How to scope your game small?
Gamedev Dairy #81
TL;DR
What newbies rarely think of
On scoping small
Recommendations
What newbies rarely think of
I encountered a very interesting article by John Thyer. Regarding starting to make games. It starts… typically…
A lot of people want to make games, but struggle to get started.
and that
complex tool chains like Unity demand a lot from you, and (…) that’s discouraging for new devs.
With the obligatory advice in the beginning start with simpler tools like Ren’Py, Bitsy, or RPG Maker.
But there are a lot of good warnings and advice hidden in the article. Starting with the one path in which banging your head against an engine for 5+ years until you're able to make your dream game. Which gives me a perspective on what I’m doing. Although I’m at level year one (counting years that have already passed) of banging my head against the engine, and definitely will not start with my dream game, nor do I want to master the entire engine at that point. But it gives me a perspective on where am I going, and what challenges and obstacles await me.
On scoping small
John introduced a very interesting and convincing approach to scoping your games small:
Every game makes promises to the player, and then attempts to fulfill those promises. (…) The expectation for many (single-player) games is that it will introduce rules, develop those rules, and then reach an interesting climax. This usually entails stages getting harder and more complex. (…) Every new character, every new mechanic, every new enemy you introduce is a promise. It’s a promise that the game won’t just introduce and then immediately abandon an interesting idea, that the idea will develop and matter to the game’s arc as a whole. (…) The most basic approach is to have fewer moving parts. Fewer mechanics, fewer enemies, fewer assets, fewer characters, fewer stages. It’s easier to introduce and develop three ideas into a satisfying climax than it is ten ideas, or a hundred.
These fragments (because I quoted only the essentials, not to rob you of the entire pleasure of reading that post) blew my mind. It seems obvious, but obviously, I needed to be told that, in these exact words.
It’s a perfect (and long article) for wannabes. I encourage you to read it!
Recommendations
Here’s an artistic view of how learning looks like 😉
Tomas Sala started a devlog for Bulwark
See you next week ;-)
Oh yeah, one more thing: