Inanimate, how about the non platform base critters 

Well then that really depends on the type of game you are creating. It's hard to say without know what type of game you have, how long you expect it to be, how many enemies you intend to populate it with etc.

There is a big difference between a 3 level game with 8-10 enemies a level vs. an RPG that you expect to have 10 or more hours of gameplay.

For a generic answer, you can always go the color variation where the color of the enemy suggests a different ability set while using the same models. That way you need a limited number of enemy art, but can easily multiply the enemies as far as gameplay is concerned. As for a number, start small and expand when you get the inspiration to. Perhaps game mechanics will lend itself inspiring you to create each additional enemy.

Perhaps I should be posting something about this on the DB side, but I thought I'd ask here...

Is there somewhere to report broken links/games that downloads are missing?

Example: Machines of Death

The only thing I can say about time limits on offers is, "Today is the last day to send in your dollar!"

If you aren't aware of that phrase, look it up. 

i personally don't like trailer and preview entries, and prefer review entries...

I totally agree. I've always found previews to be an odd thing to write about/hype. Often times things change so much by the time the product is released, it may turn out that your hard work covering the preview only ended up putting out misinformation and incorrect expectations -- but then I guess that's the job of the hype man, just get the buzz going. I just look for a release date and ignore them.

The one time I went against that was while following Spore (for years) which came back to bite me with that same misinformation and incorrect expectations. C'est la vie.

My biggest obstacle at the moment is how I like to take month-long breaks for no reason.

Those can be good. It's the back-to-back-to-back-to... ones that kill you though.

Do you set any deadlines for yourself etc?

My thinking echos a lot of what others have said already, but I'll chime in anyway.

Certainly something that I've learned (and still struggle with) is that networking is very important! You have to get your name out there. In fact, I would encourage you to just come out and mention your completed game. Sure you might feel somewhat ashamed of your current position because you are looking at it from your perspective. Others, myself included, don't see what you've gone through or the position you are in as a flaw of some sort. In fact it might actually get you credibility for getting out there and "doing it" rather than talking about it. People may want to help by reviewing your game and getting a little buzz about it again.

That leads me into my next suggestion. If you were able to sell your game, but it's shelf life has passed, why not release it to the community for the good 'ol "pay what you want" donation route? Sure, you've worked hard on it and lost money on it and may feel like you are cheating yourself if you release it for free. Not giving people an opportunity to purchase it at the price they are willing to pay isn't going to help you at all, so why not? Beyond the money that comes from this pricing change is the fact that people you haven't reached yet are going to pick up your game and play it. Isn't that really the point?

Addressing your current project, I think the path you take really depends on your outlook. You sound pessimistic about it, and as you've said, that's never good. Assume that it's NOT going to work, NOT going to sell and NOT going to be the answer to your dreams -- or even an answer to breaking even. While others have a lot more experience with this topic, if you are looking to really make it as an indy developer I would suggest focusing your time on smaller, quality games that might be able to generate SOME income, but take far less time to develop. Look at this from a business perspective -- since you have to pay bills. What is going to net your the most $/day/week/month spent on development. Sure, you may not want to be a flash game developer for instance, but if you can spit out a quality game in a month and while being able to stay afloat monetarily you are doing more than just getting by. You are getting your brand out there which will only help generate more revenue for future projects.

Also, what about creating spin offs of your current project in order to solve your design issues? That way, the games you create and can hopefully see some revenue from, can also be contributing to the code base for your larger project.

Aside from that, I'd say, based on your comments, get a job. Contract positions if you can. If not, contracts are changeable before signing. You can amend, strike or change whatever you want on a contract before signing. They of course have to accept your changes, but even just talking to an employer may get the "anything you work on belongs to us" clause removed, or perhaps just changed to "anything developed pertaining to the industry of the employer belongs to us". It sounds as though you aren't looking for employment in the entertainment industry, so that could be all you need. Worth looking into!

Good luck!

everything is edible. digestable on the other hand..

EXACTLY!

But as far as bananas go, yes, you can eat brown bananas without an issue. In fact, that's when they are actually ripe and most of the starch is being turned into sugars. That's why, what some people consider rotten bananas are used for the breads and shakes.

Wow, hard to find a way to say "if it doesn't smell bad, you can eat it", appealing to our natural evolution, without opening myself up to a ton of jokes. How about... if it smells bad, don't eat it. 

College.

Not, like, college college, but the imaginary college all development partners online seem to go to that somehow assigns nonstop work on weekdays, weekends, and holidays: "Sorry I haven't done any work on lately, I've been really busy with college.", "I won't be able to do this/that, I've got finals in college.", "I haven't had time to make games since I got into college."

Seriously, people. Man the fuck up.

So... seeing as this topic posed the question, "Your biggest obstacle to create a game?", does that mean you tend to use college as an excuse? 

I'm guessing not, and that instead you believe your obstacles to be other people being lazy. Why not just cut the fat and 'man the fuck up' as you put it and either run with sub par aspects of the game that you feel you are lacking in, or outsource it perhaps?

This isn't intended to be a criticism, simply curious about what's stopping you from continuing.

[And mind you, I'm with you on collaborating with others. While I think I would benefit from it, it's hard to find someone that has the follow through for something that isn't their own brainchild.]

As a new member to the community, I'll also jump into this and get my feet wet.

Looking at the database (for the first time) it would be nice to be able to sort games by the number of reviews it has received. That way, the least reviewed games could get some reviewing love as well.

First Review up.
Monday: Druid Soccer

High-Voltage
Fonts
For the blind

[What makes a boss fight fun and memorable?]

What defines a boss fight?

For me it would be a climax to the increasing intensity of the gameplay.

What makes a boss fight fun and memorable? because really, that's the most important thing, isn't it? Do you actually want to make a boss that's so difficult that certain players get stuck and inevitably give up, and remember as "that boss was a bitch to beat", or... would you rather use all this power at your game-making hands to make a truly unique and satisfying experience?

I would prefer it to be memorable, in the best ways possible. The same types of things aren't going to be memorable to all players. Some will respond to a sinister, difficult boss that pull so punches, giving the satisfaction of taking him down. Others will prefer a surprising;y humorous moment with the boss that makes you laugh unexpectedly. It really varies as to what makes it satisfying based on the game type and the player type - which may or may not be aligned.

1. Do you tend to think of a "boss fight" as something that must be more challenging than everything preceding it?

Simply...Yes. Though that doesn't mean harder to beat. It could mean simply that it challenges you to think different about the game, the enemy, your player, or your tactics. Psycho Mantis from MGS is a good example of this. While he was a 'boss' and it took longer to beat him than a regular minion, it wasn't his durability or damage dealing capabilities that made the encounter interesting. You had to change something about the way you were playing the game.

2. If designing a boss in the past, would you have focused your energies on designing a very difficult (if still somewhat interesting) challenge?

Interesting first, then challenging as above. Change it up. Break up the same 'ol gameplay. Make the game fresh again.

3. ...Whatever your answer, why?

Because I like games to evoke nimbleness in a player. I feel like you can challenge them at the same thing all day, and it will just get boring. Some people feed off of the same things continually increasing in difficulty over and over. For me however, adapting is the challenge and that's where the sense of accomplishment happens.

I'd rather be able to beat a game mentally by recognizing tactics and 'out playing' the game rather than being able to weave my player within one pixel of 10 different objects flying at me.

If you make a game that nobody wants to actually play, isn't that bad design?

That depends on how you want to qualify design. It could be WONDERFULLY designed, but woefully executed for instance. Something like this, if it is indeed what they are going for, could be exactly what it was designed to be (a frustrating waste of time?) and thus, well designed. I would suggest that it also takes it out of the realm of what people consider a game -- that being enjoyable entertainment (even if also frustrating).

Maybe if it was marketed it as a DRM package... Would that make it seem like a better design? 

For me it as been total lack of a time chink large enough to cram a game into. I tend to get completely lost in my projects (wife calls it genius mode) and want to do nothing else. That's great, except for the fact that I have so many other things to do! 

Part of the time problem is the time it takes for me to progress on something. I'm a proficient coder, I can figure it out and get it to work, but I'm not a very experienced coder so I'm still learning as I go.

Additionally, I have nobody that I'm working with. Nobody to 'live up to' as far as putting something out so while my motivations are strong, if I don't get any code written for another week...nobody notices.

Working with someone would, to some extent, solve both the length of time it takes me to put something out and the dedication to get it done.

...and then the storm rolled in and darkness covered the land. A faint voice calls out from the shadows, "Help, I'm blind!" -- okay wait, intro thread. Right.

Hey all. Name is Dastyni, generally go by Blindsight online. Rather shocked it took me so long to find TIGFs considering I have been interested in creating games since before I can remember. Life does seem to find a way to get in the way however so while the passion and the will burns bright, the intent has flickered in the past.

I grew up playing games. Board games, card games, puzzles, anything that could make my nimble mind move. My grandmother started teaching me to cheat at cards when I was 4 -- while I don't remember it, I'm told I got so good at it, I wasn't allowed to play cards until I was 7. Looking back, I guess it's obvious to me I wanted to be a designer, although I didn't know it yet. I found that I didn't enjoy the game itself as much as I enjoyed dissecting the game rules/systems -- including how they could be broken or abused(thanks grandma!  ). That being the case, I was always tweaking game rules, trying to figure out what was 'fun' and why the makers of the game made the rules the way they were.

Games games games... I've played so many. I tend to get really into them for a while -- just long enough to pick their system apart and intellectualize the rational behind the design. Then, once I've noted what I like, and didn't like, what could be better, how and why...I'm over it. Ready for the next.

The games I really remember enjoying are the ones I've played with others. I enjoy the social aspect of playing with people you know and having an ongoing communication/relationship with them. The games we would play were rather inconsequential. Multiplayer gauntlet on the Snes was just as fun as taking turns (or just watching and hanging out) playing Zelda. Street Fighter II (which I spent a lifetime on) or Dragon's Lair - it made little difference so long as I was hanging out with people I enjoyed playing with.

   

I'd say the most influential game for me was good old Omega, an AI/programming based game which I spent endless hours with on the Apple II I usurped from my family growing up. Since then I have been very interested in AI and understood programming fundamentals - even if I didn't know all the syntax of a real language.

I was always the designer trying to get friends who knew how to code to work on projects with me. That never went over well. If they DID decide to work on something with me, it was generally me sitting over their shoulder telling them where they need a variable and why, and basically how to do their job. Many years later, I gave up on getting other people to do my work and taught myself Perl, which I promptly automated my Network operator job with. Since then I've started implementing some of my gaming ideas...slowly, ever so slowly, but have decided that game design is indeed what I want to do and am going for it.

Started with Perl, got hired by VeriSign as a software developer and taught myself C/C++ and did bug fixes in any number of languages. As far as games programming, my largest proof is a turn based, text based, gladiatorial combat sim written in Perl with a cgi client and MySql backend. Wanting to integrate graphics in an easy manner (without having to go the C++ route and writing a game engine) I played around with GameMaker before deciding that it was just too limited a platform for things I wanted to do. I've moved on to Flash which I have found suits my needs for proof of concepts at least.

Within the next 2 years I aim to put together a team and start a small studio indy studio. I look forward to reading more of the posts you guys have up here and hopefully becoming a part of the community.

Get to gaming!