Building The Game: Commitment Issues

So you always wanted to make a video game, but you never knew where to start. You’ve played hundreds of games, and you swear that if you had the chance to make one, you would be the game industry’s best kept secret. Sony and Microsoft would be fighting over you at the conventions, and Nintendo would send you a Wii, just to consider developing for them. Well, for three years, I have been inching along, as fast as the fates will allow me to, and let me tell you, it’s not as dreamy as you think. Developing a game is more like raising a bastard child left on your doorstep who has an acute case of ADHD and severe and absolute disdain for authority. You will most likely spend most of your time reprimanding it because it almost never does what you tell it and it will piss you off so much that you’ll wish that Maury would take it off your hands for a week and send it to boot camp.

Yep, that about sums it up. Except that every once in a while, it will do something amazing, that of course would not impress you if it were anyone else’s project, and you suddenly think, “I know this feeling won’t last, but if this is any telling of what it might eventually become … I’ll stick it out a while longer.”

So I am here, not to tell you or instruct you, but to give you my collective perspective and experiences dealing with developing one, just one, game – and no, its not done yet.

One of the first things that I found when developing a game independently happens immediately when you come up with an idea. In my case, as soon as I would come up with a game idea, I would start bouncing off the walls with excitement that I came up with a cool game. I tell myself. “This is the one I want to make.” But then something terrible happens. You sit down to start to make it and you get bored. First, you start to think about all of the work you'll have to do, like learning to program, learning to create graphics, learning to figure out how to even start. Then, you start to daydream, and in about thirty minutes to one hour, you have thought of a new game, and this one is oh so much better to make. It will be easier to program, it will be more fun, it's got a better plot, the main character is funnier, so on and so forth. Then you get up from your desk thinking, “Yeah, I’ll start first thing tomorrow” and walk away feeling like you achieved something, only you didn't.

Actually, this is a common problem in just about any area of, at least, my life, and I assume that many people have the same problem. Its called commitment, and you can’t get anything done without it, especially, develop the next independent game that will be the buzz around town. Coming up with an idea, or wanting to do something is easy. Its so easy, in fact, that you can think about doing something, blow it off, and still feel like you are at least trying. In the game development area, I found that every idea that I ever come up with has road blocks. There will be a bunch that seem achievable but only through long term application of ones self, but then there is always that one road block that seems like you should turn back immediately. I can’t make an FPS because I can’t make 3D models, I can’t make a casual game because I don’t know how to program, I can’t make Viva Piñata because it's already been created (ok, the last one is a stretch).

My point is that if you really want to make a game, the first thing that you have to do is to resign yourself to the fact that for most of the duration of the time you are creating your Frankenstein, you will inevitably be surrounded by an impending feeling of doom. That’s because you have never done it before, and if your sane, like me, then you have a hard time believing that its going to happen. So, the next time that you get the game designing bug, or any kind of bug, be prepared to accept the costs. Designing is like buying a car - be prepared to pay the price tag, the insurance, the gas, and of course, the maintenance, when your car eventually has a problem.

Latest Headlines: Fight Night Round 4 Rivalries DLC Trailer Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Multiplayer Beta Impressions Napoleon: Total War - Imperial Edition Announced BioWare Hasn't Figured Out Wii Yet World Of Warcraft Offers Free Week To Former Subscribers Riftcore: Browser MMO Promises To Be Hardcore Street Gears Adds Sexy New Skater, Skates And Updates Dawn Of War II: Chaos Rising Release Date Unveiled

blog comments powered by Disqus


Back to Building The Game: Commitment Issues