One-man game development expectations?

[grig]

I'm at the cusp of a new creative endeavor in my life.

In my head is a story that I'd like to produce and I haven't even chosen the medium.

It could just be a book, but I'm been wondering, if it could be an interactive story instead.

Both books and games take a long time to write. I'm expecting this to be many years in the making, no matter what I choose to use to express my vision.

I have over two decades of programming and multimedia experience. I know Objective-C and iOS dev. I know about basic 3D. I did one of the Unity demo game tutorials in about 3 hours. Other than that, I have no experience with Unity, and therefore I haven't spent the money to try out all the additional tech.

How long do you think it would take one person to produce a simple game? 2 years? 5 years?

Can I acquire most of the assets I need through 3rd party resources or should I expect to have to design every scene and character?

Do many people try this and fail? How crazy of an idea is this?

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction!

Peace
Grig

[Seven]

I would say it depends on a bunch of factors like how long do you plan on making the game (short length, medium length, or full length), how many hours a day you work on it, your skill level with the mediums you use (will you have to go through a learning curve as you make the game?), what you do to shorten the process such as acquiring material from 3rd parties or do you do everything yourself, etc... most well-polished full-length games tend to take a couple years at least and that's with more than one person working on it. But you can look at some MAG entries and they have some pretty well-polished games that were made in a month sometimes by just one person - but they aren't long, they usually take less than 30 minutes to finish. But if they were to times that by 12(a year working on it) they could probably make a game that last 4 or more hours that's pretty professional-looking.

Those who try and fail probably do so because they don't have the patience. Are you a person who gives up easily on projects?

[Ponch]

It can be done by one man. Most of my games are one-man shows. You just have to plan them out carefully and stick to your development schedule. I work on mine anywhere from four to twelve hours a week, depending on how much free time I have, and I manage to get out a decently sized game every other year or so. Dedication is the deciding factor. If you want to make a medium length game that's fun to play, then one person can do it if they just keep chipping away at it.

[kconan]

  Depends on your requirements for the game.  If you have a very specific, exacting vision for your game, well then you may need something more tailored and have to hire artists.  If things are more vague, then you can scour some open source game asset sites like (opengameart) and if you see something you like that would work for you, then contact the author and tell them about your game idea to see if they will let you use their work.  For my experience, which is similar to you in that I'm a better programmer than true "artist", I simply had help in the music and art department and the awesome folks who worked with me only asked for credit.  Still, you will become familiar with a pixel editor and probably have to learn basic animation techniques - which isn't a bad thing at all and can be quite a fun process.

  Oh also, heed the sage advice of the guy above.  He's an AGS Lifetime Achievement Award Winner now dontcha know. 

 

[Radiant]

How long do you think it would take one person to produce a simple game? 2 years? 5 years?

By no means. You can easily do the script for a simple game within a month; in fact we have a recurring contest that requires you to do precisely that. There is also sufficient art available to get you through anything, if you don't want (or aren't able) to draw it yourself.

[Adeel]

As already stated here by above seniors: Patience and Dedication are the two things which you're going to need in order to successfully develop a game (along with tea and/or coffee ). These are the fundamental things I learnt about game making and I try to stick to them. Being a 'man-one-show' myself too, I know how often frustrating it becomes after a while.

Authoring a book and developing a game both have their own charms. Since you've mentioned that you're a programmer, therefore you should go for developing games imho.

It really isn't crazy to have an idea, try and fail. The actual craziness is not even trying and regretting it later.

[Eric]

The big question I'd ask here is...if it can be a novel, then what is gained by turning it into a game? What sorts of meaningful interactions will come in game form that enhance the story you want to tell? To what extent will players contribute to the formation / guiding / telling of the story?

Depending on the nature of the interactions you envision, you might consider doing a hybrid like a visual novel. The ren'py engine seems, though I haven't really used it, to be fairly straightforward as far as programming goes, and the graphics are minimal. Ponch may have used it for something before, I think?

[Dualnames]

Setting your goals, and then deciding how probably it is to persue them, is the way. It's important to set out your goals, this way it'll be easier to know what's holding you from achieving them. If you set no boundaries, then the time you'll spent on the game will prolong. Converting a story into a game is something that can go both ways, usually it doesn't transfer very well, if you lack the game design skill. So to see if you actually have and get to know potential partners for this, I suggest doing a one month challenge. Make a game within a month.

[Andail]

Okay, a few unorganized thoughts here.

It's impossible to say how long it takes to make a game - that's like asking how long it takes to dig a hole. It depends on big a shovel you have, how strong you are, and ultimately how big a hole you want.

Having written both novels and made full length games on my own I don't think the two can be compared - a novel you can always return to when you have the time; you can write a page or two one night when you feel like it, you can easily revise or revert or edit in or out stuff. Even if you just write one page a day, you can get your novel done in a year, and add half a year of editing and polishing and your book is finished. That's a tiny workload.

A game requires you to sit down many hours at a time, because every longer break means you have to spend lots of time finding where the hell you are and what the hell that script actually means and what part of the animation is that sprite really and man did I really leave that walkbehind half finished and what did I really think when scripting that puzzle etc etc. Even the tiniest detail you add or change retroactively can have consequences that aren't clear until you test the game in its entirety. So you test and test and test and everything you fix may hypothetically create a new bug down the line. It's a gargantuan work load.

So I guess I'm going to repeat the popular consensus here - start out small, test the waters. Finish a MAGS. By then you should have an idea of your capacity and pace.

[AprilSkies]

In my first AGS game, Donald Dowell (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/site/games/game/1624/), I spent 1 year. I did almost everything except the story (we were two), testing and music. I did artwork and Scripting. It's a huge and hard work. It took all my free time (when I say all I mean exactly all).

[Ponch]

Ponch may have used it for something before, I think?

Nope. I made my visual novel with AGS. Just had to code up a new GUI and a bit of scripting and it worked just fine. Multiple endings and everything.

[Marygold]

Having written both novels and made full length games on my own I don't think the two can be compared.

I just have to agree with you here. It takes a lot of work to write I novel (depends on the writing style, too, mine is quite messy...), but it is different than making games. I think it can also be a hell-amount of work to do, if you try to convert a novel-lengt story to a game, especially if you make it all alone and you don't have much earlier experience.  I'd start with something tiny. My first game was a platformer with only two levels, and it took me for more than two months... Currently I am working on a short story -based game and I'm making everything myself, excluding music (but of course it took my time to find something with suitable licences, etc.). And I love it, but I hate it too, because it really tests you patience.   

Also, writing some interactive stories myself, I'd advice to really think, if the story needs to be interactive or somehow "extended". If it works better as a normal novel, why not to write one? My some stories do work that way just perfectly fine, but while writing some of them, I just feel how it doesn't fit in that shape, and I have to think about something else. This was what happened  with my short story, for example

[EliasFrost]

I'm currently making a game by myself and it's hard. Really hard. There's no two-way around the fact that making a game by yourself is going to require a lot of time and dedication, as well as learning a thing or two, and long nights of convincing yourself to keep going, despite all the frustration. Some weeks it feels like you do a lot of progress, and some weeks it feels like all you do is running a treadmill. And I'm not even done yet, far from it.

But what I've learned from previous attempts and experiments is that you are required to have a wide pool of skills in order to make everything yourself, I've spent probably 9-10 years learning stuff, not always game related per say, but it comes in handy when making games, such as music and a lot of reading and writing, traditional arts, that sort of thing. It also depends on your scope, are you making everything yourself? Or are you using third-party support (media libraries and the like)? because if you are going to make everything yourself, you basically need to have serious skills in a lot of areas: writing, graphics, programming, math, sound, music, game design, all that jazz because the assets won't create themselves, nor will your game design document and vision.

That said, it's very rewarding. Each month I like to look back on my progress and most of the time I can feel proud over what I've accomplished on my very own in just 30 days. The hardest thing is to not show off, because I like to do that a lot and whenever I've finished a certain part that I'm really proud of I figuratively cuff myself to prevent me from sharing screens of every area of the game. Haha!

EDIT: Also, take breaks!