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[National anthems]

... The Song of My People.



"You take a bunch of people who don't seem any different from you and me, but when you add them all together you get this sort of huge raving maniac with national borders and an anthem."
~Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment.
 


National anthems, who hasn't heard of national anthems?
Speaking of witch, here is one now: Russian National Anthem. That makes for a fine introduction to our subject. Please note how this russian specimen shows similarities to one of your favorite side-scrolling game tunes: Yoshi's Island Intro.

National anthems, in all forms and shapes.
Oh oh, Oh Canada what arrangements do to thee.
80's tv-commercial?
Lion King?
Space opera?
Christmas agian?


But yes, forget all this now.
We will be making our own national anthem.
To be more precise: you.


Guidelines:

- For this challenge lyrics are permitted but not encouraged.
- Human singing is also not encouraged.
(Humming maybe, choir synth perhaps, robotic voices would be awesome... but basically the idea is to make an instrumental anthem)
- The nation you are composing for can not be a typical, "real" nation.
(A country, or place, from a work of fiction could lend itself. But also, for example, a Minecraft village, anthill, the first Mars colony, inhabitants of a sugarcube... Just take it where you want.)
- Entries should sound convincing in their own domain/style/genre.
(So they don't have to sound like any archetypical anthem. Although I imagine it's helpfull relating to such one way or the other.)
- Entries should communicate a sense of effort.
(Unfortunately no random water/air bubbles and claiming it's the anthem of fishbowl nation.)



I will be picking a winner February 24th or shortly thereafter.

Good luck, may guidelines guide you!

[please feel free to share your ideas, methods and experiences!]

"Just do it"-The Dig

This thread for users/creators who want to discuss workflow and motivation related issues. Perhaps people can provide some insight in how -and why- they structure their time while working on a game. And how they keep it interesting to themselves: more particularly relating to personal home brew projects.

To shed some light on things like:
-How intuitive or planned is your process, and why?
-Is there any order of priorities that seem to work for you best?
-Are there any helpfull tricks you use, in this regard, to keeping yourself passionate about your own projects?
-What does your planning consist of? Maps, storyboards, ect?
-... anything you might think useful to the discussion.

Of course I am aware that these these things will vary from person to person- aswell project to project.  But I figure it would be helpful and interesting to discuss regardless. Since it seems all too common for creators to be plagued by procrastination and perfectionism. Getting lost in details and losing sight of things. So please feel free to share your ideas, methods and experiences! Or even just sum up all the projects that didnt see daylight. :-P


"You can always make a game better and never release it, but you can make a good game when you know when to say stop."- Frederick Raynal

I know there are other workflow related threads out there, but didnt find a more general thread to discuss these matters.

---


OP starts off:
I never made a storyboard in my life. And deadlines usualy only rise when working with others. Any homebrew, full-blown game ideas -that require oversight- seem too ambitious to bring to an end (so far). So my interest is in the experiences of generalists who have commited to make a game from scratch by themself.
But apart from that I like to contribute to the discussion too. And rather than a concrete workflow tip share a view/trick that implies its own method.  A simple yet freeing idea that came up talking earlier with a friend. Namely that making a game could be viewed as merely an exercise in telling stories based on a much bigger world. This sounds all fair and obvious perhaps. To view a game as means to an end seems an nearly inescapable perspective after thinking about it. But sometimes its good to be reminded of those simple things. And this one in particular gives room to breathe to those who seek a compulsory space for creativity to thrive.