How Do You Plan For Your Games?

[noeinan]

Hello!

I have been looking into making a game and I want to set some reasonable goals for myself. I am the artist and programmer of my team, so I want to set up a schedule of things to do each day/week etc. and I can continue to make progress at a reasonable rate. So, I was wondering how do you plan your games?

For example, you get a game idea. How do you start planning for this? Do you decide about how many game sprites, CGs, romanceable characters, endings, length of story (in words) etc. before you begin?

What goals do you set for your artists in terms of X amount done in X time? How many words/routes from your writers? Obviously, this will be different depending on the artist/writer but a range estimate would be greatly appreciated!

In addition, when you start a game, what is your first step? Do you like to get some art done first? Or do you program the basic mechanics before you start writing?

Thank you very much for any advice you could give me!

[merdeamour]

For example, you get a game idea. How do you start planning for this? Do you decide about how many game sprites, CGs, romanceable characters, endings, length of story (in words) etc. before you begin?

Well, first of all, I make an outline of the story, with 'chapters' in detail. I plan out what happens in every part of the story. The sprites and the romanceable characters come next. Then, I decide which of the scenes I've planned out I'll make into CGs.

What goals do you set for your artists in terms of X amount done in X time? How many words/routes from your writers? Obviously, this will be different depending on the artist/writer but a range estimate would be greatly appreciated!

I don't set goals for the artists in my team. I set out planning my game with the simple thought that I'm doing this for fun, and not to prove something to myself or anything like that. I love writing, and it's a great honor for me to have artists making my writing become alive through their work.

Hmm, advice? If people are working for you for free, don't expect them to devote a lot of their time to the project. They might have applied to you because they liked your story/art, wanted to contribute in the process of bringing it to life, but it's still an unpaid job. Meaning, it's a good guess that they might not be able to devote as much time as you'd like them to (if you want to get a project done quickly, or if you're a fast artist/writer/programmer yourself). Er, that's all I can say--I'm still relatively new to this xD

[noeinan]

Well, first of all, I make an outline of the story, with 'chapters' in detail. I plan out what happens in every part of the story. The sprites and the romanceable characters come next. Then, I decide which of the scenes I've planned out I'll make into CGs.

I don't set goals for the artists in my team. I set out planning my game with the simple thought that I'm doing this for fun, and not to prove something to myself or anything like that. I love writing, and it's a great honor for me to have artists making my writing become alive through their work.

Hmm, advice? If people are working for you for free, don't expect them to devote a lot of their time to the project. They might have applied to you because they liked your story/art, wanted to contribute in the process of bringing it to life, but it's still an unpaid job. Meaning, it's a good guess that they might not be able to devote as much time as you'd like them to (if you want to get a project done quickly, or if you're a fast artist/writer/programmer yourself). Er, that's all I can say--I'm still relatively new to this xD

Thanks for the response!

I am actually making most of this game by myself, so far the only other person is my husband who will be the writer. I want to set some kind of goals for myself as an artist at least because I want to get all the art done in a reasonable amount of time, so I figured concrete deadlines would help with that.

I'm also not sure how much time is "reasonable" to expect the sprites to take, as I want to make sure I'm working at a good pace and not get into the habit of working super slow. I am doing the game for fun, but at the same time I really want to finish game. (I've done two visual novels already, but they were educational and for a class, so it's not quite the same as making a game that's for the story and fun to play.) I want to make more games after this, too, so I want to develop good habits.

[TrickWithAKnife]

There's been a lot of trial and error, and my methods have changed a lot in the last year.
The methodology may be a bit different as I'm working on an educational game.

So here how it should have worked:

1. Decide the purpose. Make a list of goals.

2. Figure out a story that can achieve as many of the goals as possible but still be entertaining.

3. Figure out my characters. Decide what their purpose is, and whether that purpose could be achieved by an existing character to keep the cast smaller.

4. Work out a timeline for events. Using a real calendar helps a lot, as holidays and such will affect what happens in game.

5. Make a list of short, medium and long-term goals. Breaking goals into small pieces is good for motivation, and makes things more manageable.

6. Actually do it.

I am working solo though, although I've had plenty of help along the way. I have to admit it's refreshing to not worry about what other team members are doing. When things are much further along, I'll recruit others. Testers are also wonderful. There's less pressure compared to team members, but they still help immensely.

A fair chunk of the first 6 months was spent on research, testing and learning new skills. I have a fair idea on what I can and can't do now, and although my time will be very limited for a while, I can achieve a lot more in that time than I could have a year ago.

[ktalkimist]

As a writer, I've always been used to plotting an outline first and foremost. It is important that you have a good structure, and the elements are all there - hooks, twists, climax, etc.

[azureXtwilight]

I... don't plan. All I do at first is decide the storyline and characters and once they are set in stone I start writing, things are flexible to do afterwards. XD

[noeinan]

Hm, so I guess not many people have deadlines such as get X done in X amount of time. That's unfortunate as I wanted to set something like this but am not sure of a good workflow. I guess I'll just try some stuff out and see how it goes.

There's been a lot of trial and error, and my methods have changed a lot in the last year.
The methodology may be a bit different as I'm working on an educational game.

So here how it should have worked:

1. Decide the purpose. Make a list of goals.

2. Figure out a story that can achieve as many of the goals as possible but still be entertaining.

3. Figure out my characters. Decide what their purpose is, and whether that purpose could be achieved by an existing character to keep the cast smaller.

4. Work out a timeline for events. Using a real calendar helps a lot, as holidays and such will affect what happens in game.

5. Make a list of short, medium and long-term goals. Breaking goals into small pieces is good for motivation, and makes things more manageable.

6. Actually do it.

I am working solo though, although I've had plenty of help along the way. I have to admit it's refreshing to not worry about what other team members are doing. When things are much further along, I'll recruit others. Testers are also wonderful. There's less pressure compared to team members, but they still help immensely.

A fair chunk of the first 6 months was spent on research, testing and learning new skills. I have a fair idea on what I can and can't do now, and although my time will be very limited for a while, I can achieve a lot more in that time than I could have a year ago.

What kind of goals do you set? Is it like, I want these game mechanics so I have to make them work? Make a story with this theme? What kind of purposes do you ascribe to your games?

Though I know from other posts that you're making a game to teach Japanese, I'm wondering if 'purpose' might not count towards something made for the story/artistic value? Well, I guess that is a purpose in and of itself. Hrm.

You also plot out the story in exact dates-- I am also in favor of that (detailed backstories for my characters, especially if they will be used for a table top RPG, so that I know exactly where they were at each stage of their life.) But do you plot out your own work schedule like this as well? (Get at least this much done etc.)

[TrickWithAKnife]

I think planning out a work schedule is a great idea, but it's not possible in my case. I'm working 6 days a week, often getting home around 10 or 11pm, and then help as much as I can with our young baby. Family comes first, then work, and finally the VN. It's a labour of love though, and I truly enjoy working on it, but I may not be able to do a lot some days due to simply being too tired to focus.

Regarding goals, I have a massive list of things I'd like to achieve. Some have higher priority than others, and some things will be cut because they are either not so important, not realistic (full voice acting), or not worth the effort involved (teaching the history of various Kanji).

Goals are constantly being adjusted, and will be adjusted more during play testing, and also when arranging art resources.

Major goals are things like teaching the player vital information that I wish I knew when I came to Japan, survival phrases, etc.

Of course there are goals within the story itself too. I don't want to go into too much detail there, as I feel it would spoil it, but I will say that culture shock and personal growth are recurring themes.

Examples of content goals, many of which are optional for players:
Teach Hiragana
Teach Katakana
Teach a small number of vital Kanji
Teach survival phrases
Teach most useful vocabulary
Teach different types of Japanese for different situations (formal, informal, etc)
Teach useful information for people coming to Japan
Teach some cultural information
Provide contrasting views on Japan. Different people have different views, and it's not my place to tell people what to think.
Explain how to use the Tokyo train systems.
Show the difference between male and female Japanese language.
Teach about currency, and give a rough idea on the value of common things.
Teach correct pronunciation.
Show the player some good places to continue their studies outside of my VN.

And the list goes on quite a lot further...

[arachni42]

Hm, so I guess not many people have deadlines such as get X done in X amount of time. That's unfortunate as I wanted to set something like this but am not sure of a good workflow. I guess I'll just try some stuff out and see how it goes.

I think setting goals for yourself is good... the thing that has helped me the most is paying attention to myself and becoming better at estimating how long it will take me to do something. That improves my actual planning and being able to set realistic goals. Definitely important. I've also gotten better at organizing time in general with practice. I do set personal goals/"deadlines."

[curry nochi rice]

Fill up a game design document, a template of which is available at google.

plus i'm going SCRUM my way repeatedly until a tasks gets done. It doesn't really matter which tasks, as long as I complete them. XD
>.<

well as a programmer it all boils down to what framework/methodology your dev-team uses >.<

[Anna]

*looks at her deadline plan taped to the side of her computer* :D...

Anyway, after getting an idea, I make an outline with my team and decide the limits and such (how many characters, settings, genre etc). sometimes we don't set many limits, but we usually do when there's a very short time-frame in which we have to complete the project.

After that we write out the entire story until it's done, and only when it's done do we start on everything else. This is basically because it saves you unnecessary work for the sprites, backgrounds etc. when it turns out something in the story needs to be changed or someone doesn't use certain types of expressions. It makes you work very efficiently.

We always have global planning, but especially a few months before the release deadline (which we set in a period where we can make it for sure) a deadline-planning is made like: 10th of July - X is done, 20th of July - Y is done. I've also got mini-goals for each day, but those are more flexible than these hard deadlines.

[Yomuchan]

Once I get an idea, write everything down.

Then, no matter how stupid or how weird it is, rush right in, all guns blazing and just make the game as I go.

Sometimes, I make weird stuff, other times, VERY weird stuff.

-

But, it's good to brainstorm with pals/team members, and write down finalized ideas and plans. Good luck!

[Lesleigh63]

I've only just started on my visual novel, so my method may not work. At the moment I'm making the backgrounds and writing the script into Renpy up to where the backgrounds come in. I've got one sprite to test if the background and sprites work together. I intend to finish the backgrounds and script and then work on the sprites followed by the CGs. I know it takes me a week to a week and a half to produce a background (so I'm trying to keep to that pace - loooong term project at my rate of making things). At least if I get tired of the art, I can switch to the writing, so I'm pretty much putting some time in every day.