What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

A place to discuss things that aren't specific to any one creator or game.
Forum rules
Ren'Py specific questions should be posted in the Ren'Py Questions and Annoucements forum, not here.
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Enchant00
Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:17 am
Contact:

What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#1 Post by Enchant00 »

If there's one thing I struggle with, it's how I should actually progress with my game creation. My personal philosophy is that before you can start with assets creation, you need to have at least a story to work on. This was what I've been doing for some time now, but currently I'm at that point where I think I'm not progressing at all with my game. For me, there is a fine line between writing, programming, music, and art and I find it really difficult to stick to one thing. So I've started a thread so I can get an insight of what you guys usually do when you create your games. I've known people who would start with creating all the art first, leaving the story last and some others who would begin with programming or even the music itself. So my queries are below and I hope you can help a brother out :lol:

1. What part do you usually start with when making your game and WHY?

2. How do you actually stick to accomplishing the above said task?

3. How do you strike a balance between the different aspects of your game

Thank You guys in advance and this will really help me to re-evaluate the way I'm creating my game.

arathron
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2018 11:58 pm
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#2 Post by arathron »

I'm no expert but I would start with what I have less experience first.

I could imagine a cool 3D game in a second, but it would take me more time that what I'm willing to invert to make one.

That is, to save time, I would use what I can easily find/make that would be too dificult to adapt to my game later, and try to inspire the rest of game based on that. What I have more experience adapts to what I have less.

If graphics are hard for me to make, I would start with that. If programming is what takes me more work, I would start with that. And afterwards I just let inspiration and variyng the point of equilibrium (between programming, graphics, story, etc) do the rest.

User avatar
parttimestorier
Veteran
Posts: 429
Joined: Thu Feb 09, 2017 10:29 pm
Completed: No Other Medicine, Well Met By Moonlight, RE:BURN, The Light at the End of the Ocean, Take A Hike!, Wizard School Woes
Projects: Seeds of Dreams
itch: janetitor
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#3 Post by parttimestorier »

Here's a summary of my process! I'm primarily a writer and decently capable of doing my own programming, but I need to get art and music from other people. I'm just working on my third solo project right now, so I'm sure some parts of the process might change as I get more experience, but this is what seems to work for me so far.

Step 0: When I made my first VN, I didn't really think about music until near the end of the game jam I was participating in, and I was scrambling to find good music pretty close to the deadline. So now I'm just kind of always working on making a list of good creative commons or royalty-free music that I might want to use sometime. Often without even thinking of a particular project, I just listen to potentially useful music while doing other things and make a note of the ones I like.

Step 1: When it comes to working on an individual project, I always start with writing. I usually come up with a general outline for the story first and then gradually fill it in, because I find that easier to do than making things up as I go along, and I'm much more confident in my ability to complete writing a story if I have at least a basic idea of all the major events in it.

Step 2: Once I've written a draft of at least a major chunk of the story, I start working on the programming with mostly placeholder assets. I tend to leave a lot of comments and notes about things to improve on later, but I just want to gradually the basic programming work done over a long period of time, because I don't enjoy it nearly as much as writing and I would be really frustrated if I left it until later and had to do a ton at once. While I'm working on this, I'll also look at my music list and start trying out music that might work.

Step 2.5: I might have some friends start to take a look at my writing and/or beta at this point, and get a bit of feedback.

Step 3: Once I've written a full draft of the story and programmed a beta with the placeholder assets, then it's time to commission artists. Now I know exactly what I need because of all the work I've already done, so I won't waste money on assets that turn out to be unnecessary, or end up needing to spend more money later on for something I hadn't thought of earlier.

Step 4: Once I've replaced the placeholders with the real art, I go through my code again, making any little changes that I left notes about along the way, or that I need to suit the new, final assets.

Step 5: Get some more friends to take a look at the almost final product and possibly make more small improvements based on their feedback before release!
ImageImageImage

User avatar
Enchant00
Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:17 am
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#4 Post by Enchant00 »

arathron wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 2:29 pm I'm no expert but I would start with what I have less experience first.

I could imagine a cool 3D game in a second, but it would take me more time...
You do have a good point there. I plan to put some mini games inline with my story and looking at it with your point of view, it might be easier for me to begin with the difficult part of programming then adapting the story afterwards. That means I get to see if what I want is feasible or not.

Thanks, I never really considered it that way :D

User avatar
Enchant00
Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:17 am
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#5 Post by Enchant00 »

parttimestorier wrote: Fri Nov 09, 2018 3:39 pm Here's a summary of my process! I'm primarily a writer and decently capable of doing my own programming, but I need to get art and music from other people....
When it comes to music, that's something I too consider to be later in the development process.
As for writing, it's nice to have a outline to go by. I think the reason I feel inadequate with my game development is because I have qualms that what I'm writing may not be good enough. I spend too much time on writing that I forget the other aspects of my game.

You have very good tips and I think the best course of action for me it to just deal with drafts and polish them later on. As to my insecurities with my writing, maybe I should consider letting others read what I write and gain their thoughts on the matter.

Thanks. Your insite was very helpful XD

User avatar
arty
Regular
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:55 am
Completed: White Monday
Projects: HATE is a 4 Letter Word
Organization: KATHARSIS ART
itch: artys-games
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#6 Post by arty »

I don't know if my perspective really counts because I've only really made one game so far and never finished the other projects I had. But I did finish the latest one (only like three art pieces missing still, so I consider it effectively done) and it was a great learning experience.

1. What part do you usually start with when making your game and WHY?
I basically started out with a bunch of concept art. I'm an artist, so the drawing part is only a matter of my patience, skill, and motivation, not money for me. I think because of this fact, I have very vivid images of what I want my story to look like in mind. I can work off this daydreaming when I actually sit down to write.

I also make sure to decide on an aesthetic and genre. A story/game without an aesthetic tends to be just all over the place in terms of what feels it gives the reader/player. This part is also very important for the art - I need to decide on a style. For example, my game has only greyscale, drawn backgrounds, because that's the style I thought fits the aesthetic of the story I wanted to tell best.

Basically, I need a creative vision. Then, I come up with a plot and decide which characters are involved. I do some brainstorming of random dialogue fragments and sentences I want to include. Some of them will be used, some not. Write down some character blurbs to get a feel for their personality and how they view each other.

The outline I then write is extremely important in my opinion - at least I myself tend to get carried away and lost in random ideas for the plot if I don't give myself a structure of what I want to happen. It's like feature creep, but with the plot. Bad for making a coherent, properly paced plot.

Once I know what I want to write, I start writing - and programming. I made it a habit to write in Ren'Py code already when writing the story! Saves me a step in development and lots of time. I write it up in a Google Doc and once it's all done, copy it into Editra. Only need to fix the indentations and bugs and behold - instant game.

.... and I accidentally just described the whole progress, not just the very first thing. Sorry...

2. How do you actually stick to accomplishing the above said task?
Lots of caffeine. And an inexplicable but intense drive to tell the story. To illustrate: It took me literally a year of finishing my game of 15k words. I had to take long breaks in between because it was emotionally taxing, and life happened too. But I finished it. It wouldn't leave me alone. I think if you're not obsessed with your game, the chances that you'll finish it are small. Or, if you end up finishing it anyway, people will notice you weren't invested. At least in my opinion and experience.

3. How do you strike a balance between the different aspects of your game
I do it all at once. Simultaneously to writing is working on the actual art for the game. At first I just started drawing random sprites I thought I would need - and then realized that's a waste of time. I then changed my approach and only drew stuff I had already written into the story. I made sure to draw whenever I wasn't inspired to write, so I wouldn't have a huge workload left AFTER I'm done writing. Same with the music - I took breaks from writing/drawing to look up and remix music I thought fit the mood of the scene I was currently writing.

Keep in mind that I was doing 98% of the work on the game myself (except for editing), so I had to figure out a way to be as efficient as possible.

Hope my input helps.

Cheers

User avatar
Enchant00
Regular
Posts: 136
Joined: Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:17 am
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#7 Post by Enchant00 »

arty wrote: Sat Nov 24, 2018 7:38 am I don't know if my perspective really counts because I've only really made one game so far and never finished the other projects I had. But I did finish the latest one (only like three art pieces missing still, so I consider it effectively done) and it was a great learning experience...
You completed a game so your insight will be helpful to a guy like me who has yet to finish a single game. It's really nice that your adept when it comes to art and it really is a good starting point for an overall vision of the project. Similarly, I try to imagine the assets that will come to my game and although I can't make anything good for final output, placeholders is the way for me to go!

The reason I'm not progressing so much in my writing is because it's, like you, sometimes emotionally taxing and I just lose heart from time to time. If I am to be determined to finish my game, then I need to keep working on it little by little until eventually it will finish itself.

I should also consider to multi-task and do as many things as possible for my game covering different aspects. That way, I can feel a sense of accomplishment and not so much as the feeling of being lackluster. I come to a part that I just don't feel motivated to work on, then I should consider shifting to something else.

Thank you very much and I appreciate how you gave some of your time to help out someone like me who's just starting out. :lol:

User avatar
arty
Regular
Posts: 120
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2018 11:55 am
Completed: White Monday
Projects: HATE is a 4 Letter Word
Organization: KATHARSIS ART
itch: artys-games
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#8 Post by arty »

I'm glad I could help! :D

Placeholder assets are definitely a good idea, and so is the approach to shift to a different aspect of the game when it feels like you're stuck. I also do that in my non-game writing. I try to progress on the actual story of course, but being forced to always work chronologically is a nightmare for me and my fickle mind.
And like you pointed out - it's little achievements that can be the deciding factor in keeping you going! Absolutely can't be bothered to write today? Well, I can still make progress by looking for music instead, etc. It's not procrastinating if you make progress, right? :D

Good luck with your game and future projects, in any case!

eezergoode
Regular
Posts: 58
Joined: Tue Aug 29, 2006 10:55 am
Contact:

Re: What's Your Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Game?

#9 Post by eezergoode »

Keeping in mind that I haven't actually made and released a game since the days of the Commodore 64, I would have to say that I am currently following the same method and process I used back then... depending on the type of game I was making.

1. What part do you usually start with when making your game and WHY?
For VN/Adventures/RPG type games, which are the three types of games i have experience with, I always start with the story. I actually run through several levels of this. I make a very rough outline, more of a summary really. At this point, I start on character design, and work on finding an artist who can and will provide character assets. Then I move on to a rough outline, laying out the general story branches without too much detail. Then I go back and full in the detail, choice options and results, sometime I use a flowchart, sometimes I don't. But I map it all out. I focus on one branch at a time, making sure to flag all of the incomplete branches so that I don't miss it when I go back to fill in the missing branches. While I am going through this process, as I complete each scene or situation, I am thinking about music (if the game has any) that suits each scene or character. Don't wait too long on this, especially if you are having original music done for your game. At this point, I also am looking for background assets/scenery, and have the character artist start working on any additional work that needs done, such as poses, changes in outfits/clothing, etc (This is actually a new process for me, since what graphics I worked with last time i made a game was 8 bit sprites)

2. How do you actually stick to accomplishing the above said task?
Oddly enough, I've never had a problem staying on task. I don't start a game unless I am passionate enough about it to be driven to complete it. I've only made about 6 games ever, but every one was completed without too much trouble.

3. How do you strike a balance between the different aspects of your game
This will be different for every type of game, and to be honest, it will very from game to game within a genre. But you have to remember that the best looking game in the world will fall flat if it is a story driven type of game with a poor story, so I put pretty much the same amount of focus on every aspect of a game that I think will help improve the game. In a text adventure, for example, I never had to worry about graphics or music, but in an RPG, those might be just as important as story or game mechanics. Just remember, the more you focus on, the longer it will take to make. I usually found people I trusted to share my vision, gave them a rough idea of what I was looking for, and more or less trusted them to deliver. And with one exception, where I had to replace an artist, this worked well for me, leaving me to focus just on story and game mechanics.
Eezergoode - AKA Rabid Penguin
Team Lead

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.
Confucius
Chinese philosopher & reformer (551 BC - 479 BC)

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot]