Creators and their games.

[DanielH]

I was wondering... do You game creators play your own games when they're done? Because I think (by the time I've been through months/years of poring over my game) I would be comletely sick of them... is this true?

[Emerald]

Maybe if it was five years later and I had completely forgotten about it.

...
Hell, I'd probably replay it every single time someone complimented it, just to bask in my own brilliance. I do that with everything else...

[Radiant]

I was wondering... do You game creators play your own games when they're done?

Actually, yes. Not all the time, obviously, and one does get tired of it during testing periods. But in the end, when it's all done, you should be able to look back at it and play it and say "wow, this game is pretty cool". Because if you, as the author, don't like playing your own game, chances are other people don't like it either.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I actually go back and play Dance 'Til You Drop! on occasion because I had such a great time making it, and I revisit those feelings whenever I see Richard

Spoiler

kick Billy in the butt or hold the Miami Vice rejects hostage

[close]

While I am proud of what I accomplished with Mind's Eye in a short time, I really wasn't as excited about the project after all the cuts I made to the story and gameplay, so I don't revisit that one as often (unless I want to see some examples of things I could do better).  Oddly enough it's the higher rated game, and I'm not complaining! 

But yeah, I play my own games, not only for testing but to recapture what I felt when I was making them.  I figure that if I enjoy playing through my own game in spite of knowing where everything is and how it all pans out, other people certainly will.  If I run into areas with confusing dialog or truly bad gameplay, though, that makes me stop and think.  I'm also very, very interested and open to feedback from my testers, as my group from past games will no doubt attest.  I've often changed scenes and such from feedback, and I think it's important to realize your vision might benefit from feedback. 

The creative process is at its best when the ideas are flowing and you feel excited and at its worst when you get overwhelmed and think you've taken on too much, and like anyone else I've been at both stages (most recently with my current game Boyd Quest).  What usually works for me is talking to people about the game and seeing how excited they get, which in turn fuels me.  Dave Gilbert is a pretty good creative outlet for this, I've found, and he'll ask for a beta or offer an idea or two to make a situation in the game funny, and hopefully that relationship has worked both ways.  The bottom line is you need some kind of creative collaborator, someone who understands where you're going and finds it exciting enough to ask for updates or offer some advice.  Radiant had quite a creative team going with A Tale of Two Kingdoms, and I'm sure he had a lot of ideas and excitement flowing around -- but we aren't all fortunate enough to have a team surrounding our efforts, so you definitely need to get some kind of support system to bounce ideas off of and keep your motivation going.

Hopefully this wasn't too far off topic.

[Ponch]

Once I'm done with a game and have burdened the world with it, I don't want to even think about that game for at least six months.

However, once I'm ready to start a new game, I like to go back and revisit some of the previous games in the series to get a feel for that world again. It sort of helps me get in the right mindset, if that makes sense.

- Ponch

[Nikolas]

Depends on how much you work on your game/art/general. I don't really mind relistening to older tracks I've made, or replay games I've worked on. But that's just me I guess...

[Buckethead]

I do play happy ducky adventure once in a while. I just like the humour.

[Charity]

I would.  I'm the sort of guy who rereads his own live journal and chat logs for the jokes.  And though I've yet to finish a game, I will occasionally go back and watch the short movie I made in AGS, like forever ago.  It's always interesting to see what has aged well and what has not.

[vertigoaddict]

I play 'Jacob' a few times afterwards. I take people's comments into acount (they hate slowpokes and she walks painfully). I get slightly nostalgic and cringe a little. There was effort put into that project, but others could have completed the game in a day or two.

It was good for a first try.

[woodz]

By time I've done bug testing i'm fairly fed up with them!.. actually i do revisit them now again, I played my first ever MAGS game last year.. OMG it sucked, no wonder it didn't win lol, actualy there was stuff i couldn't remember doing.
I did a Flash game for the HP Lovecraft Commonplace book project last year with another guy, who felt the need to have a slider puzzle, and i'm feckin hopeless at them, making the game i had a bypass the puzzle hidden button just to skip that part lol, so now i normally get to that point and give up :

[Ali]

I've only made game, not games, but I replay Nelly each time I release an update, just in case I've made a mistake. I quite enjoy it, and I tend to laugh at my own jokes a bit too much.

I tend to get sick of revisiting other, more serious, endeavours, but after a year or two I seem to be able to appreciate them without too much cringing.

[Ringlord]

While the "game" statement doesn't apply to me.... yet.... I do have problems looking back at my own work of any kind. Even if a short story or whatnot that I wrote gets well-received, I still find myself nit-picking.