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19 February, 2010 |
Grey Alien Games: 10 tips for getting past “the wall”
pa href=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/?pp_album=mainamp;pp_cat=wallamp;pp_image=wall.jpg title=wallimg src=http://greyaliengames.com/blog/wp-content/photos/thumb_wall.jpg class=pp_image alt=wall width=240 height=180 //aemPhoto by: viZZZual.com (licensed under Creative Commons)br /
/embr /
Quite often I see posts on a href=http://forums.indiegamer.com/Indiegamer/a about people who have nearly finished making their game but then they#8217;ve hit #8220;the wall#8221; and seem to have lost all motivation to continue. Their story is often all too familiar: been making a game for two years, been doing all the work on their own, recently come to the realisation that there is still a ton of stuff to do before it can be released./p
pI#8217;ve hit the wall a few times myself, so here are some tips that might help you to climb over or break through your own wall:/p
p1) strongShould you really be finishing this game anyway?/strong Sometimes you might just be flogging a dead horse. Perhaps the best thing to do is ditch the game and begin work on a new one (or give up making games completely, gasp!). There#8217;s no shame in changing projects when you know that the game won#8217;t be financially viable, or you#8217;ve had a much better idea (providing that you don#8217;t have a #8220;better#8221; idea every week and never finish anything) #8211; you#8217;ll have still learned something e.g. how not to do it and how to make your next game faster and better./p
pI ditched a href=http://www.greyaliengames.com/free.phpIron Fist/a and made my a href=http://www.greyaliengames.com/xmasbonus.phpfirst match-3/a game and it led onto to a fantastic career in casual games./p
p2) strongMake a To Do list of all the remaining tasks and bugs/strong. Don#8217;t forget to include publishing tasks, which can add up to weeks or months#8217; worth of work. Then add time estimates to all those tasks. This way you#8217;ll get a decent idea of how long the game may actually take to complete. You may then decide to cut features and only include the high priority tasks in order to bring the launch date nearer, or you may decide that it#8217;s not worth investing any more of your time in the project./p
pOne good thing about having a prioritised To Do list is that you have a clear path about how to proceed and can get satisfaction from knowing what to do each day and crossing off completed tasks. The game doesn#8217;t feel so massive once it#8217;s split into discrete chunks./p
p3) strongGet the game play tested (privately or publicly)./strong If the play testers think the game sucks, then maybe you should ditch it unless you really believe that you can still make it great without too many changes. If they think it#8217;s great, then hopefully this will motivate you to finish it and make it even better #8211; especially if they keep asking you when it will be ready./p
p4) strongTell everyone a launch date./strong Once you commit to something publicly, you are much more likely to complete it in order to not look like a fool (or a #8220;sayer#8221; but not a #8220;doer#8221;)./p
p5) strongGet some other team members on board/strong who can help finish it and so you can motivate each other (like going for a jog or to the gym with a partner). Of course getting reliable team members is a whole can of worms in itself#8230;/p
p6) strongGet a publisher or portal interested/strong so you know that you have at least one outlet for sales./p
p7) strongVisualise the goal!/strong Remind yourself why you started making the game. Was it just to have fun? If so, and you#8217;ve stopped having fun, then make another game and have fun again, it#8217;s that simple! If it#8217;s to be financially successful, then see the finished game in your mind looking great and selling bucketloads #8211; and figure out the shortest route to get there. /p
p8 ) strongTake a break./strong Maybe totally away from the computer (go and do something healthy). Or maybe by playing games that inspire you to get back to making your own game. Sometimes taking a break allows you to come back to your game with fresh eyes so that you can make better decisions./p
p9) strongMake a mini-game for a few days./strong This may get your creative juices going again so that you can get back to your original game with enhanced vigor. It may even make you realise that you need to ditch your game in order to make a better game./p
pTips 8 and 9 may work for some people, but part of me still thinks that they are procrastination techniques when you should really just #8230; /p
p10) strongFinish it!/strong Professionals are finishers, and hobbyists/wannabes are not #8211; sorry if that sounds harsh but it#8217;s true. Stop messing around, just knuckle down and finish it. It#8217;s not easy, sometimes it#8217;s a real slog, but you just have to push on through and finish it to savor the sweet joy of launching a game. If you want it bad enough, you#8217;ll do it. So, what are you waiting for? Close your browser and get to it!/p
img src=http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/GreyAlienGames/~4/-6ilOh2i_lQ height=1 width=1 /