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Making small games, which is fun in itself

abagames.github.io

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Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#61

Post by greggman7 »

adamrezich wrote: post #51
derefr wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Digital game design lends itself to working "UI down" instead of "data model up" because most of the feel of the game derives from the interface. You're talking about a later stage of the ideation process than I am, I think. You seem to be talking about building a game in an established genre, where you know what kind of medium you'll use, and even what game engine you probably need, and so you can sit down and sta…

to the best of my understanding—but please correct me if I'm mistaken—Miyamoto is not, and never really has been, what we would traditionally call a "game designer"—from what I can tell from reading numerous interviews, both with him and others who worked with him over the years, he's more like a Steve Jobs-type figure. he comes up with a broad interesting idea or set of ideas or even just general vibe, and then it's…

I agree with you.

I watched some students prototype a simple diplomacy type game on paper first, targeted at phones. On paper people got it, talked to each other, negotiated. On the phone, people just stared at their screens, made choices entirely in isolation, no "diplomacy" what-so-ever.

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#62

Post by greggman7 »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #39
felipemnoa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Game Designing and Game Development are two very different things Right on. Took me a while to realize this. Game Design is the blue printing process of a game. Game Development is the actual building of the game. And Game Design is way harder than what I expected.

So hard. As a programmer it’s so much easier to get deep in the tech and push off the ambiguous, frustrating, yet rewarding craft of designing content. I built half the content of a VR game I released a long while back with a friend, and the only thing that got me through it was listening to talks by John Cleese on the topic of creativity. My process could be summed up as: beat my head against a wall, make something…

This is super true. It's why programmers like writing game engines. It's relatively well defined all the parts needed so it feels like you're making lots of progress when in reality you're just re-inventing the wheel and not doing the truly hard part, the actual design and content creation. I'm super guilty of it myself.

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#63

Post by alexpls »

I've been playing around with the Playdate SDK (https://sdk.play.date) over the holidays and it's awesome for small games like the author describes.

Working with a tiny 1-bit screen and ~150MHz CPU puts some serious constraints on what you can do, which I've found to be pretty freeing (less analysis paralysis, more doing...)

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#64

Post by j0hnyl »

alexpls wrote: post #63

I've been playing around with the Playdate SDK ( https://sdk.play.date ) over the holidays and it's awesome for small games like the author describes. Working with a tiny 1-bit screen and ~150MHz CPU puts some serious constraints on what you can do, which I've found to be pretty freeing (less analysis paralysis, more doing...)

first i'm hearing about this platform. how poppular is it? seems so obscure.

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#65

Post by j0hnyl »

redbell wrote: post #50

Another interesting article by the same author is "Joy of small game development" discussed here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37799387 Yesterday, a game made by this author, called 1D pacman, was trending with more than 1,700 points, available here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38845510 For me, this proves that this guy really knows what he is talking about. Kudos!

The pacman game is definitely sticky, it makes me want to try making a "small game"

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#66

Post by hypertele-Xii »

hesdeadjim wrote: post #39
felipemnoa wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Game Designing and Game Development are two very different things Right on. Took me a while to realize this. Game Design is the blue printing process of a game. Game Development is the actual building of the game. And Game Design is way harder than what I expected.

So hard. As a programmer it’s so much easier to get deep in the tech and push off the ambiguous, frustrating, yet rewarding craft of designing content. I built half the content of a VR game I released a long while back with a friend, and the only thing that got me through it was listening to talks by John Cleese on the topic of creativity. My process could be summed up as: beat my head against a wall, make something…

I'm polar opposite - ideas coming out the wazoo, like on average 1 idea per day, after decades of research into game design, but I dread moving into production and programming. Not for lack of experience, as chief of infotech I brought business-grade software projects from whiteboard to screen, but talking to a computer is just tedious. So much plumbing.

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#67

Post by hypertele-Xii »

tarruda wrote: post #16
prakhar897 wrote: post #11

I've learnt that Game Designing and Game Development are two very different things. You need a creative mind to know what mechanics will be tight and grab the audience. Development on the other hand requires ruthless execution. hence imo in the beginning, it's best to recreate existing games with atmost a small twist. This makes sure i'm learning one craft adeptly before moving to the next. Here's a freeboard of a ga…

I want to begin game development as a hobby, but I'm unsure where to start. I did follow through https://learnopengl.com/ a few years ago, and while it was a very interesting experience, I imagine I would need to use an existing engine to be productive. Do you recommend any books and tutorials aimed at experienced programmers with 0 knowledge of game development/design?

I can consult you on that subject if you want to chat.

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#68

Post by sp332 »

j0hnyl wrote: post #64
alexpls wrote: post #63

I've been playing around with the Playdate SDK ( https://sdk.play.date ) over the holidays and it's awesome for small games like the author describes. Working with a tiny 1-bit screen and ~150MHz CPU puts some serious constraints on what you can do, which I've found to be pretty freeing (less analysis paralysis, more doing...)

first i'm hearing about this platform. how poppular is it? seems so obscure.

They sold over 50,000 of them in the first year (by May 2023). Maybe we'll get another sales update this year.

Re: Making small games, which is fun in itself

#69

Post by meheleventyone »

ugh123 wrote: post #56
bcrosby95 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In professional game creation (trying to avoid the two "D" words you used here) the two are intertwined. You need to iterate on design, and to do that you need to develop. Basically no professional game comes out as it was originally envisioned, and oftentimes a nearly complete version is tossed out because it just sucks too much.

In a more "traditional" software team or even medium sized studio, I think the two are a bit more specialized with individuals focusing on each, still with some influence on the other i'm sure.

They are but you’re still working together to make the same thing so the process is intertwined. This is also why you have several specializations for example gameplay engineer or technical designer on larger teams that bridge the gap.
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