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[Bonker]

Long time ago I dreamed about making my own 3D shooter game like Call Of Duty, but in that time I didnt know how to program, neither how to make models, paint them and import them into game engine. I joined a game mod team to gather some knowledge and experience, because devs said that's the best way to learn game development. I saw how it was a sh#tload of work needed, just to create a few playable levels, using supplied objects with game, not even including polishing.Guys spent months just to build and script a few dozens of units, and a lot of time was spent to balance them and it still wasnt good, so really a lot of work invested. It came time when I left team and decided to make own game, but not 3D since I knew I wouldnt complete it till my retirement. I was after something simpler, so I decided to start building my own 2D online shooter game. I drawn and written down some initial ideas and started developing stuff. I realised I'll come nowhere, because I worked full days and progress was just way below expected. I decided to cancel out the idea of the game being online, because this candy complited everything too much and it would took me a lot of time to make game online and even more to make it multiplayer rock solid. I just didnt expect there would be so much problems with online play. It was hard to accept my game being single player only, but hey, playing a good sp game is an experience too! I continued with development, but amount of work to be done was just growing and growing, even if I minimised programing part, and I post poned all unnecessary stuff. It's the art part that is mainly beating me. I decided to make my levels tileable, so I can create a lot of levels with same content, and because I hate tilling, I added a blending layer over, to kill the repetition. This meant no more levels in Machinarium-style but I got on time. I could simplify graphics too, but that is the last thing I'm going to do, who would substitute nice raster graphics with cheap vector cr#p?At this moment I'm at one half done level with nice graphics so you can get "that" feel, but still cheesy sounds and not satifying gameplay.I put a lot of time in it, and game isnt nearly finished, can't believe myself how much of work has to be done to create a "simple" nice to look 2D adventure game with 1hour of gameplay!I just feel like I will never complete it, so here are my questions:

-Did I go after mission impossible?Is it, from realistic perspective,possible to develope a quality mini game by one developer?
-How large teams and how long it does take them, to complete a mini game like I want, if they do?

[fraxcell]

Try reading this: http://makegames.tumblr.com/post/1136623767/finishing-a-game

[moi]

set yourselves deadlines and try to stick by them at all costs, like if you were a soldier.

[imaginationac]

If you're looking to make a one hour adventure game, I'd look into minimizing as much of the grunt work as you can and use an engine like Advenutre Game Studio.

I concur on reading Derek's tumblr post on Finishing a Game.

[shadowdim]

First, creating a whole video game is a job, and most people actually learn and study it. (I do.)

Second, creating a whole video game alone is hard. Creating a whole video game as complete as a commercial game alone, is - or is really close to - impossible.

You're not unrealistic, you're optimistic and motivated, and this is really good. But first things first, try to make some simpler games, or even prototypes, you'll thank yourself later. Of course there are success stories around us, like programmers creating some super-awesome games from nothing...
But we're not one of them, are we? Not yet.

[JamesPopStar]

Reading Derek's advice is my recommendation, too.

Hold on to your ambition, but on that note... don't start to chase it until the conditions are right. It sounds like you should be working on smaller prototypes for now. If it's mission impossible in your mind, you're already setting yourself up to not complete it.

[hareball]

It's tough no doubt about it. The amount of work you need to do can't be understated. When you think you have that figure, you should probably then triple it. And you might get a little way to working out how much work is actually needed.
What really caught me out was the little things. I lost count of the amount of times I said 'Well that's "virtually" finished, I'll just polish it up later', and then when it came time to polishing up, spending more time than I originally did to 'finish' it. It's slow, detail heavy work. But it is very rewarding, just hang in there, keep plugging away and you'll get there.
Perhaps if you bite off manageable sized chunks, you can get a small sense of achievement for completing each one.