Advice for game-making

[Bindie]

Hey! I would like advice on how to be efficient making a game.

[ivan]

I'm afraid your question is a bit too general.
Making games is a lot of work.
It's easy to get sidetracked with the code, art, features, etc.
I always advise people to start with something small and playable and build on that.

[micha]

Tom Francis talked about Efficiency for Game Designers on this years GDC.

He mentions something that I call the "most bang for the buck"-technique: Always tackle those issues first that give you the most value per hour of work you put in.

Besides this, my favorite technique for being efficient is: having a partner. Working on a project together with somebody can give you a big boost in motivation. It also gives you confidence, because you can discuss design questions.

[Bindie]

Get the basics down, sounds good. I'm trying to complete my game. I have at least three new ideas, but letting this growing til' it's finished, tough job! But someone gotta do it.

[kikito]

Start small. No, smaller than that.

[SiENcE]

The advices are all good. Learning from others with others is always the best you can do. Participate in a gamejam, better an offline gamejam is the best start. You can learn everything there and most of the time you learn how not todo something.

[Bindie]

Science: Right, sounds cool.

Kikito: Small is good.

Further: What is your experience finishing a game? Huge relief? Satiation?

-- Need to implement dt in my game.

Feels like implementing * dt and still get the right feel will be much work.

[ivan]

Further: What is your experience finishing a game? Huge relief? Satiation?

I would re-phrase that question as 'what is your experience with RELEASING games?'
I never quite felt like any of my games were 'really' finished but sooner or later you have to release it to the public...
Then, for a short period of time you feel great, people are talking about your game so it's exciting.
Slowly, but gradually you realize what your game's weaknesses are and where you went wrong.
With commercial games you'll find out that it's a long-term commitment.
People will not only find bugs, but will expect you as a developer to nourish and grow the game in some way after its release (patches, content, features, sequels, ports).
I'm guilty of this too, but many devs will release a game and then move onto something completely different.
So ya, I would say a successful game is never 'finished', it just evolves - as long as there are people who want to play it.

[Bindie]

Cool. Alright.

You know Ivan, when starting out trying to make a 2D game, I looked for engines, Agen was actually one of them. Fun to see it's developer.

Edit: Lol, I would hire a team if my game was successful. ;D

[ejmr]

Keep notes. Anything you think of prior to, during, and after development: write or type it all down. Even if it just seems like a random, “I’ll never actually do this” kind of idea, write it down. I’ve found it incredibly helpful to keep detailed notes about what I do and what ideas cross my mind. An idea may seem trivial or worthless or irrelevant at the time, but later down the road you might find yourself very glad that you made a note about it. That’s been my experience anyway.