In my mind’s eye is a game I’ve long been wanting to make. After several false starts over a couple of years, I finally started making progress earlier this year. Unfortunately, it has been slow going and, at times, quite arduous. What really gets me is that I’m no slouch at coding. I’ve been doing it for several years now in one form or another. I’ve also got quite a bit of game development research and practice under my belt. Yet, I still haven’t finished the game and have kept hitting one brick wall after another.
It took a while to realize, but the problem is that this isn’t the right game for me to be making now. It’s not a matter of ability, but a matter of experience. It’s a fairly complex game that I have a great many ideas about. Too many, in fact. And although I have reams of design docs, the final product and the path to it are still cloudy. I know what I’d like to have at the end, but I’m not entirley sure of what I need to have at the end. Many of the design decisions are an uncertainty, and I flip-flop as much as a Republican during campaign season. That is having a negative effect on the development process. Thus far, it has been a stop-and-go, trial-and-error thing. That’s no way to develop a game. I could continue on as I am and finish the project eventually, but it’s going to be much longer than I want it to be. I’m not ready.
Once I admitted to myself that I’m not ready to do this game, I started evaluating other ideas I’ve had. But the more I thought, the more frustrated I became. Nothing was standing out as the game to make now. There are some games that I am certain I could make within a 3 or 4 month time frame, since I’ve made similar before. But those aren’t the kind of games I would want to play. My game business isn’t going to be about what has mass appeal, but about what I think are fun games. There are several ideas I have for games I want to make, but they all fall into the same boat as the original project.
Recently, while staring at my whiteboard and mulling over different ideas, I recalled a game idea I’d had a few years back. I had forgotten all about it. One thing separates this particular concept from all of the others I’ve been considering — I can see the final product as clear as day and I know how to get there. There are no doubts, no missing pieces, no feature dilemmas and no conundrums. I know what this game is. I pulled out a notebook and a pen and had several pages of detail fleshed out in no time. This is the right game to make right now.
I know I’m not alone when it comes to starting game projects and never finishing them. They say that the hardest part about developing a computer game is completing it. Once in a while, I look back and wonder if I have wasted my time with all of the research, demos and clones, or if I’ve wasted my money on all of the books and online courses. The answer, of course, is no. It has all been valuable. I’ve learned a lot and I’m confident in my abilities. What took me a long time to learn, though, is how to idenitfy my limitations.
When you set out to create a game, make sure it is within the bounds of your experience as well as your ability. Your ability comes from the knowledge you gain by studying and practicing. It’s what allows you to implement the game. Experience is what guides you along the course of development and helps you to make decisions regarding the final product. If the game you make is beyond the level of your experience, you are just as likely to fail as if it were beyond your ability.
So before you set out to make the next greatest game evah, like Doom 3 but better, make sure it’s the right game at the right time. If it isn’t, make something else first and come back to the Doom 3-killer when you are ready.
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