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[Greg Game Man]

Well, i havent made a game in a long time, despite having lots of free time(and really wanting to)! I just come up with an OK idea, start work, then i realise that it isnt original at all, and someone has done it better, and it doesnt stand out so there isnt any reason to be putting effort into it, and no reason for it to exist.. so then i stop.. dont make anything for a while. and the cycle repeats 

When asking myself, "why" im making a game.. its hard to answer when i feel what im are making, just doesnt stand out, express anything, go in any new direction..


I think a lot of us have creative block and itd be cool if you could let me know your thoughts, insights, any answers.. why you make games? Maybe it can help me, or anyone else..

EDIT- now i think about it, fear of failure is a big point to it..like worrying if your games are popular in your subconcious, or even concious.. especially since my games are flash(sponsored), yet im totally desperate not to let my games be influenced by what might be popular, and just make what i want.. but its very hard because the money thing is always there so its impossible for it to not enter your thought process 

[Pietepiet]

I just come up with an OK idea, start work, then i realise that it isnt original at all, and someone has done it better, and it doesnt stand out so there isnt any reason to be putting effort into it, and no reason for it to exist.. so then i stop

Of course there's reason to be putting effort into it, because with effort you can make it better than what's already out there. Don't think so negative.

[EDIT] As for why I make games the way I do: because I like it. It makes me happy to just produce the things that I think of, regardless of if it's been done before or not.

[Greg Game Man]

I just come up with an OK idea, start work, then i realise that it isnt original at all, and someone has done it better, and it doesnt stand out so there isnt any reason to be putting effort into it, and no reason for it to exist.. so then i stop

Of course there's reason to be putting effort into it, because with effort you can make it better than what's already out there. Don't think so negative.

thats quite interesting because i think that might be your "why" of making games, that you can make them better than the others and thus worthwhile, but im thinking a little differently after reading so much of jonathon blows blog(the man is a definite genius!)..im quoting einstien, once quoted by phil fish:

"Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction"

..like sure i can make a pretty crappy platformer(my coding sucks) or a shump which is pretty fun, and strive to make it better than the competition, but in the end i wont appreciate it because its nothing new, infact its been done a lot before, better than me.. so i feel like not making it, and despreately trying to come up with something simple, new, original.. or a game that expresses something worthwhile..

maybe i need to go back to stage 0, and make a game which is non-profit and takes about 1hr to make.. which is ultimately a really crap game, but at least i will have finished something, and hopefully it can be something kind of original.

ps- pietepiet youre awesome :]

[Captain_404]

maybe i need to go back to stage 0, and make a game which is non-profit and takes about 1hr to make.. which is ultimately a really crap game, but at least i will have finished something, and hopefully it can be something kind of original.

Try this, or something like it, a similar experiment has served me very well.

About a year ago I made a game called Bridgerunner, which, let's be honest, was never destined to be a commercial hit. Instead of focusing on things like making fun gameplay, I spent hours writing quality dialog (depending on your definition of "quality") for the game's characters. The end product is a satire of how I see games today taking out real gameplay and replacing it with what is essentially moving from point A to B (WoW) or any other kind of psuedo-gameplay. I released the game on Nonoba.com, which is a flash site that will allow you to upload games on it for free, then sat back and watched as the internet slowly recoiled in horror.

To my surprise, about half the people who played it actually got it, which was pretty high, considering. The other half though threw such scarring comments at me as from which I shall never recover. Things like, "LOL THIS SUCKKS!" and "DID YOU TRY TO MAKE THE WORSE GAME BECUZ I CUD MAKE A HUNDERD GAMES BETTER THEN THIS!" Those are almost exact quotes mind you (I have, however, lost most of the original comments, but I assure you they were similarly wonderful).


My point is, make something you'll enjoy making and that everyone will hate. Don't put just a single hour in it, put in ten hours, put in ten hundred, pour your soul into the game. When the internet craps all over it, you'll realize that, really, it's just a bunch of misspelled words in caps lock, and as The Bard would say, "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

Perhaps the best cure for fear of failure is to fail completely.

[mirosurabu]

Creative rut for me is when I realize that making that game is not fun anymore. Either because the creative process becomes boring or even frustrating or because the game idea suddenly becomes boring to me.

So far I am doing well with short-term projects (development time less than one week). I have made mid-sized game (3-weeks, 250KB code), though. The creative process was frustrating as hell, but I did manage to get some results. I have no idea how I managed to do that.

It feels weird when you switch from large-scale games to small-time games. If you keep your "large-scale mindset" you'll end up with incomplete games. If you switch to new mindset, you'll suddenly find yourself making bad games or mediocre games, games you might be feeling ashamed of, which I think is natural considering that you are not experienced with small-time projects.

Make some crap. Make some good crap. Learn to appreciate crap. Make some more. This should return a little bit of motivation.

[battlerager]

and someone has done it better

See, that shouldn't bother you.

If you strive for perfection and compare your work with it, you will never get anything done.


If you dont care about perfection and just try to pour as much love into your game as possible, you will get closer and closer to "perfection" automatically.

If an idea doesn't seem special, just keep going, maybe it just hasn't shown it's true face yet.

[Pietepiet]

What I forgot to add in my previous post:

Originality doesn't always come from interesting gameplay ideas. It can also come from the setting in which your game takes place or a graphical style that's unique. I mean, how many sidescrolling shooters or platformers have there been? Thousands, and they're all pretty much the same. But the memorable ones are so memorable because they have characters or a story that stick. Cave Story was, in its gameplay, not very original at all, yet everyone remembers it fondly.

[Alec S.]

One thing to do is rapidly brainstorm a bunch of topics, then look over them in terms of potential. 

How you brainstorm is up to you, but I find it's best to have some random element to provide a spark.  For example I'll use either a random word generator, or use a chart I made along with dice to pick a random theme, genre and setting.  Write down as many of these as you can on note cards or something and then once you're done, look through them.  Some of them are probably going to be ridiculous and impractical and some will be generic, but you'll probably be able to find one that both brings something new to the table and motivates you to build a game around it.  Keep all of these note cards somewhere safe, they may provide inspiration later on.