What would you say to first time game creators?

[OokamiKasumi]

On the contrary, if you want anyone to play your game, your art style has to be anime/manga.

Not true At All.
-- NONE of my games are done in the anime style and I have a fairly large playing audience for my games.

What the players are looking for is Pretty art. The anime style in general is quite pretty so it's popular, but any style that's artistically attractive --and goes well with the story it is illustrating-- will work.

Anyway...

My advice:
-- Play to your personal STRENGTHS.

If you're more of an Artist than a writer, keep your Story simple to avoid making plot-holes you can't fix, and use your Artistic skills to ramp up the Emotion, the Atmosphere, and the World around the characters. Don't be afraid to illustrate what you don't have the words to convey. Remember, the average kids' picture book can make a story only 1000 words long into a grand and sweeping epic through illustration alone.

If you're more of a Writer than an artist, keep your Art simple to avoid the sudden need for a CG or a side character you can't get your hands on, and use your Writing skills to narrate the scenes you don't have images for. Don't be afraid to switch to Novel Mode against a simple background for the more complicated action-packed scenes. Remember, the average paperback novel has No Illustrations beyond the book's cover.

Also...
-- Make a working Template game in the size and style that your games tend to be in.

If you hash out all your GUI codes, your LiveComposite code, and your Transition tricks ahead of time you can really speed up game creation by simply copy-pasting the codes you Know will work straight into your games as needed.

[curry nochi rice]

Prepare for WAR!

>Know your enemies.
>Know your targets.
>Know your allies.
>Know both your own, your ally's, and your enemy's assets and liabilities
>Prepare to lose much for little gain. (Like most of the time?)
>It's a long war of attrition, and will be costly. So save up, and pool resources. Also use a strategy.
>ALWAYS GO WITH A WAR-PLAN. NEVER GO YOLO SWAG.
>REMEMBER: WIN BATTLES TO WIN THE WAR.

P.S.
>Use diplomacy if you're in a rough ride with one of your allies.
>Keep your operations sizable and sustainable. You don't want your units spread too thin.

[fioricca]

Something that hasn't been mentioned is network lots. I learnt a lot by connecting with devs and talking to them. Check out devs on Twitter, familiarise yourself with what they're working on, and just stay connected in general through Twitter, Tumblr, etc; devs are more willing to cross-promote and check out works from a dev that they recognise more than devs that make no such effort.