don't know what the story's about, then it gets harder for me to plan and it can get pretty convoluted pretty quickly.

But that's just me. This may not work for every project, and identifying what to cut and what to keep also needs someone to be able to let go of beloved ideas.

 

[Fernyfer775]

For me it's mapping. I am pretty good with RTP and Ace style tiles, but then I go and see someone make this BEAUTIFUL map with all sorts of shadows and shading via parallax mapping and I just die a little on the inside. I definitely do not have the patience to go that detailed on my maps, for I have over 100 maps in my game and yeah, well, it sounds like a nightmare. It's one of those things that I just have to accept...but it will forever be something that gives me that "something's missing" feeling.

 

[kerbonklin]

For me it's mapping. I am pretty good with RTP and Ace style tiles, but then I go and see someone make this BEAUTIFUL map with all sorts of shadows and shading via parallax mapping and I just die a little on the inside. I definitely do not have the patience to go that detailed on my maps, for I have over 100 maps in my game and yeah, well, it sounds like a nightmare. It's one of those things that I just have to accept...but it will forever be something that gives me that "something's missing" feeling.

I would say that's definitely your standards holding you back. Sadly once you see something amazing as a standard, it's hard to settle for any less because you know that kind of grandness is out there. It aches me too sometimes like on MMOs.

 

[Dragnfly]

Yeah, I get this feeling often enough with the plot. It nags me because I think there's holes but when I check for the 50th time there's none. So I've found that taking a break and doing something else for a while usually clears it up as I draw subconscious similarities between whatever you're doing and your project.

For me it's mapping. I am pretty good with RTP and Ace style tiles, but then I go and see someone make this BEAUTIFUL map with all sorts of shadows and shading via parallax mapping and I just die a little on the inside. I definitely do not have the patience to go that detailed on my maps, for I have over 100 maps in my game and yeah, well, it sounds like a nightmare. It's one of those things that I just have to accept...but it will forever be something that gives me that "something's missing" feeling.

I felt this way with some non-RM related stuff when I was younger. I'd be all like "Why can't I DDR like a master? Why can't I combo like an EVO champion?" etc. Then my girlfriend at the time took my hands in hers and looked me in the eyes and said those wonderful words that changed my viewpoint and settled my heart. "People are just better than you at it. They cultured skills you didn't. Now show me how to play Langrisser games because I keep dying." And this is likely the best advice there is for setting your own bar too high. We all need to do what we can do and develop our own greatness. That something missing from our maps (I have to deal with this too) is effort, but it's effort we're not willing to spend and that's a-ok so long we we're still turning out workable, decent stuff. If we want to turn out those amazing maps then we'd better bite the bullet and put in the extra work.