My older games were kind of uh... well I didn't take too much time focusing on every little detail. And thankfully, most of them either didn't make the QC cut, or I decided against submitting them. Can't remember. Anyways, every time I open a project up I notice things that aren't
polished and I end up spending hours on some banal task such as making sure a coin sparkle animation is
perfect.
While perfectionism and wanting games to be polished is good to a certain extent,* I can't let it continue to be an obstacle. For example, the physics for my Mario's Lava Madness
reboot update have been done for months, but every time I open up the GMK... well... refer to the last sentence of the first paragraph of this post.
How do I find a balance? It's really frustrating that I am actually actively working on my fangames on almost a daily basis (except when I'm swamped with college homework
) but I have nothing to show for it.
*I mean if it weren't for perfectionism I wouldn't even be rebooting Mario's Lava Madness. NONE of my games are anywhere near perfect by any means whatsoever, but Mario's Lava Madness is particularly bad compared to my other works. Updating it to something fun and polished will alleviate that feeling that I have of Mario's Lava Madness being a stain to my small, but... and hopefully this isn't egotistical... not-too-horrible submission record. I'm actually going to release this as an update to the game I already submitted to the site in when I was 15 years old, since in the title screen I've included a "Retro 2005 Mode" option where you can play the original game untouched. Oh I should probably update GOSIME too. Last time I tried to update it I actually ended up rebooting it and it would've had to be accepted as a different submission. Once Mario's Lava Madness is done I should just optimize GOSIME's code and squash the glitches. The only reasonable solution I can think of (for this specific case at least) is that once I add the skidding dust animation and a few skins... I'm just going to ignore any other imperfections, release the game and wait for people to notice flaws in the game. Every time like... uh... three flaws are noticed, I'll update the game. Is this a good idea? Oh and
don't even get me started on Mole Mafia.
I'd like to clarify that I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting a game you release to be polished or adequately presentable (or knocking a few points off a game score in a review when a game doesn't look to snazzy) but taking perfectionism too far is obviously a problem. At least, in my opinion it is. Darn, almost went an entire post without the "in my opinion" disclaimer. Maybe next time.
Oh and none of this post is intended as a bash toward reviewers. I like constructive critique; it helps me grow. I'm the one who's taking paranoia of critique a tad too far. But by all means, if I screw up something in a game, don't have any mercy on me.
I want to fix any issue my game releases may have.
Enough about me, I want to get back to the general premise of this thread since I'm sure I'm not the only person with this problem:
What's the balance between polishing your game (or any other creative project!!!) to where you feel it's good enough to call "finished" but you don't get so focused on details that the project is scrapped? What tips might you folks have for stopping yourself from being distracted from bigger picture every time a little tiny detail bothers you?
My older games were kind of uh... well I didn't take too much time focusing on every little detail. And thankfully, most of them either didn't make the QC cut, or I decided against submitting them. Can't remember. Anyways, every time I open a project up I notice things that aren't [url=https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Amfgg.net+polished][b]polished[/b][/url] and I end up spending hours on some banal task such as making sure a coin sparkle animation is [url=http://i.imgur.com/maA3YJA.gif][b]perfect[/b][/url].
While perfectionism and wanting games to be polished is good to a certain extent,* I can't let it continue to be an obstacle. For example, the physics for my Mario's Lava Madness [s]reboot[/s] [color=lightcoral]u[/color][color=gold]p[/color][color=khaki]d[/color][color=lime]a[/color][color=mediumturquoise]t[/color][color=darkorchid]e[/color] have been done for months, but every time I open up the GMK... well... refer to the last sentence of the first paragraph of this post. [b]How do I find a balance?[/b] It's really frustrating that I am actually actively working on my fangames on almost a daily basis (except when I'm swamped with college homework :whoops: ) but I have nothing to show for it.
[size=90][i]*I mean if it weren't for perfectionism I wouldn't even be rebooting Mario's Lava Madness. NONE of my games are anywhere near perfect by any means whatsoever, but Mario's Lava Madness is particularly bad compared to my other works. Updating it to something fun and polished will alleviate that feeling that I have of Mario's Lava Madness being a stain to my small, but... and hopefully this isn't egotistical... not-too-horrible submission record. I'm actually going to release this as an update to the game I already submitted to the site in when I was 15 years old, since in the title screen I've included a "Retro 2005 Mode" option where you can play the original game untouched.[/i][/size] [i][size=70]Oh I should probably update GOSIME too. Last time I tried to update it I actually ended up rebooting it and it would've had to be accepted as a different submission. Once Mario's Lava Madness is done I should just optimize GOSIME's code and squash the glitches.[/size][/i] [img]https://s12.postimg.org/qdmx2s1pp/Colon_V.png[/img]
The only reasonable solution I can think of (for this specific case at least) is that once I add the skidding dust animation and a few skins... I'm just going to ignore any other imperfections, release the game and wait for people to notice flaws in the game. Every time like... uh... three flaws are noticed, I'll update the game. Is this a good idea? Oh and [url=http://pastebin.com/raw/AEbyjMYY][b]don't even get me started on Mole Mafia[/b][/url]. :soveryhappy:
I'd like to clarify that I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting a game you release to be polished or adequately presentable (or knocking a few points off a game score in a review when a game doesn't look to snazzy) but taking perfectionism too far is obviously a problem. At least, in my opinion it is. Darn, almost went an entire post without the "in my opinion" disclaimer. Maybe next time. :biggrin:
Oh and none of this post is intended as a bash toward reviewers. I like constructive critique; it helps me grow. I'm the one who's taking paranoia of critique a tad too far. But by all means, if I screw up something in a game, don't have any mercy on me. :thumbsup: I want to fix any issue my game releases may have.
Enough about me, I want to get back to the general premise of this thread since I'm sure I'm not the only person with this problem:
[b]What's the balance between polishing your game (or any other creative project!!!) to where [i]you feel it's good enough to call "finished" but you don't get so focused on details that the project is scrapped[/i]? What tips might you folks have for stopping yourself from being distracted from bigger picture every time a little tiny detail bothers you?[/b]