that's just a sign of bad planning ;)Quote:
And agree 10,000 % with Vengeance: The day that the game has to be finished is always 10x more productive than any other day
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that's just a sign of bad planning ;)Quote:
And agree 10,000 % with Vengeance: The day that the game has to be finished is always 10x more productive than any other day
ah no! it's just that when you absolutely have to find a solution, then you find it. The rest of the time (private stuff) it doesnt matter at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by mentuat
And why put pressure on yourself to finish a personal game. Good grief! I do some test on a personal level with flash, but never gave a damn about gfx and finishing anything. Leave that for work.
Ya, at work I do application work. And theres alot of deadlines. Which is good, you have to keep on track. But with the few games that I've made outside the one for school there weren't any deadlines that I set and they took awhile to make. I usualy have the weekends to work on them and even then its hard. I might try givening myself a deadline and see if it helps.
I hate to say it, but most games I finish are finished because of money. I have a TON of way-cool ideas that are just ideas. Sometimes I luck out and a client wants a game that I happen to have a good idea for, but seriously... I don't think any of my games were created just for the hell of it. They all had either client financing or I worked with partners with the goal of making money off the game.
:-/
At the minute, money is a good one.
One thing i have been doing lately is give yourself a game to make, then set a time to have it done by. For example, i started a new engine last night.. its fairly complex and includes some things i have never done before, so i have given myself a 3 weeks to have a working game and 4 weeks to have a 'polished' game.
Probably won't work for all, it seems to work better with smaller games and smaller time limits aswell.
I also have a log file where i keep track of all the changes, all the bugs and all the features yet to implement, this helps keep a real sense of progression in the project..
Thats why I share my projects, I have friends that make me the pixle art, the illustrarion or my brother the 3D art, that way they put presion on me to finish, I need someone to be asking me "have you finish?"
Some times when I have some one to make the art, we are in middle of something and at that time I am thinking in new ideas and thats bad, I know I need to finish one to start other but, like allways, when I see it works I start thinking in new games and I never finish
So, if is for me I need to look for people to help me with imaginary deadlines like clients, and also if they do the art they are allways asking if I finish
Sharing stuff is a good way .. but my Pixel monkey that made the GFX for C:G and the my Vector monkey that made the GFX for Honeypunch are both to busy to help me out ;o) ..
I agree with most of you when you say that you give up games because of the graphics. I just cant draw in flash. It really annoys me that some people on this site will completly hate a game because of bad graphics.
"It really annoys me that some people on this site will completly hate a game because of bad graphics."
Argh! You're missing the point mate. Screw everyone else, whilst you're making games for fun, you're the target audience.
If you can sit back and play your game when you're finished and enjoy it, that's all that matters, not what some stranger on a board thinks.
It's great people getting off on your games, don't get me wrong, but if they don't, does it make your game any less valid for you ? Exactly :)
Squize.
Dude, you can have NO talent in drawing and still make your games look nice.Quote:
I always stop projects because i suck hard at drawing...
It's all about being resourceful. I can't draw a stick man.
For example, why bother doing hand-drawn animations that almost always look bad (unless you're highly talented), when in Poser or Max you can create mathematically engineered keyframe animation using models.
Those applications can cartoon shade any models you import, so you can achieve a manga effect that looks like you drew it yourself. Then, if you absolutely HAVE to use vectors, and Trace Bitmap isn't suitable for your needs, you could just stick the original bmp on a seperate layer and then trace over it with the vector art tools in Flash.
There's always rotoscoping. Say if you want to make a car skid, why bother trying to draw each frame from your imagination- get on google and look for "car crash.avi" or something. Something'll turn up. Then pause every frame of the avi and copy what you see. Ultimately, you'll end up with something decisively prettier if it's from a real source.
Nothing I produce ever comes from a blank page.
I never said i abandone all projects, I just have a habit of starting "some" that require large amounts of art. Im ok with the small things, i also have a thing about using stuff that isnt mine, i just feal like what i made just dont belong to be if its not all 100% mine, and that is the reason i use google as a last resort...
definitely agree! .....if in the end the game is not good for you, then how can it be good for anyone else?....you have to be first of all, content about it, no matter what anyone else thinks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Squize
plus games are another art form.....so like any kind of art, there will always be people that see things like you, and enjoy it, and others that don't. And that's completely fine. It's what makes things interesting :)
I also keep a good journal of my game dev for a project....I really like that...to document how/why I did something in a notebook, so that months later I can recall what I did easier.
I also heavily comment my code for the same reason.....and I save my project incrementaly based on what features I'm implementing....also keep some notes about that specific version of the file....things I might've fixed/implemented....
I guess that;s my rudimentary setup for version control :) :D
but it helps me a ton...also as motivation.....because I can always look back at my game journal notebook and realize how far I came and that helps pushing me further :)
Maybe thats way I always make simple games and I never try myself in hard codding, because the graphics, I can make graphics for a simple game but if I need to finish a big project I get tired just thinking in the quantity of great graphics I need
I agrre with that of making games for me and I enjoy what I do, but I also know that my game can entertain more people and thats why you always think in put more efford, just to entertain others, even your family and friends and if some client come out well, even better LOL
I normally have no ideas to make a game either. Its really annoying, there should be an inspiration thread on this site. (sorry if there already is one :|)
A very good idea, tidenburg. I really would like to see one. I'd make one myself, but we need someone famous like tonypa or a member of stimunation to do it. Famous people always make the important threads.
scarily quick reply vengence ;)
Inspiration sticky! it'd be well good.
and what do you propose an inspiration thread would contain?
Lol to funny ;P , i'm will make an one and post here later waitQuote:
Originally Posted by X-Tender
Well, SFDT's down while Matt sets up the new server, so I've been camping Flash Kit instead. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by tidenburg
The problem here are the grapghics or the ideas?Quote:
and what do you propose an inspiration thread would contain?
Some times I want to try classics, like a simple "space invaders", what about take a topics like that game and give ideas to make it different, I mean, in my case and talking about maybe sprites that some times for me are the only free resource out there
Maybe give ideas of space invaders combining the game and old sprites, like commando, take the little hero shooting those soldiers, or ghost and goblins shooting zombies and the demon that pass once in a time above the screen, plenty of ideas for and old game
What do you think?
A thread of ideas for just one kind of game