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Why Game Developers Should Finish What They Start
Michael writes "Too often, hobbyists and open source programmers take on game projects that they can't hope to finish. Freshmeat is rife with games from developers who have bitten off more than they can chew. So I drafted an article which takes a look at the major roadblocks to successfully completing open source and hobbyist game projects."
There are times when I'm working on my personal project (a game, not surprisingly) that I just stop after getting one feature debugged, and I end up doing anything but work on it for weeks on end.
The way that I get myself back on track is by concentrating only on the code that must get done and then I worry about making it more robust later on. I sometimes find myself worrying about the content. This is A Bad Thing(tm) to do while programming a game engine. It's a lot better just to focus on the code and the functionality first.
Obviously, there are times when I physically am unable to program for various reasons (real life and all that). But, no one said that being an open source game developer was easy.
I'd love to post my game URL here, but I'd rather not have my ISP think there's a DDoS attacking me. It's called Ether though, it's a web-based MMORPG. (there's a very uninformative page for it on SF.net [projectname: ethermmorpg])
As an amateur game developer, I can tell you I've got more half-written games around than I can count :)
:)
The reason why people give up is quite simple.. it's fairly easy to get a 80% complete game, and see what it's like. The last 20% however takes 50x longer to do, is really quite boring, and by that point I've had a new idea for a "greatest project ever!", and have decided to go and write that instead
One problem with games that other programs don't have so much is that most games (with the except of fairly free-form RPGs like nethack) is that most people will only play them once or twice, so if you write a game and release a 70% complete version, then 4 months later release a 80% complete version, very few people will re-download and re-play the new version, which is one reason people find it so hard to motivate themselves to finish them, and not just go and write something else.
Now pardon me while I try to get and think of another great idea for a new game and start to write that one!
Combination - fun iPhone puzzling
The article is about HOW to finish a game, not WHY.
"... they focus on strength areas like plot and storyline"
I have been writing a neverwinter nights modules for what seems like forever and I consider the authors tips, at least in the context of a "community mod", to be pure BS. Writing something good is hard, even on a platform like NWN where the game engine is already written for you and you can focus on the "plot and storyline". Doing it well is hard and takes a lot of work. Anyone who has ever written a large dialog tree for even a single conversation would know this. Think about what a players response to each line might be and write all the reasonable branches. By the time you have reached the grandchild node, it is immense. Oh and if any of these have a plot impact, or you include race or class based differences, it gets even more immense. Even a conversation between two NPCs to advance the plot can have you debugging for hours. A cut scene is a serious hair puller.
Blowing things up is the easy part. Fights are fast and simple to put together. Putting together an immersive environment with properly placed background noise and placeables - as opposed to empty and lifeless areas is difficult. Good, self consistent stories and smooth play are difficult. That is why 95% of the modules on neverwinter vault suck and that is also why my "soundstage" modules still have a toolset to gameplay time ratio of something like 100:1. And that is soundstage where I can keep track of the plot in a notebook becasue I will be DMing them later.
Oh and I periodically stop developing because I have a life; plain and simple. Wife, kids, job, friends, other hobbies. Sometimes I get sick of building and even play for a little while.
So here are my own tips on finishing the project:
1) If you have a spouse or significant other, they are simply a drag on your time and preventing you from delivering. Divorce is in order here. If you are not married, it is less of a hassle to extract yourself from this situation.
2) Kids? Give them up for adoption.
3) Friends. If they are not willing to help out on the project (remember the >1 developer rule), then they are not really your friends. Never speak to them about anything else for the duration of the project.
4) Other hobbies. And desires to do anything else with your free time is indicative of lack of focus. Sell your hot rod/mountain bike/golf clubs/books/whatever.
5) Getting bored with your project and need a break? This is the single biggest factor in not delivering. Oh, you say that you will take a break for a few days, watch that DVD, play, see friends, etc and then come back to work on your game again, but will you? Oh you might in a month or six, but your idea will be stale. REMEMBER - YOU ARE NOT DOING THIS TO HAVE FUN!!! Is the project starting to feel like you are still at work? You are. Now get back to that keyboard.
In defense of good software design, there is something to be said for system components that are not inter-dependent. Good design means there is some hope of debugging the system. Achieving this should not take a "bleary-eyed programmer" all night to do it. If this is the case, your software design phase failed.
Oh, wait, there is no mention of software design in this article...
I keep forgetting that game development is not about producing good software, but about efficiently pipelining your artistic assets. This misconception transcends this little article. For example, Game Developer Magazine is a worthwhile publication, but should really be called Game Artist Magazine.
Happy Penguin's Game of the Month is an effort to fix this sort of problem.
Every month (or two, or three..) they choose a game to work on, and generally the end result is a greatly improved game. Currently they're working on TuxKart, if you view the screenshots of some of the improved models, they're amazing.
Anyone who has an incomplete game that they're no longer working on would do well to at least suggest it to the GOTM people, since they have artists and other people willing to do the type of work that coders hate.
From 92 to 96 I was working on and off on a 3D driving game. At the time, I was driving a truck and the frustration with the barrage of idiots I constantly had to avoid got me thinking, "Wouldn't it be great if I could just run them off the f*cking road" or worse... (yeah, real healthy, I know)
:(
So my idea was to make this driving game where you had to race across country, but that was just the plot for plot sake. (It was about as much plot as Doom had in the readme.txt)
The race didn't matter. It was just an excuse for the different locales. The actual purpose of the game was to race, rob, carjack and maim everybody and anybody you felt like with your vehicles. I thought most drivers could identify with this on some level and the idea at the time was "out there" and sure to make some controversy.
I was working around anywhere between 1000 ~ 2000 hours a year on this. (Depends which years) Every time it got close, a new game would come out and raise the bar. Like an idiot, I'd start all over because I wanted it to be as good as anything out there. Well, seeing the target for this 3D game was originally a 386DX, later 486DX DOS/32, mostly everything had to be done in assembler. (Actually, in hindsight, I probably could have gotten away with a little less optimization) it took forever for it to go anywhere. Just when I'd get the renderer in order and start adding the other elements of the game, a new game would drop and it didn't look so slick anymore.
Anyway, I took a break for almost a year. I decided to finally just finish it and get it done. Thought it would be easier in some ways now that base targets were lot more powerful. Well shortly into it, as I'm coding, I see on the television a story about Carmegeddon and GTA.
F*CK! I gave up right there, my thunder sapped. The first GTA was alright, but what I was envisioning was a lot closer to what the GTA series has become. It's weird looking back at notebooks with drawings of golf carts and cars dodging planes on the runway. (Though some of it would be dated, like the LA segment during the riots)
I've had a PS2 now for over a year and outside of trying a rental or two, there is only one game I own and play. Vice City. Though it's missing a few elements, (Where's the steam roller?), it's pretty much, for me, the ideal game. (Might change my mind after I play Doom3 though)
I try and take it with a grain of salt when I see how fantastic it panned out for them. Though it's hard not to think, if I hard only gotten that second 90% done, if I had just got it out and didn't keep revisioning it.
Oh well
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.