MACSHIFT'S PROFILE

author=Irog
Fast iteration cycles are your best friends!

Yes I know this is true. My perfectionism is so bad I found myself reworking placeholder art... definitely slows me down.

author=kentona
Hey now! Not every article says to make small games. This one says to swing for the fences:

https://rpgmaker.net/articles/802/

"Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance. Staying passionate is important, and making something you really want to make is the best way to stay passionate."

This is a really great article! (I'm saving this along with the cakes comic to revisit.)
I think a long game would be bad for me, but I am passionate about my short, silly game idea. I'm going for a mix of adventure and humor and am excited to see if I can pull it off. I'm just a bit overwhelmed.

author=Aegix_Drakan
Also, you can always update your short event game later and make it better.

I'm working up the nerve to commit to doing the next event--whatever it might be--to see if it can help knock me out of this rut!

author=Sgt M
Having a reputation for making AND delivering is huge and will help set you apart, and people will start to say "Hey! A new project by so-and-so. Can't wait to play it!". Heck, you really don't want to be one of those devs who has had the prettiest-looking test room for three years. Because while stuff like that is nice to look at, people will start to realize that the game is probably never coming out.

This is something I think about a lot. I don't want to let people down, which is why I wouldn't go on Kickstarter. If I did, it wouldn't be for one of my first games, and it would be when I was just about done with the game already. (Still hard to imagine!)

Sooz, you're so right about the imperfections thing. I'm way more critical of my own stuff than I am of anyone else's, or anyone else is of mine. It's good to be reminded of this point.

author=Sooz
3) One of my professors liked to say, "You have a hundred shitty pages in you. The only way to get rid of them is to draw them all." You will never be able to reliably make good shit unless you work through all the bad shit.

I've never heard it put that way. I like it!

author=Sgt M
Don't do that right away. Let yourself realize that you're going to have a honeymoon period with game development and if you spend it trying to make your big one right out of the gate, you're going to burn out fast. Understand that there are MANY steps that you have to allow yourself to take.

If you want to make a 20 hour games, let yourself make a 2 hour game.

If you want to use all custom assets, let yourself make a game with the RTP to learn how the engine works.

If you want to make a great big Kickstarter game and get all those yummy social media numbers, let yourself make smaller games first to build yourself up (and avoid being another kickstarter disaster story).

Yes this is what I'm learning, as my first game dev attempt was several years ago and went nowhere. (Thankfully I knew better than to do the Kickstarter thing, as that is just about my worst nightmare!)

Every article and video about game development says it's imperative to make short, simple games that you don't care too much about for your first several projects. (Though they usually mean creating Pong or Pac-Man clones.)

As one who struggles with perfectionism in general, I'm really having trouble doing this with a JRPG-style game. I came up with a short, silly game idea and committed to it, and am being careful to resist scope creep. But I still want it to be fun to play, and I'm a storyteller at heart... so it matters to me. The more I work on it, the more attached to it I become! Then comes Analysis Paralysis!

Does anyone else struggle with this? Any tips?