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Doubt about game development
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Author:  Morrad1991 [ Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:20 am ]
Post subject:  Doubt about game development
Do you ever doubt yourself as a game developer? I'm constantly in a state of thinking my game is total garbage. I dwell on the past level and think to myself "that was a great game" then play the level I'm working on now thinking it's total garbage.

Does anyone else suffer this disease of self doubt on a constant basis? It gets ridiculously tiresome after a while.
Author:  HylianDev [ Tue Sep 19, 2017 9:38 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Yeah I do. And I fear that the farther into game development I get, the worse it will be.

One thought that's comforting to me is that it didn't used to be this way. I guess competition was way lower or something, but 10 or 15 years ago if you made a game on the internet, it could be celebrated even if it wasn't that great objectively.

Combine this with me not understanding why people would play small obscure games in the first place, and my conclusion is that there must be people who can find something worth looking at in my games.
Author:  VinnyVideo [ Tue Sep 19, 2017 5:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
I can relate to that. New games keep raising the bar for quality, and I think it's harder for small-scale, low-budget productions to get noticed. Also, sometimes it seems that the gaming public is quick to judge new games solely based on the graphics used in promotional screenshots and videos without taking the time to evaluate gameplay, plot, or music. In the case of my own indie project, I'm worried that I'll spend dozens or hundreds of hours on it and it'll end up get roasted because people don't like some small aspect of the graphics or a single bit of broken gameplay.

If you're doubting yourself, the best advice I can give is to keep it creative, keep it small, and make things you want to make instead of focusing on what might become "popular".

(This may or may not be good advice.)
Author:  HylianDev [ Wed Sep 20, 2017 9:44 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
VinnyVideo wrote:
If you're doubting yourself, the best advice I can give is to keep it creative, keep it small, and make things you want to make instead of focusing on what might become "popular".

It's like Phil Fish said: start small, then go smaller
Author:  Syaxamaphone [ Wed Sep 20, 2017 1:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
My best advice is to just make what you think would be fun to play. Unless you've got like some really really bad taste, at least someone might get a kick out of your game eventually.
Author:  Kritter [ Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:24 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
As fangaming goes, doubt is what kept my fangames from coming out for so long.

Or why Luigi Quest (my first fangame) was never even released past a demo, despite being lauded at the time for its advanced engine and whatnot. I kept going back and being unhappy with how things felt, how levels were designed and kept iterating and changing things, which meant I'd need to remake all the levels and it ended up just being so exhausting that I stopped making it altogether.

Minigame Mayhem I just kept putting on hold and then I'd come back with fresh ideas for minigames, or new features to add and I couldn't release it until they were done. Sometimes I wish I'd happened upon the idea of an auto-updater years earlier, then I could've gotten it out and added to it as I went along, but such is life. It really wasn't worth the effort making that game.

Still, sometimes having a bit of doubt and going back and adding a new feature or reworking stuff can be what sets your game apart. Most of the time though it can be absolutely crippling to your motivation and the game itself. I can't tell you how many indie games I've started over the last 10 years and not a single one was ever "good enough" for me to keep going with. I still think about them all the time, but I don't have the time or capacity to make the vision I see in my head.
Author:  Merit Celaire [ Mon Sep 25, 2017 9:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Two words: Heck no! The annoying thing is running into brick walls in the concept and design process. But keep consistent and trying because if you've got a concept, there's some way to find the solution to get it executed in the game creation application you're using.
Author:  Morrad1991 [ Tue Sep 26, 2017 3:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Merit Celaire wrote:
Two words: Heck no! The annoying thing is running into brick walls in the concept and design process. But keep consistent and trying because if you've got a concept, there's some way to find the solution to get it executed in the game creation application you're using.

I'm talking about projects that take a long time to make and how you start to not think you're all that great. Happens to most from what I hear.
Author:  Thunder Dragon [ Fri Sep 29, 2017 10:09 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
I don't doubt my game development skills.

However, I have immense doubts that my project will ever take off should it be marketed to a PC gaming audience - kinda the whole reason I scrapped the PC version of Psycutlery. See the multitude of discussions above. I do feel that I could pick up something resembling an audience on Nintendo consoles, small as it may be - however, the real doubt here is when and if Nintendo is willing to sell devkits to a comparative nobody like me. Hah.

The exact future of my project is deeply uncertain, but it will happen someday and in some form. I've been working on concept art and such in the mean time.
Author:  Auction Lemon [ Fri Sep 29, 2017 10:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Thunder Dragon wrote:
kinda the whole reason I scrapped the PC version of Psycutlery.

WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!
Author:  Willsaber [ Thu Oct 05, 2017 1:02 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Thunder Dragon wrote:
kinda the whole reason I scrapped the PC version of Psycutlery.

The best Wii U game in my opinion is Beat Buddy: Tale of the Guardians, but it's not exclusive and I know a lot of people wouldn't have been able to play it if it were only on Wii U. Despite a game being intended for another platform, having a PC release is almost mandatory for accessibility. Even Wii games such as Sonic Generations and Bayonetta eventually got PC ports.

I for one probably wouldn't ever get around to playing Psycutlery if it were a Wii U/Switch exclusive. Even though I own a Wii U, I find it much less convenient to play than simply opening Steam, and I gather that many other gamers feel similarly. I can absolutely understand your assertion that Psycutlery more generally appeals to a Nintendo-playing demographic than the core PC-gaming audience, but I reckon there's a sizeable overlap. I and many others enjoyed Sonic Mania and AM2R on PC. I can confidently assert that plenty of MFGGers--who constitute a large portion of Psycutlery's fanbase--do (not to mention fangamers in general whom I've seen reply to your Twitter timeline).

I was discussing a similar subject in the Super Mario Flashback Discord server the other day, and I came to the conclusion that Nintendo's only meaningful draw to its modern platforms--besides artificially being the only viable means to play official Nintendo games--is that they all have dual-screen functionality, a feature lacking in PC games and most other consoles. From what I've seen of Psycutlery, though, this isn't essential to the game design. It certainly wasn't necessary for Psycho Waluigi or Toadette Strikes, and while I'm sure the idea of Psycutlery could be adapted to a dual-screen system, it surely isn't necessary. Thus, not at least additionally releasing on PC seems like an arbitrary handicap which alienates this game's current following, imo.
Author:  Vimimin [ Thu Oct 05, 2017 2:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Willsaber wrote:
Even Wii games such as Sonic Generations and Bayonetta eventually got PC ports.

Neither Generations nor Bayonetta were on the Wii, and Generations was a PC game to begin with. You're thinking of the Wii U and the correct Sonic game would be Lost World
Author:  CatoNator [ Thu Oct 05, 2017 3:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Only Bayonetta 2 is Wii U exclusive, and it has stayed that way. Bayonetta 1 was also on other last-gen consoles.
Author:  Old Yuanxian [ Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
This is exactly the reason of why I quit game development. I kept feeling that I am not fit for it, and that I should do something else instead. However, I'm getting some plans to resume game development, and I might try to do it right this time.
Author:  Thunder Dragon [ Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:59 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Clarification: A PC port wouldn't be completely ruled out, provided the demand is there.
Author:  Kritter [ Sat Oct 07, 2017 7:18 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
But the market for the PC is bigger, with Steam being a great platform for indie games despite the fact that there's a zillion other games to compete with. Many an indie darling that has launched on consoles found its audience on the PC first and above all else, such as Stardew Valley or Axiom Verge (though it launched on PS4 first, but I daresay found its audience through Steam) or even things like Undertale. PC is an important platform and you can't ignore it, but it also seems like it takes a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time and catching the right eyes with your marketing and hype.
Author:  Morrad1991 [ Tue Oct 17, 2017 1:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Doubt about game development
Glad I'm not the only one suffering. It's a terrible plague but hopefully my drive picks up.
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