[Discussion] How much ambition is too much?

I had this great concept for a fan-made Pokemon game, in which the gameplay is 3D, and the storyline is a combination of all 6 existing generations. Does anybody think this is a good idea? I really do, and want to find people who agree with me, so that we can maybe try to put this concept to reality.

ilangleben19 said:

and the storyline is a combination of all 6 existing generations

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This is the part that will get you no-where really fast. It's a mind numbingly long process to create a 2D game with so many regions, let alone a 3D one. Then comes the problem of balancing, pacing, story progression, which is next to impossible to pull off with 6 regions (simply raising the level cap to 600 won't solve the problem). Also if you want to be making a 3D game, you'll have to be building your own engine from the ground up. Unless you're extremely familiar and versatile in programming and 3D modelling, you won't have much success. Right now your idea sounds like another one of those vaguely thought out, overly ambitious projects. You need to grasp the reality of creating a game with 6 fully fledged out region. Look how much Kanto has suffered in gen 2, and that game has only 2 regions. Start off with something that you can actually do. Something smaller, something more coherent. How many 3D Pokemon fan-games are out there? Not many, and for a good reason. Now count 3D Pokemon fan-games with 6 regions. Yeah...0.

I renamed this thread to make it an actual discussion and not a speculative recruitment thread.

What else have you guys seen people promise/aspire to, which you think is beyond the realms of what's practical? What seems ambitious but you think can reasonably be done? What use is ambition without the skill to back it up?

I would say definitely possible to be too ambitious. If you had no trouble making one region then possibly making a 2nd one might seem logical. It is best to set attainable goals that can be expanded later than have a huge pile of work in front of you ,which can lead to losing interest in the games development.

You can be ambitious, but you need to find your limits. Big risk of starting a project, and stop it because it was too big, you don't have enough time or missing skills.
Even with a team, it can be complicated to finish a big project. I myself stopped some projects because of this.

I'm currently making a pokémon game, which includes a big region (16 badges). I've divided it into 2 parts (2 sub regions) and planned the game development so the second r gion can be totally optional if I don't have enough time or motivation to do it. In this way, I just have to do the first part (= 8 gyms + elite 4, so can be considered as a complete game) and then I'll see if I can continue the other part (and if I continue, I'll make changes in the first part to have a common story for the whole region).

Scope in a fan project is a tricky thing. Normally your scope is determined by budget (your time and money). You are doing this as a hobbyist project, meaning that you aren't working towards a deadline(infinite time) and want to invest as little as possible in the project as you fan financially(almost 0 money). This means that budget has a third unrelated factor which doesn't come up in commercial projects, enthusiasm. You are limited, as a hobbyist, by how much fun you have on a project.

A good rule of thumb is to map out how long you think the project will take, and cater that to how long you WANT to spend on it. Do you plan to crank out an entire region in a year? All that mapping, scripting, modeling, etc? Or will you run or of steam when people don't actively engage with you while developing? Many projects on this forum tend to show to a halt because people don't engage with the creators. Will you be happy working on your project without any community engagement? For how long?

Apologies for any rambling, I'm on mobile which trends to be pretty tedious for writing long posts, but I wanted to weigh in on this as soon as I could.

EDIT: To specifically respond to your post:
Firstly, welcome to the community. It's nice to meet you; I'm Christopher, the surly semi-professional* developer who haunts the forum and likes to offer help where he can.

ilangleben19 said:

I had this great concept for a fan-made Pokemon game, in which the gameplay is 3D, and the storyline is a combination of all 6 existing generations.

Click to expand...

No. Every 9-year-old dev sees this board and RPG Maker/Unity/Unreal/Game Maker(And others) and plans to do this, and it just becomes a more intensive task with each generation's region introduced. You did not have this idea first.
Does anybody think this is a good idea? I really do, and want to find people who agree with me, so that we can maybe try to put this concept to reality.[/QUOTE]
It's not a great concept. You can't seriously expect to crank out a game with all ~721 Pokemon, all 6 regions. Scope-wise, you're talking about a HUGE balance and design fatigue issue. 8 Gym Leaders + ~24 gym trainers(3 gym trainers/leader) + 8 Gym Puzzles + 5 Pokemon League Encounters * 6 regions. Assuming NO content between these gyms, you're looking at ~270 encounters to balance(I count puzzles because linear gyms are tedious and exhausting).

Why 3D Gameplay? Judging from your post count this is your first project and you've joined for game dev. You have no history of working with any engines, let alone a 3D one over a 2D one. You have no experience(again, as far as I know) in mapping, modeling(assuming you stick with 3D), writing, programming, or even proofreading. Obviously you created this thread to recruit people to your team, but have given no indication that you are capable of executing on anything, so the only recruits you'd get are the ones who are in the same boat as yourself. Try building a small demo of your game idea using any engine first, and you'd prove that you're capable of doing this. I wish you the best of luck, though - if you ever need help with scripting or the like(assuming you're working with Unity or similar), please don't hesitate to ask me; I don't want to join a team, but I'm happy to be consulted and help people to help themselves.

*Formerly a third-year student at DigiPen Institute of Technology, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Game Design.

It's too ambitious when your ideas take too long to complete. Who wants to spend 10 years working on a fan game that they don't even get paid for?
Trying to get absolutely perfect graphics can be part of the problem. When someone obsesses over graphics they miss the big picture of gameplay.

There are many holes in a game concept such as this. For one, an intricate leveling system will need to be introduced if you want your players to carry over some Pokemon to the next region (not allowing this would be a finger in the players face, as they could just get the same experience by playing all the different Pokemon games that exist today and pretend like they are going to a new region and leaving their beloved Pokemon behind). Think of the trainers that you'd have to create. The maps. A story that flows properly. Make this 3d, and you won't create past the first five minutes of the game, let alone the first 5 months it would take someone to beat it. It often takes me 30 minutes to create a good, solid, and polished 5 minutes of game play, and this being 2d. And finally, 3d projects tend to get noticed the easiest by Nintendo. All of our project are doomed to possible C&D, but a project of this scope would be shut down. Take the recent Super Mario 64 3d fan remake as a lesson. Imagine pouring several hundred hours into this concept, getting up to the second region done, and then receiving a C&D to end the project. Hours of life wasted.

To start your first project, make it small. Completing a tiny project, even if it is some small puzzle game, will get your name out there, get people behind you in larger projects, and build your confidence.

Good luck.

Starting a game at Essentials without knowing how RPG Maker works was a clear example about when ambition is too much?

Have a game idea and, in the next day, start a big project (more than a month) is one of worst thing to do talking about planning. I see no problem on starting a project that your will spend more than a year developing, BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCE. There some tips about planning here.

Anyway, region is too relative. One region can be bigger than two, or having more towns, at least.