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[tri-pancakes]

I've been following some topics here for a while, one of them being "Your Day Job And You, as a Developer" (http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=42207.0), and it resonated within me since I'm currently facing a similar dilemma... I love making games, but currently I'm a Programmer on a non-game related job from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m (for about 6 months). It involves coding new stuff that uses cocos2d-x as a rendering engine - which is kinda good and "transferable" to a future job in games development, but it's still not related directly with games.

During college I did get my hands on some nice learning projects that helped me get started, but after my Master's Thesis project and the start of my programming job, I haven't started any new projects. Half the times I get home at the end of the day, I'm too tired to experiment with anything and just talk with my girlfriend or do light-reading - instead of diving into more work and potential headaches that could stress me even further.

This has been taking a toll on me for the past couple of months, since I know deep down that not doing anything game-related during my free time will kill every opportunity I might have to land a job on games development in the near future. To counter that and keep my games' flame alive, I recently decided to invest in myself during that free time and work on my weakest skills as an indie game developer.

Programming and Music are completely covered and Artwork is a huge pain in the ass for me (kind-of-a-trauma since I was a kid, actually ). Game Design is a topic that really sparks my interest and I believe that it's something that will benefit me: I've been doing some light reading into the topic, and even started decomposing some of my favorite games inside my head.

Now, for the actual questions: one of the books I bought was "Challenges for Game Designers" and I'm happy with it. For those who haven't read it, it comes extremely packed with practical exercises on designing a game under different constraints (e.g. "race to the end", "resource harvesting", etc.). I've attempted to do some of these, but it feels really awkward to come up with a possible design that sometimes doesn't feel quite right, and having no one that does this for a living to critique where the proposed solution is failing.

Can anyone shed some light on this? What were your major obstacles when you started learning Game Design?

(Sorry for the large post, by the way. I needed to get all that depression out of my head with people that understood what it's like to be in a situation like this. )

[woodenrabbit]

This is a really interesting topic that you bring up! And I'm in a similar position as you, where I'm relatively new to game design and trying to get better.

That book you mentioned looks really helpful and I'll probably buy it.

I think I've been experiencing the same feelings of not quite right and awkward in my game design. I'm not sure if these feelings are really a problem or just the natural feelings of a creator wanting to be a perfectionist.

[tri-pancakes]

Oh man, I thought I was alone on this one

Yeah, it's exactly that feeling of awkward and "this doesn't seem quite right". How can you get better at this on your own?

I think it would really help to hear some self-taught game designers on this and share their experiences. I can tell about programming that it's almost like an exact science - there's usually a "most" correct way to get things done and eventually things start to fall on their place, with practice and some small guidance.

[phampire]

As someone who is self taught I think the biggest obstacles for me was sticking to a project. When I first started out I had to learn how to program at the same time. During this period I made a handful of prototypes which I gave up on because I thought they were not very interesting or fun. I came to realise that this sort of approach isn't super helpful, since I would quit an idea before seeing it through.

In short, a fully realised game that is average, or even bad, is better than half formed ideas because you learn and gain so much more from committing and trusting the process. Some ideas might be good on paper but not feasible for your current constraints. For me it was my lack of programming knowledge, for others it might be a lack of time. It also taught me that even the best idea executed poorly will always result in a bad game. On the flip side, an average to solid idea that is polished and refined will more often that not, turn out great. 

Sometimes design decisions have to made with a gut instinct and the only way to know if it was a good idea is to implement it first and get feedback. Take my advice with a grain of salt though since I'm still working on my first game and I'm still learning, which for me, is part of the fun.

[Leon Fook]

It's up to you anyway, some people in here collab with others like artist to make a small project. Alot of project in here several years ago have some poeple collab to make game in their free time, so collab is a good start.

For me though, i make game in my free time, making whatever come to my mind. Making prototype really help, and if programming is your expertise it will go really fast, assuming you know what you gonna make. And for the art, programming art is really something you should learn to accept as part of your skill, then start build up from there.

For your part, i think i can really understand when you say "tired" when you get home, i get those all the time, but then if you want a hobby, something gonna sacrifice.

All in all, prototype. Rapid prototype to be exact. It really help you. Make a game under a week, and focus only on gameplay. And if somehow you find a game that's fun when in idea state and still fun when you prototype it, consider further develop it.

P.S : i still pretty new in making game, although had attempt to make a full game for like 4 year, so i gonna steal phampire's quote:

Take my advice with a grain of salt though since I'm still working on my first game and I'm still learning, which for me, is part of the fun.

[OttselKnight]

Im in a somewhat similar position. I have game programming experience (from small mobile apps to AAA MMO development), and am currently employed as a programmer on a games project (but not a video game one, thus allowing me to work as Indie on the weekends). But I have always had a strong passion for game design itself and have been devoting my free time to it, almost entirely.

On my weekends Im starting to compile a list of tutorials, explanations, step-by-step examples, and articles discussing and showing processes of game design. In doing so I am helping myself learn, and hope to help others at the same time. I hope to be able to compile all of this and make it available by the years end because I love discussing game design with people :D

My advice for studying/learning design
One of the best things Ive found to help hone my thought process towards game design is to not play games for winding down at the end of the day like I used to, or at least separate when I play for fun and when I play for design purposes. If I play for design purposes, I have a notebook with me (I prefer writing to typing for anything creative) and make note of anything I see in the game that I find interesting, unexpected, questionable, brilliant, or stupid. I try to figure out why they made the choice they did, how it complimented the gameplay, how it affected my choice as the player, what I might have done differently in hindsight, etc.

I have notebooks full of these thoughts now that I can go and review, and I often do if Im trying to design a game of similar nature. Its helped me tremendously with my weekend projects!

Take it even further!
If you want to take it a step further create a prototype of the game (paper test if its a programmatically complex game) and change one rule, keeping all others intact, just to see how that affects player decisions. A good example could be Blackjack: What if the dealer didnt have to stop on 17/soft18? What if the player could split any two cards? What if the dealer could split (and how would that work with the betting payouts?).

This will REALLY start to get your creative juices flowing, and you may surprise yourself with what you find. And I love the feeling of being surprised! :D