Scrolling Game Development Kit Forum

Three words: Duke Nukem Forever.
Just because you give up on a project now doesn't mean you can't pick it up again later.  Duke Nukem was picked up a few times by different developers over its 12 years in development.

Also Team Fortress 2, which the series itself started from a Quake mod which Valve hired the original developers to make the game in their own engine and called it Team Fortress Classic which then TF2 was beginning development which became one of the more famous vaporware until 2007 when TF2 was made. #wikipediaAllNight

This will happen for every game you develop, you WILL get bored of it. It's just something you will have to deal with and move right along. There are a few things that can help you overcome this:

* Use concept art so you will know exactly how the gameplay and graphic elements to your game will go. This will reduce "down times" because you will know exactly how something should go.

* Show off what you do to others; the internet and real-life friends are the best examples. It will make them excited for what you are doing and you have set yourself a goal to show off your work. And if it's really good, your friends will show it off to other friends and they will show it to their friends. Word of mouth is THE best way of determining exactly how great a game will be (Like Minecraft, for example)

* See if you can get others to help you out. Working by yourself is very boring especially for something as long and tedious as developing games. Working as a team will help out with most of these issues and it may turn out better in a shorter amount of time. Although it may seem more impressive to develop games strictly on your own, working on the same thing for 5 years in a row is a really long time.

* Set goals for yourself. Try to piece together each part of your game one part at a time, do not try to do it all at once. This way, you can focus on keeping a schedule while getting progress done.

* Playtest, playtest, PLAYTEST!!! This is THE most important part of your game. If the graphics are impressive, but the gameplay is flawed, nobody will play it. Not only do you have to play your game yourself, but have others like your friends, family, even those who are not really interested in games, and the internet to help you out with this. This is also the time where you can iron out bugs in your gameplay and get ideas from others. One way to playtest is to let the person play the game and have them figure out how to play without the use of manuals and not telling them how to do ANY levels or puzzles to see what you can do to improve on them.

* MAKE BACKUPS! Almost, if not, all game engines will crash and lose data. Make sure you have regular (daily, even hourly) backups ready in case this happens (one of the reasons that I halted RANAT).

It is hard to develop games using any engine. There will be times where you will be bored of it. You just have to keep at it and in the end it will be all worth it.


With love, hatred and respect,
Joel Green
AKA SmartBoy16

Ah, time zones, yes that's possible.  Did you set the ad on Minnesota timezone?   I'm in Montreal, in the Eastern timezone, so I'm probably an hour earlier.  I look at a timezone map, the states aren't on it, but I guess the timezone changes between Wisconsin and Minnesota?

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-34bdlMbAKo4/TZkxo3wj68I/AAAAAAAAASM/mW-xt6CL8OU/s1600/time-zone-map.jpg

Here's a more detailed map.

With the announcement of the Wii U and it going to HD, this made me think about the fact that all 8th generation systems will be in HD which will be more expensive to produce leaving smaller companies little chance of getting noticed in the home console department. One idea that I have is there should be a least 1 SD console in the market that game companies and consumers can afford. In the 7th generation, the PS2 was still popular enough to do this as well as the Wii wasn't in HD. What do you guys think?

 I guess I can officially call myself the official Nintendo fanboy here.  :crazy:

Personally, I like Unity a lot better than Unreal. Unity can be used for a larger variety of platforms suck as Adventure, RPG, side scroller, FPS, ect. Unreal is best for FPS games (Although it can be for 3rd person). Although it is claimed that Unreal is the most stable engine, Unity has yet to crash on me. It's unfortunate that at my college the demand on how to make FPS games is much higher than other genres which is why Unreal is taught there early.

Word of mouth is the best way of advertising. (Note the success of Minecraft). Try to find some LoK fans and see if they will be able to spread the word.

As for my review, it looks very good. If I didn't have college work and stuff, I'd play it more.