Low self-esteem in making a game. What do you do?

[JustAnotherMe]

Do you ever have those times when you think that you're not good enough to create what you want to create?
Well, in this case is, when you try to make a game. I stuck on some progress, and I imagined how much things need to be done, and I lose my confidence. Worse, when I try to compare my work to another work that just seems... gawddddd... I know I must not do this, but it's my habit to compare my work to the other works that are better than mine. And I feel really hopeless... What do you do when it's a time like that? (It's not just me... right?) TAT

[MiSi]

Oh, I'm very much the same, always comparing my work with other's... (damn me! )
But sometimes it helps just to concentrate on the next small step, always keeping in mind, that my game is something special on its own, just like all the others are (more or less ). And there always will be people, who don't like what I'm creating. You can't satisfy everyone. So I think, it's enough to make it a game, which I want to play myself

[Taleweaver]

Do you ever have those times when you think that you're not good enough to create what you want to create?
Well, in this case is, when you try to make a game. I stuck on some progress, and I imagined how much things need to be done, and I lose my confidence. Worse, when I try to compare my work to another work that just seems... gawddddd... I know I must not do this, but it's my habit to compare my work to the other works that are better than mine. And I feel really hopeless... What do you do when it's a time like that? (It's not just me... right?) TAT

Share with others what you have. It puts into perspective your own strengths.

Really, be an artist. Be any _sort_ of artist. Show your stuff to people who are _not_ artists. Get a warm fuzzy feeling, almost instantly.

Also, don't stop comparing your work with that of others. Keep continuing to do so, and never stop telling yourself: "One day, I'm going to be better than that."

[MiSi]

Ha, ha... and of course Taleweaver is right, too (as always? )
(Although I don't want to become better than the others... I want to... well... be better than myself right now )

[fleet]

Make a game that you would want to play. If you don't make the game, nobody will play it. If you feel you need to compare yourself with others, do a peer comparison. By that I mean if you are relatively new to making VNs, don't compare your work to someone who has been doing it for years.
If you are worried about criticism, there will always be someone who doesn't like your work (hell, there are maybe only one or two folks here who have said they like my stuff, most either ignore it or hate it). Someone somewhere will like your work.
When it comes to criticism of your work, only pay attention to constructive criticism. If the critic doesn't offer anything constructive (as in here's how you can make it better), ignore them. They are just posting to see their own words on screen (sort of like me).

[Blue Lemma]

Another big question is WHY you feel that way. If you look at how much needs to be done and are discouraged because you believe it might be more than you can reasonably handle, it might be best to scale down the project. No shame in that

(definitely seen that situation before, so maybe that's why I'm reading into things )

Oh, and no, it's certainly not just you. Just remember: If everyone compared themselves to Roger Federer, no one would ever pick up a tennis racket.

[Weakjounin]

Another big question is WHY you feel that way. If you look at how much needs to be done and are discouraged because you believe it might be more than you can reasonably handle, it might be best to scale down the project. No shame in that

(definitely seen that situation before, so maybe that's why I'm reading into things )

Oh, and no, it's certainly not just you. Just remember: If everyone compared themselves to Roger Federer, no one would ever pick up a tennis racket.

Or people might be looking at things the other way.
When I look at others work, I get discouraged at first. What comes next it the motivation, because other people can do it, I believe I can too if I apply myself. I just need to work harder, and such begins my process of working harder and trying to become better than someone obviously miles ahead of me.
(also there are people who see Roger Federer or other top level people of their field and think, "well I can do better!" and work hard to beat them. This is a good spirit, even if you're bad at something, it's not a reason to give up.)

[Sapphi]

Worse, when I try to compare my work to another work that just seems... gawddddd... I know I must not do this, but it's my habit to compare my work to the other works that are better than mine.

It isn't bad to compare your work to something better. You should always be looking for ways to improve. Just remember that nobody can tell your story the way you can, because you wrote it.

Also, don't feel like you have to get everything right the first time. For writing, just write your first draft without fretting over mistakes or inconsistencies. You can go back and fix them later. For art, simple placeholder sketches will do. Don't worry if they look bad to you; you can always redraw them. What you shouldn't do is get hung up on making one tiny part of the story, or one sprite, absolutely perfect, spending hours on that one tiny piece while neglecting the rest of the work (I speak from experience). It's much easier (and more fun) to give yourself a rough outline first, then look at it after a week's rest and say "Okay, which part should I improve today?"

[Death_HUG]

When I feel like that, I go cry in my little corner... jk xD I usually just touch my project for awhile, and when I'm not touching my project, I usually study on how to make my VN a little bit better *cough*playotherpeople'svn*cough* After that, I'm usually motivated and start doing a bunch of things to my vn... then the cycle repeats xD But sometimes one of my friends will slap me and tell me to work on the vn xD

[Deji]

Ideally, you should always start with something short an manageable, something you look at and say: "Yes, I definitely can handle this!".
If it's something bigger than that, you may want to reduce the scope of your project (aka trim it down and make it smaller and manageable) like Lemma said.

I've found that dividing a bigger project into smaller, manageable chunks helps a lot.
For example, if your story is big, then divide it in chapters (or weeks, or arcs or whatever you feel comfortable with). If your VN will have a lot of sprites and a lot of BGs, then try also dividing those in batches and work one batch at a time.

So, let's say your story has 7 chapters and it needs 10 sprites and 10 backgrounds.
Your very first milestone could be planning the story and defining the characters and locations.
The second milestone could be to write chapter 1 and sketch all the sprites. The third could be write chapter 2 and the first two backgrounds.
Fourth could be finish chapter 3 and the first three sprites and one background.
Ans so on.

You'll feel really accomplished when you reach each milestone and you'll have motivation to do the next because hey, it's something you can do! Even if it's 7 or 10 milestones, you know you can accomplish each of them, so it gets easier (:
Ideally, you'll want to make a build of your game every time you complete a milestone, so you can see it's finally taking shape and feel even more proud for finishing stuff

At least that's how I do it and it's been doing wonders for me ^^;

[Auro-Cyanide]

I agree with Deji, breaking a larger project into smaller, more achievable mini goals is a great way to handle it. Starting with something smaller is also good, but even than it is always good to have goals. If I try thinking about alllllll the stuff I have to do for BCM, I want to cry, so I try to think about smaller things, like getting the sprites done

Also, the feeling that you aren't good enough never goes away, so it is generally something you have to get used to and something you should use to motivate and inspire yourself. As a creative person, you always tend to move the goal posts on yourself. You will never be satisfied fully with where you are. But this is a good thing! It will always drive you to improve and do better, which is what art is all about

[JustAnotherMe]

T-thanks everyoneeee >_< I'm really motivated now to do little by little, even though it might take a long time to finish this, but I WILL finish this!!! (I hope I have more time so I can spend it on this... by not sacrificing my bed time) Well, it's not the best, never be the best in the VN world, but it IS the best for me!! I'll continue to compare mine, but I won't get discouraged because I believe this is mine, my own. I will never be satisfied with my work, but like what you all said, it's not a bad thing.

But, above all, I'm not alone, so I think I can do this. I have you guys whenever I'm feeling depressed over this project (I have no one to support me making this game. Even my bf just 'yeah, yeah' this... but yeah, that's him). So, THANKS GUYS!! I'll do what you suggest!!! >w<

[Zatch]

The best way to do it is by steps I guess. Can't say for myself because I have low self-esteem also. Your worst enemy is yourself and you will battle yourself for the rest of your life.

The way I look at it is that only you can tell your story and not anyone else. Even if your game isn't getting attention then continue you working on it and fight on! Still working on the yuri war.. Where is my fans?

Visual Novels are like pies(not the number people or symbol!) there are so many of them and the ones that are most popular have less pie slices than the others. The other pies are still good(maybe better) and still work trying.. I would take more slices than one slice of my favorite one any day..

[unknown5]

[delete-delete-delete]
urk. ignore me. i'm insane.
(just focus on the good points and move on or something)

[DaFool]

Do you ever have those times when you think that you're not good enough to create what you want to create?

All the time. And then I commission someone and when the work comes back I go "Ah, I see the technique! If only I was more patient and did it this way..."

I imagined how much things need to be done

Don't think about how much work needs to be done. In fact I usually dive headfirst with minimal planning.

Although very recently I encountered a "Game Design Document" for a dating sim game. It proved extremely useful for communicating ideas in larger teams.

Worse, when I try to compare my work to another work that just seems... gawddddd... I know I must not do this, but it's my habit to compare my work to the other works that are better than mine. And I feel really hopeless...

I try to approach at least average quality within the pool. A reason I was not as active as before at releasing stuff was because the average quality has been going up. Have you seen the first-timer games people are releasing nowadays (like Rise and Fall)? Dang. That would have been a major, major release a few years ago.

Also since I'm trying to go commercial, I like to research examples of lower quality, lower budget games in the JVN scene that the creators get away selling (oftentimes as low as 525 yen). So that I can at least meet their level of polish as my minimum standard.

That's why it's important the earlier you can be at finishing something so you can ramp up and become a skilled veteran. There will always be young Mozarts but just keep plugging away and eventually you'll see that your skills have leveled up so anything can be achievable...

...if you had more time (Now, that's actually the greater problem).

I've invested way too much time in this hobby already so I have no choice but to keep up. For others, it will be enough just to be able to finally tell their story in this digital medium without having to pay thousands of dollars for a vanity publisher to create a limited run of your books that won't sell at all. (Then again, I've actually seen a locally published book which is essentially the author printing out articles from her LiveJournal posts. No, seriously.)