Creating a game

[KillerKlown]

Hi! I thought it would be interesting to know how everybody start when they make their game. Do you have everything ready before you start the game or do you make things up along the way etc? Personally I start with a simple story...then i make maybe 10-15 backgrounds and tries to come up with some nice puzzles and characters for those screens...then i create a new part etc. so..how does your creative minds work?

[Ghost]

Ah, I was wondering when something like that would turn up.
I may not be prime reference material- haven't got a finished game yet, but I got some lessons from making small test games, and some stuff that's still in the making.

For me, it usually starts with a single sentence. For "Once upon a crime", it was "What if you had a whodunnit in the world of Grimm's fairy tales", for Daemons in the Attic it was "How could you make a Victorian ghost story into a game". Sometimes it's just a sketch of a character. There is always something small.

After that sudden spark of inspiration, I instantly lock my PC away and feed the key to my dog. Rushing into something has so far killed four worthwhile ideas of mine.

While my dog is at the vet I start to assemble a lot of different stuff, I draw sketches of the characters, think about the interface, work out a story, then refine everything. I still haven't got to my computer, I just collect. All sorts of ideas go into a special map for further use; often they can't be put into a game but may prove useful for another. This phase can take some time: weeks, months, and it's never quite finished.

Now I have a lot of stuff floating around. Background sketches, character sketches, scripts, vague ideas, a simple plot maybe. I try to adapt these to a game project now: Settle for the engine specs (resolution, gui etc) is the first thing, after that I try to make a small prototype- a single room, the main character with walk and talk view and the interface. Once that's done, I have achieved quite a lot: I have a simple character (and time to get getting used to it), I have a clear idea of the interface, and I have something to post at C&C. From then on, I concentrate on the story and get more locations done. No puzzles up to now; I like to have the environment done before I add these.

Once a large portion of the game's world is done, I put the puzzles in. Often enough I have to jump back and forth between planning and making the game; many things must be reworked. And then, finally, not including spell-checking and beta tests, a game's done, Ghost style.


A few things I'd like to put down:
- Save everything. You made a quirky character, had an idea for a nice animation, found a good midi? Save it all, don't throw anything away. Even if you can't find a use for it now, it may be worth something, sometime, to someone, most opssibly you.
- Make some templates. Once you have a nice interface done, strip it down to a template for further use. Save characters. Always nice to have these files for prequels, sequels or reworks.
- Always ask someone else for C&C.
- Wikipedia rules.
- Always tip your vet.

Hope that was helpful, and not too much egomaniac ramblingÃ, 

[KillerKlown]

Ah I see serious as hell there man hehe...interesting though. Well from my first post it sounded almost like I've made many games already hehe....actually I'm working on my first game. But since i suck at scripting i don't know how it'll be done...time to read some tutorials maybe hehe...well I hope more people will post how they make their games

[Ghost]

I can actually provide very nicely faked photocopies of recipes from my vet for game-creation-key-abuse 

The rest of the above, however, is totally serious, and totally true. Especially the bit about collecting, nay, amassing stuff.

[KillerKlown]

Hey i believe you hehe...I don't plan so much ahead...like the game i'm working on now...the first part is the village...and your first task is to find a way to get out if it...so i just work with the village part right now...who knows what will happen in the next part hehe

[Erenan]

I have something like thirty or forty game ideas waiting in the freezer, and I always start on one by creating a design document fleshed out at the very least to a moderate degree, but usually I wait until it's a little more detailed before creating any actual content. The exception to this is MAGS and OROW. With those, I tend to hurry, hurry, hurry, and I don't care how detailed the design document is before I start drawing things and implementing them.

As for the actual creation of a game, it's not always the same. Sometimes I go room by room and create graphics, dialogue, and scripting for each one until it's finished, then move on to the next one, and then after they're all done, go back and fill in the details with music and tweak things, etc. Sometimes, I go through the same way and create the music as it's needed. Sometimes, I create twelve musical themes before I even open up AGS. It mostly depends upon what kind of inspiration turns up first.

[KillerKlown]

ah i see...I must get a new synth...i sold my old one to get a bassAMP. I'm getting a new one so i can create some nice gamemusic...I've never done that kind of music before. I'm a headbanger so i've only made death/thrashmetal hehe.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

For short games I don't usually make a script, though with larger ones I write a sort of screenplay rather than a design document that includes all the primary dialog and scene setups as well as short character bios.  I find this to be a much nicer way of handling design than listing raw mechanics since what sounds good in writing might not work well in practice, and this is particularly true with puzzles.

[Akatosh]

Well, I'm just thinking of situations I could put Artemis into and browse my 2,5 GB graphics "database" (that's how I call it, in fact, it's just a huge collection of everything I ever draw or ripped off) until inspiration hits me. Then I write it down and start scriptin'.

[Babar]

Someone should release or show a sort of development diary! I'm really interested in an exact step by step of how a succesful game was made: how the idea came up; how the initial story was written (what 'game' concepts were introduced at this point- initial sketches, variables, seperate room entities), what was worked on next (BGs, sprites, dialogs, scripting), and how it connected with the previous step; whether voices/music/animation was added at the end, or along with everything else, etc.

[KillerKlown]

Yeah that's a good idead...it would be fun to read how people created their game. Oh look at the time...I have to draw some graphics

[Janik]

Thanks Ghost for your comments, I think that's great advice! I also find that starting the game without a clear, defined plot all the way through the end is dangerous. I started a RON game thinking I would figure out how to finish it as I made it, but what I ended up was a few good jokes and no ending to the game .


KillerKlown, maybe AGDI's designer journals would be of interest to you:
http://www.agdinteractive.com/news-2001.php

[m0ds]

We also have a loosley written dev diary at
http://www.barnettcollege.com/diary.htm