Adventure game making time ratio

[Oliwerko]

Hi again lads!

There is one thing I wonder about. What is the most time-consuming adventure game making process? What is the most time-friendly process? I mean, do you spend most of the time on graphics? Music? Or do you spend it on preparation and story?

It would be best to make a ratio, something like 1:2:2:4:4:2
for Preparation:Story:Puzzle design:Graphics:Music:Other

I am really wondering about this because I have really no clue what it might be like.

Discuss!

[DazJ]

Good topic...

Hard to work that out though...Preperation/Design/Story, I count them as one thing.

[GarageGothic]

Um... scripting? Does that belong under "other"? So far that's taken up 75% of the time I spent on my game.

[Ponch]

I plan out as much of the game as I can before hand (which requires lots of thumbing through the story bible -- which I should have organized better back when I started doing this). That cuts down on the "what do I do now" that tends to creep in if I'm just winging it.

I try to space out the writing and drawing duties evenly so that I only spend a few days on one before I go back to the other. That way I avoid feeling burned out. Especially on background art.

The real grunt work for me are in the miscellaneous interactions. Look at item responses, use inventory on hotspot, that sort of thing. Lots of little coding that just gets a little tedious after a while. But it makes the world breathe a little bit more, so it needs to be done. My early games don't have much of that and it really shows, especially on subsequent playings.

My favorite bit? Besides the sketching all the rooms and actors (with pencils! On a drafting table! I'm old!!)? Dialogs and voice overs. If anything, I go overboard with that. I love to write conversations.

- Ponch

[Oliwerko]

Oh, my bad  

I knew I forgot something.
Feel free to write your own ratio here, dont stick to mine.

[scotch]

This will vary completely from person to person depending on their interests and skills, and style of game. When I'm doing AGS stuff I spend easily 80% of time on art, because it's what interests me, and 0 time on music because I have no ability for it. Designs tend to formulate on their own over time. The amount of hours sat down focussed on puzzles are a tiny fraction of development time, maybe 1-2%. Writing is another thing entirely and takes me quite a long time.

Basically you can't know how long you should spend on different areas. Just spend as long as you need and try to focus on the aspects you're good at.

[TheJBurger]

It's probably best to get a rock solid design (which constitutes preparation, story, and puzzle design) down before you get into the real development process. At least in my experience, if you don't know what you want to do, or if you leave some aspects of the design unfinished, there is a good chance you will become bogged down by that vacant, undesigned area of your game when you finally reach it in development.

Also, if you're not sure of the design during the development, you may re-work it several times throughout the development process, which is fine by me, except sometimes it may get out of hand to the point where you re-work your game from scratch over, and over, and over.

Once you get into the development process, I'd say (in a general sense) graphics and scripting take up at least 90% of the work. And I know it's been overused to death, but it's really true: “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.”

[miguel]

Hi Oliwerko,
My experience related to the three finished games I've made is:
First one: the year 2003, I discovered AGS and decided I wanted to do a game. Story, graphics and scripting were     done as I had more ideas. No planning whatsoever. The game was poor but still very fun to make.
Second: 2007, I had the story on my mind and started to draw some backgrounds, it ended like a finished product, at least the first chapter. The rush to release it made the quality suffer.
Third: 2008, I wrote the story and took it to a AGS forum member who is a writer. Spent some time on scripting and made something of my own with the help of AGS members. Graphics are original but I draw them on paper and then on the computer. I took this last project on a more professional approach and released a demo of it. I believe I have got a game with some quality and will continue with that level on my mind.
-----------------
So, I guess one will develop his skills with the purpose of making the hard work easier and more clean. You do a better job if you are organized, that's for sure.

[EdLoen]

The most time on an aspect of me working on a game in AGS is staring blanking at an opened room file trying to figure out what I want to do and how to script something.  Usually spend 3 months doing that (though if you add the actual time spent it would probably be less then 24hrs) I come here for advice lo.

But not counting that, the most would be setting the interaction commands (I use those like my life depended on it.  I know zilch for coding). Nine times out of ten if it can't be down though the interaction commands window, I usually scrap it for something that can be done.  Unless it just can't, in which case I come here and ask how.

Next would be graphics and sprites. since there's only 8 rooms, and 4 main sprites in the shorty I'm off-and-on, pick-and-pecking on making,  it's just getting into Photoshop and working my magic.  once I'm in they'd only take a couple days each.

As for puzzles--i know it's limiting--but read the other paragraph >_>...

I cant do music so that means none.

The honest truth is, I have more fun coming up with scenarios then anything.  I have 7 AGS game scenarios floating around in my head, three of which have project bibles set aside, and one of said three, I've started concept art on (which one character i put in the C&C board).

So I guess to negate everything I said above, I spend most my time working on scenarios lol.

[Dualnames]

I actually work on the music a lot, now that I'm righting and actually graphics take a long while as while, coding is mostly a number of seconds since I'm putting it last.

Preparation:Graphics:Music:Coding

7:6:9:2

that's a to ten ratio and it's about HHGTG..

[zabnat]

If I remember correctly (I checked my thesis about my last game, but there was no solid figures, only what took the most) the ratio was something like this.
Preparation:Story:Puzzle design:Graphics:Music:Code
1:2:2:15:1:5

[Oliwerko]

Well, it seems that it's all about approach, like scotch said. Musicians rely on music, artists on graphics, coders on code.
It's interesting, because you won't really recognize this when playing (at least I do not).

[Akatosh]

I really, really dislike having to draw stuff, and I'm especially bad at lineart (coloring is all right), which is why I usually stick with some self-made templates altered at whim. Really cuts down the developement time, but the templates still eat hours.
Sound effects are created by browsing around soundsnap.com, downloading anything that sounds semi-usable, then hammering around on it in Audacity without really understanding what the hell I'm trying to do. It's quick and works.
The music section usually gets the "Uh... Scott Joplin" treatment. 

A lot more effort and time is put into the writing, dialogue and (usually) puzzle parts, because I know there's at least a slight chance of me to not suck in these areas, so I'd say my time distribution approximates

Preparation:Writing:Puzzle Design:Graphics:Music and Sound Effects:Code
1-2:3-5:2-4:4-5:0-1:3-5

or something along these lines.