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How I tried to get into game development and failed

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Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#121

Post by ehnto »

humanrebar wrote: post #61
bane wrote: post #56

Something lots of people in the tech community get really hung up on is focusing on tech and technique rather than what the technology is doing for the user. There are writeups on here fairly frequently that talk about successful companies being successful despite their product being built on barrels of spaghetti code. This is because those companies are focusing on accomplishing something for the user, not trying to…

> ...anything else is distraction Is it? I was under the impression that many game shops do several releases based on the same code. It seems it would be valuable to limit the incremental cost for extra episodes, DLC, Madden YYYY+1, etc.

You should check out the rather prolific and open development of Star Citizen. They are building in what I would considered a great compromise between feature focus and long term technical investment.

Some context to why they need to have strong systems in place is that they intend to deliver new content continously into the same platform/engine/world over the course of at least a few years.

So their focus is on fast and efficient asset pipelines and the ability to scale, and to that end they have built some very cool technology, but never without a direct purpose that aligns with those goals.

It is a great example of pragmatic development. They didn't do network optimization until they had to, they didn't use microservices until it made sense, and then only where it made sense, they have made some nifty tools but only to solve problems that had actually manifested.

Not without their failures of course, but we get to learn from those even more so.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#122

Post by hyperpallium »

hyperpallium wrote: post #93
WalterBright wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was unexpectedly successful in the gaming business (Empire). All I did was make the game I wanted to play, but couldn't find.

"Scratch your own itch"; if you like it, maybe others will too; instant user feedback

Wrinkle: "scratch your own itch" make the game you want to play (not the game you want to make)

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#123

Post by 0xBA5ED »

WalterBright wrote: post #115
hyperpallium wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Scratch your own itch"; if you like it, maybe others will too; instant user feedback

I read about Carmack/Romero making Doom, and they also made the game they wanted to play.

Best way to go. It's hard to make something great unless you're personally invested imo. Although, Carmack can do about anything he sets his mind to. Love that guy.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#124

Post by chii »

endemic wrote: post #57
disease wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your first point is the one that matters the most. The primary thing you should be thinking about here is "how compelling is this going to be to the intended audience?" If you can get to the point where you can hammer out a game in a weekend, which isn't that difficult, I'd suggest building a simple game that showcases the concept that you find compelling and submit it a game jam like Ludum Dare. You're going…

I think a great example of this is Derek Yu's "Spelunky." He made a quick 'n dirty freeware version, which turned out to be massively popular, then remade a polished commercial version. It was easier for him to pitch the publisher since there was already a working, popular prototype.

>quick 'n dirty freeware version

the freeware version wasn't "quick 'n dirty" at all - he spent a lot of time doing it (and tweaking/fiddling the random generation).

Ditto with another game that may have been seen as a "quick 'n dirty" prototype - super meat boy (the flash version). These games had lots of time and effort spent polishing the mechanics/controls.

That's not to say one shouldn't do quick 'n dirty prototypes, but don't put your own prototypes up against those above, and say it sucks - coz you probably didn't put as much time or effort in it as them!

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#125

Post by chii »

ehnto wrote: post #121
humanrebar wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...anything else is distraction Is it? I was under the impression that many game shops do several releases based on the same code. It seems it would be valuable to limit the incremental cost for extra episodes, DLC, Madden YYYY+1, etc.

You should check out the rather prolific and open development of Star Citizen. They are building in what I would considered a great compromise between feature focus and long term technical investment. Some context to why they need to have strong systems in place is that they intend to deliver new content continously into the same platform/engine/world over the course of at least a few years. So their focus is on fast…

and yet after this many years of development, there is still no "game" - just tech demos after tech demos.

At some point, you have to question whether the 'real' game is going to be delivered!

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#126

Post by chii »

freeflight wrote: post #102
swat17 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how could you justify not resolving it prior to release? I'm not objecting to him addressing the lag, I'm objecting to him resolving it first . Until you've built something people want to play, addressing lag (and similar tertiary problems) is solving a hypothetical problem for a hypothetical player. And it may well be wasted effort, if you never nail the core product. But if you approach it from the other directio…

> Until you've built something people want to play, addressing lag (and similar tertiary problems) is solving a hypothetical problem for a hypothetical player. Sadly those are not always hypothetical players. Gamers can be very demanding when it comes to such things as performance and especially network performance in anything related to PvP. Tho, I agree with your premise: Have something that's fun first, then deal…

> Have something that's fun first, then deal with everything around it.

but what if the fun is only apparent if the lag is gone, and the camera movement/framerate is smooth, etc? These are sometimes considered polish, and yet, you can't tell if the game is good or not based on a jittery, laggy version!

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#127

Post by chii »

striking wrote: post #89
jmull wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think you can separate the core mechanic from the lag. If it's a multiplayer game where the internet is the medium of communication, then any gameplay mechanic has to be tolerant of the lag. If it isn't, you don't have a game. Dealing with the lag is part of the MVP, not polish.

Yeah, but you can iterate on the gameplay before solving lag, locally.

this only works if you are testing locally with actual players (sitting locally on the lan). If you/your team is the one doing the testing, you don't get real (player) feedback.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#128

Post by chii »

nevertoolate wrote: post #62
jmull wrote: post #51

I love reading this kind of open, honest postmortem. By the way, I think the people here saying things like, "Oh, he should've just done x, y, and z to solve his problems," are most likely kidding themselves. Developing and releasing decent software is hard. Making a financially successful indie web game is even harder, no matter your process because a substantial parts art and luck which are inherently not predictab…

What have you learnt from the postmortem?

Don't do it like described in the post?

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#129

Post by chii »

nxsynonym wrote: post #54
fragsworth wrote: post #8

The author didn't fail, he just changed direction slightly and is still working on the game. A more apt title: "A story about how I tried to get into game development and didn't finish yet"

or even "A story about how I tried to get my game to go viral and failed". The game exists, and it's playable. Is it perfect? no. Is it making tons of money? no. But it was developed - you only "fail" to get into game development if you stop trying to make improvements/changes/optimizations.

> you only "fail" to get into game development ...

well, it depends on the original goal too. If making the game itself was the goal, then yes. But if making the game successful (e.g., player count, or money) was the goal, then no, you can't say it was a success.

Most game devs who want to make a game probably (at least, secretly) want it to succeed with the latter definition.

Re: How I tried to get into game development and failed

#130

Post by chii »

yaseer wrote: post #7
Shorel wrote: post #3

Please, don't use the term 'an io game'. It really makes no sense.

I had also never heard the phrase, but a quick Google shows that it's part of the lexicon for a community of people.

i can't imagine the confusion of ideas that must have been for those people to have coined this 'io game'...
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