General tips for success!

[HwitVlf]

It thought it might be good to collect some general "tips for success" for aspiring game makers. These are some tips I've read from successful game producers here and on other sites.

Work steadily.
 Serious game making requires momentum. Setting aside time to work on a project regularly (several times a week) should increase the odds of completing the project successfully.

Have realistic goals.
 Everyone would love to make an epic game their first time out, but it requires a huge amount of talent and labor to produce such a masterpiece. Start off with making a small simple game increases the odds of success. You can always move on to an "epic" after you get a few simple games under your belt.

Start with the "hard parts".
People often start making a game by tackling the easiest parts- writing the story or making items/weapons. The hardest part of making a game is usually map/level design and creating entertaining events to fill in gameplay time. It's normal to be more enthusiastic when a project is new, so projects often stall as the newness wears off and they hit the "hard" parts of game-making. If you tackle the hard parts first - make your maps/levels and design entertaining gameplay event layouts, you should have a much easier time efficiently filling in items, story and decorations.

Have a good plan before you start building.
Sketching out map/level designs before you start building can save a lot of wasted effort. Make sure you have enough entertaining gameplay events to spread across and fill your map before you spend time building. 

Don't let perfectionism shackle you.
It's tempting to give in to perfectionism and expend a lot of time/energy trying to make a game exactly as you picture in your mind, but that makes it easy to become burnt out. If your game has a good solid idea behind it, people will enjoy playing it even if it is a "pale shadow" of your perfect vision. Most gameplayers are trained to not even notice minor imperfections. You can always "add frosting" to your game at the end, or better yet,  use your experience to make a sequel that moves closer to your "ideal" vision.

If anyone has more tips, please add!   

[Verdite]

This is great!

Just a quick tip...

Story

Without a story your game will have no backbone. Spending 20 mins one day on a basic story will save you alot of time in the long run. Get the ball rolling with a story and you'l add and subtract from it naturally.

I went without a proper story structure for a long time and my ideas for building models, level design, progression and development was basically a huge unsorted mess. As you write your story, you'l begin to imagine the environment and characters. Sometimes tidbits of imaginative heaven will appear weeks after writing your story that you didnt expect. Get that game backbone! 

[HwitVlf]

Very true Ben. Starting with an good story outline should save loads of design effort and make the final product more focused and higher quality.

On the "sub category" of story writing, I'll relay a couple bits of advice from a published writer I knew once:

Avoid writing in genre clichés.
He defined a cliché as being a plot point that was decided by conventions of the genre rather than the natural desires of the characters in the story. For instance, in fantasy fiction the clichés say elves are archers, dwarves fight with axes and have a Scottish accent, magicians can't wear heavy armor etc. If you want your story to be poignant, let honest human nature guide your characters.

Value your characters' life as much as your own.
Killing off characters to get an emotional response from your audience is an age old but lazy way of trying to inject something meaningful into a story. Having a character that fights to live can be much more poignant than one who gets killed off for a quick "boo hoo" reaction.

[Guyra]

Some very good points here! I like this thread! :)

Here's some more:

Is your game actually fun to play? When you sit there and have thought out how the game will play, or have actually created it to the level of 'playable'(though graphics and the likes might not be anywhere near ready yet), ask yourself: "Is this fun to play?" Because if it's not, people won't bother playing it. The gameplay is incredibly important, and having a great story or nice graphics won't help much if the player finds the gameplay itself boring. So make sure it's not! Fine tune the parts that don't feel quite right, add in more elements if there's too little to actually do, or subtract if there's too much, and add variation.

Get a second opinion! Or several second opinions, for that matter! Feedback from others is invaluable to making a good game! Have someone play test your game and give you feedback. Have them be honest with you. And don't excuse anything that is being criticized! Instead, consider the input you've gotten, and do some changes to the game based on that.

Some hypothetical examples of feedback:
"It was a bit too much of just jumping around." - You need to make the gameplay more interesting somehow! Add in something that actually makes the player want to "just jump around," or change the gameplay so that that's not all you do!
"Uh, didn't that character go into the burning building earlier and die? How come she's still alive?" - You might want to check certain parts of your story to make sure things are logical and clear to the player.
"That thing looks so out of place in this game!" Consistent art style! Very important! Things that looks completely out of place can break player immersion.
"Yeah, I was looking for secrets on this wall here, and now my character's stuck in it!" Whoops, seems like you've got a bug! Get it fixed!

And when you think the game is finished, have it play tested again! And you'll want to have some new testers as well as the old ones, if possible. And though there will always be something to criticize in any game, your game is not finished if there are many things people criticize, or if several testers point out the same thing. Back to work!


And I just want to reiterate one of the things John wrote: Have realistic goals! You won't make the next WoW, Halo, Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, etc. the first time around! Start with something nice and easy, like for example a side scroller or a puzzler. (And trust me, these games can also be quite fun to make!)

[HwitVlf]

Some good stuff there. Making a fun game is probably the hardest part of any game. I don't think a single game can please everyone, but it's definitely needs to be fun to it's target audience. Big-company games seem to try to please everyone a little-bit and end up making games that are just mediocre. That probably sells more copies, but I don't think those games mean as much to players as a game that tries to be "just right" for a specific target audience.

[Guyra]

That is very true. The top titles have generally become rather generic, and I find that to be rather boring. One of the reasons I don't bother playing that many of them. No, I'm more for making the game as fun as possible for a set target audience. It's better to be considered "incredible" by one group than just being considered "good" by everyone, in my opinion.

[Verdite]

I think that most people get drawn in by mystery too so that should be an underlying feature that people dont need to even think about (if its done properly)  i loved KF for its mystery and its rewards for pursuing the mystery naturally.

[Guyra]

Yes, mystery is part of the atmosphere in the KF games, and creating and using the atmosphere in your game correctly is very important. :)

[Holy_Diver]

Here are some corollaries, but first. Rule #1, make the game you (and your group) want to play. It doesn't matter if only you want to play it, if you don't follow this rule your game will be a dud (and finish your game. Do you want to play an unfinished game? I didn't think so. Needless to say, this follows from Rule #1)

Work steadily.

Figure out what your lifestyle is before making a commitment. Have a routine that is economical and not beyond your means, and stick to it. Eliminate distractions.

Have realistic goals.

Know what you are doing before you do something. If you don't know exactly what you are doing, then do more research and preparation. You haven't done enough until you know exactly what you are getting into. That said you still won't know how things are going to end up going. If you are doing things right it will turn out much better than you had anticipated. If you fail to meet your expectations, then you didn't know what you were getting into. Try not to make that mistake twice. Invest more on the front end.

Start with the "hard parts".

This is always good advice. If you find yourself doing this compulsively you will probably be successful most of the time (also as soon as you finish the hardest part move onto the next hardest part, its always downhill)

Have a good plan before you start building.

A plan helps but you don't want to invest too much time into, because most likely you'll throw your plan out the window if you get very far. And if you invest too much into it then you won't be willing to do this when the time comes. Then your plan is an albatross.

Don't let perfectionism shackle you.

In some things perfection is worth striving for. But it depends on if perfection can be defined. For something like programming there really are such things as perfect solutions, if not in performance, at least in terms of input and output. But artistic domains can be really frustrating, and that is really what separates art from other things, its that sense of doubt that can never completely be removed from the equation and more than likely will always be the overwhelming presence in the room.

You can't succumb to that. It's better to compromise, and just keep practicing, keep observing, and know a happy accident when you see one, because most of the time what makes great art is just muddling around until you've accumulated enough happy accidents to take to the bank.

Not everyone is cut out to be an artist. But maybe there are other ways you can help. You don't have to do everything by yourself. This is just good advice that might not help an individual but if everyone were to take it to heart and be receptive to it we could get so much more done day in day out.

If nothing else. Even without help, don't try to do everything yourself. If there are resources, unless you can identify flaws in them, use them. Don't let pride get in the way of progress. Develop a critical eye. See the best in things. And don't shun the good in spite of the bad. What do you know anyway?