How to handle challenges in making games? | Gamedev Dairy #57
Hacks for learning, productivity, having work-life-passion balance and finally game development!
TL;DR
Some things are just not easy to achieve...
The power of boundaries
Recommendations
Status Report
Some things are just not easy to achieve...
Here's an interesting read:
Funfact #1: The origins of Twinsen
twinsenslittlebigadventure.com
Especially one very specific fragment!
Q: ...where does the ponytail (...) come from?
Frédérick: We couldn't draw hair. We had to find a trick.
Didier: It's also because in animation, when the character turned his head, we had what we call the delay, which also amplifies the different gestures of Twinsen. The ponytail is for technique and aesthetics. And then in terms of machine time, it cost almost nothing.
Frédérick: Yes, we also saved money. Polygons were counted back then! (laughs)
The power of boundaries
There are a lot of stories where some teams were unable to achieve something or solve a problem and had to solve it with find a workaround.
Unable to show hair in a video game? Make the character bald!
No budget for cutscenes? Why not use comics instead? (with your company colleagues as the actors, nobody will notice ;-)).
Hardware can't manage commando shootings? Force stealth approach on the gamer!
I think it was Warren Spector who said that one should not make a 3D game if the player never has to look up. No one ever listened, judging by most AAAs ;-) If you look at it from the opposite perspective: if you don't need something, then don't plan to implement it. Or try to find a cheaper solution. Just looking at the above examples should give people enough to know how creative can you get.
Sometimes, I think I could make a better Mass Effect than BioWare, but obviously, I'm unable to do a 3D shooter with voice-over dialogue and stuff. But point is, I don't want to make a better 3D shooter or hire better actors (these are top-notch, to be honest). I want a better dialogue game. In other words, I want to create a Mass Effect visual novel :-) Although I'm not a big fan of visual novels I might build a truce and play some, just to get a grip of the genre. Wouldn't want to be the heretic entering Paradise garden, right? ;-)
Recommendations
A nice making of Papetura, Tomasz Ostafin's paper masterpiece. Played it earlier this year. Although I finished it, I bounced off the riddles. I'm not much of a point&click master ;-) Although the creator did a wonderful job by combining the appeal of Neverhood (a very old point&click made entirely in clay) but did his with paper, and took notes on helping weaker players with minigames, as was in Amanita Design's Machinarium (was not enough for me, but I'm an idiot;-)).
Here's an interesting talk about Public Domain. Did you know that you can make a game starring Tarzan, but you can't name the game Tarzan? :-) Goes for many cultural masterpieces.
And quite an interesting interview with Todd Howard. I enjoyed it even if I don't recall playing a Bethesda game ;-)
Status Report
You're probably wondering how I'm doing with my new productivity method. Well, its benefit is that I don't think about other things, because I plan them as well. It's going... slowly. But forward ;-)