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Creating a good game:
Well I hear a lot of people say it when they see a good game. How do you make a game that is that good? I don't mean games with mean graphics, or amazing audio, im talking about gameplay here. What makes a game good there? So i started looking into the little habits i have developed over the year, im no expert, but I hope it will help some people.
The first good habit is to have a lot of experience in that area. I personally know you cannot make a good game if you have no idea how to code it most of the time. If you dont have the skills to program certain parts of the game, its best to learn to BEFORE you code the game, you could otherwise come to a dead end and not bother to code it. Its even worse if you dont know the theory, because then you have nothing to work with. This is a MUST. Type out theory for every part of the game. Know what your going to code off by heart before you do, i cant stress this enough.
The second good habit to have is to keep a log of your progress. It might sound silly but its a good way to notice your achievements. It shows you that YOU did that, and you did it in this time. It helps you complete projects faster and improve. You may also become more confident as a result because you see what you are actually capable of, right there in front of you.
The third habit which helps, is a combination of the first and second. Before you start, write off a tick list of what needs to be completed. That way as you progress you can see what needs doing, estimate times on it, which will help in giving a good estimation for release dates. It also means you can post logs of how far you are to any fans you may have, which will keep them interested, now this is very important, fans of a game are what keeps it alive most of the time, they boost your confidence, and its just fun to help people like that, whatever they need.
My fourth hint is not to plan bigger than you can do. This is important, if its too big you will simply get bored half way and quit. Its alright having this idea for an amazing game that you just know the world would love, but its no good if you cant finish it, you post a quick demo, get fans and false hope, then end it. This is not good for your publicity and when you finally can make an amazing game you may have no fan base around it.
Another important thing is to NEVER try and do it alone. Its impossible, you need a team, a spriter, another coder, a music man, anything you can get. But you cant just have any team you hardly know, you have to get on with them and trust them, this is a great ingredient for a good game, if you ever feel like giving up they will encourage you not too, lets face it, you dont make lots of graphics like that to be told your coders left you do you?
Listen to criticism and improve... I dont understand why people post their game on a forum, a couple of people reply and say something needs improving, and they go mad, its stupid. You post asking for criticism to improve it, that's the point. Nobody is perfect and nobody will get it right first time, stop thinking you will. Listen to your criticisms and learn from them, its the best way to become better, it can help not only in the game your developing but in future games.
Have fun whilst making the game, this is possibly the most important factor at al. I dont know if you noticed but if a developer doesn't care about the game, its usually boring and rubbish. There is just no fun in it, make the game with a passion, love your game and realise that YOU created it and realise your talents, if you dont do this you will find that no matter how great your games look, the game play will always suck.
There's not much more I can say, happy developing!
