If you didn’t know already, I’m in the process of developing a videogame. In fact, I’m very close to the end of developing said videogame and it’s brought me to writing this blog post.
I didn’t want to post this on the Skatanic Studios blog because I don’t feel as though it’s relevant there. The blog over there is much better suited for updates and announcements relating to games or current events in the industry and I don’t really want to drown it out with ramblings from myself. So, since I’ve recently revamped this site, I think it’s now a great space to be able to get thoughts and feelings about what I’m working on down from time to time. I’m thinking it’ll basically be a diary of thoughts, feelings and analysis of stuff I’m working on and maybe explaining some lessons that I’ve learned along the way.
As I was saying, I’m at the tail-end of development now and this whole experience for me has been a really strange one. When I started I was finishing off my dissertation, doing visual effects on a film from a friend of mine called The Drift and I was still trying to get work doing promo and get my foot into filmmaking full time. RPG Tycoon came about as a small little hobby project because I hadn’t stretched my programming legs in a while and wanted to play around with a few things, I actually had no intentions really of pursuing it as a full-time thing. It was only off the cuff of a couple of comments from some friends and people online that I jokingly submitted it as a concept to Greenlight thinking “What’s the worst that could happen?” – 9 Days later I was messaging my friend Jack in complete awe, as I stared at a big green banner on the page saying that I’d made it. People wanted this to happen. So, it did.
I didn’t really know anything about game design, or how to program very well really. I’m not a particularly good artist either. Everything I’ve done from the start of this project has been a completely new experience for me, but I’ve loved it, every step of the way. I’m very happy with where the game is at, it’s a lot bigger and completely different to how I’d first imagined it way back then. Considering it’s been the definition of on the job training for me, I’m incredibly proud of how far it’s come and how much I’ve learned – I didn’t even know what a Class was or how it worked when I started on this (yes, I realise how awful that is, now. Hindsight is a wonderful thing), but there’s one major thing, more than any that I’ve tackled with throughout this project when designing the game. Feature Creep.
It’s a familiar concept to most, and something that I’ve faced consistently but often I’ve actually welcomed it into the design process of the game. Using community feedback from the Steam Forums / Reviews and just general design-as-you-go mantra it’s helped improve a huge number of areas of the game. Most of this process has been iterative, I’ve continued to try something out and refine it, over and over again and most of the time it’s worked. There’s a lot of credit in just going with it, it’s lead to some really interesting mechanics and features.
However, no-one wants to work on a project forever, it’s been two years now. I have new ideas and new projects I want to try out. So I made the decision a few months back and put together a rough list of essential features I’d need in place for v1.0 – and for the most part, I remained disciplined and stuck to it. I wanted to finish the game before March.
I’ve completed most of the features in my list at this point, which is great. I’m currently facing that onslaught of feelings that there isn’t enough time, that stopping work at any minute to get rest is a terrible idea because there’s still stuff to be done. I mean, that’s always there, it just seems a lot louder now that I’m so close to a planned launch. I am on target though, and think I’ll be ready to launch on my current date planned. I’m content in the fact I’ll be ready. But here’s the thing. Here’s what I’ve struggled with the most as a designer. What I always do when working on a project.
There’s always something else, something you could change to make better, something you could revamp because adding a new mechanic to it could totally improve it, and up until now that’s been fine and I’ve listened to that part of me. But it never ends, no matter how happy you are with a product, I think just by nature of being a creative person there’s always new ideas, new things you can do or want to try and at some-point you have to draw the line, right? It’s a very difficult thing to do, it’s a tricky balance of where and when to channel that energy. I don’t want to let people down, I don’t want the game to be bad, I don’t think that it is bad, I want it to be enjoyable and I want it to be the best that it can be but I don’t think consistent tinkering is the way forward and I don’t want to spend another twelve months working on something, when it’s already enjoyable and perhaps it’s best to learn from what I’ve just made and use that time to make the next thing better instead?
As I’ve always said, you’re only as good as your next project.