[Discussion] Does it make any sense to think of big projects ?

I have seen many threads in 'Progressing Games' forums, categorized as [Idea]. As far as those threads are concerned, i think most of them are based on projects which, are unrealistic and are just 'ambitious', yes, just ambitious. The people just think of a second and post their day dreamed big ideas, which might last for a week or two (such as making an MMORPG or a complete 3d game, made from scratch).

Where's the discussion point?

It feels like you're trying to call out specific projects here, but I'll bite and talk about scope from the professional standpoint vs hobbyist standpoint.

In the industry, unless you're going indie, you are beholden to whatever limits your publisher imposes upon you - usually that you need to produce the game by X timeframe in order for the project to be worth investing in. This keeps projects relatively grounded (Imagine if the entire Mass Effect trilogy, for instance, had been proposed as a single game. You'd be laughed out of the pitch meeting.), and can sometimes encourage interesting innovations to work within scope. If you get close to your deadline? You have a list of nonessential features and start picking which ones people won't really miss if you need to make your game on time.

Simply put, hobbyists don't have these limits. Most folks here at PokeCommunity will never have to worry about making deadline, simply put, because it's not their job. This leads to people deciding that they can promise big things, since they're not on deadlines. (If you guys remember the fangame pet peeves thread, I mentioned a lot of scope issues that fangames tend to have) Unless you're super hardcore into making it, writing an engine for your Pokemon fangame is probably a waste of time. Unless you're super hardcore into the design aspect of it, incorporating 721 Pokemon is a fruitless endeavor - Players are NOT going to use all 721 Pokemon, and I find it extremely doubtful that they'll want to catch 'em all in your fangame in particular when it's incompatible with all official games(NO I AM NOT SAYING TO MAKE YOUR FANGAME COMPATIBLE WITH OFFICIAL GAMES SIT DOWN), so why even try to balance your game to account for finding 24 Pokemon on Route 2? This fatal flaw, in some ways, comes from how comprehensive the toolset of Pokemon Essentials really is - it offers so much content that several developers feel committed to using it all rather than focusing on what could be a compressed nugget of core gameplay or storywriting(because let's face it - a lot of people who don't use fakemon are more interested in telling a story in the setting of Pokemon).

To answer your question, pokeconstructor, I think it's worth thinking of big projects, but I think you should gradually grow into them rather than start with an "All the regions 721 pokemon all bad guys pokemon contests snag em all everything rebalanced doctor who crossover mega evolutions for everyone" grand spectacle that will never see the light of day(incidentally, inb4 someone says "well I'm doing all that but I fully intend to finish it").

Just because you've got a large set of tools and shouldn't have to use all of them on a single project.

Well, I think one of the biggest things that tends to happen there is that people have this idea, and completely underestimate how much time/effort/skill it actually takes. That's not to say that it's unrealistic to have big ideas. While a lot of people can't really make good on their ambitions, there are occasionally people that are prepared to commit that kind of time and effort, as well as have the requisite knowhow to make something like that happen, usually with fantastic results.

A lot of the less experienced game developers also make the mistake of starting with their most exciting feature or trying to do everything at the same time, rather than planning a proper development cycle, building groundwork, establishing proof of concept, etc, which is why a lot of the more ambitious projects tend to just peter. Games need to be built from the ground up, and people fail to realize just how difficult and tedious that can be. Sure, you could have a great feature and have the entire thing planned out in your head, but it's meaningless if your overworld, battle system, inventory management, and persistence module are all garbage.

Besides, those great ideas can help other people come up with some great stuff for their projects. So, yes, I think it makes sense to have big projects.

I see no problem in theory, but, in practice, this is almost impossible, specially if you never complete a single project or never been in a project that take months.

Start with small projects. and, as you understand the efforts about making a polished game, move into bigger ones and so on, until you're happy with the scope of your project.

Just don't bite off more than you can chew.

It took me one and a half years to build a region from scratch (22 routes, 10 settlements) alone. You might want some help on bigger projects.

I think having a big project is the most important thing you need, when creating games as a hobby. It's pretty much that one idea that reminds you "this is where I want to go". You can (and should) still make smaller projects that can be used as playgrounds for different mechanics that might or might not end up in your main game, or just as a distraction from your main project, if you don't feel motivated working on it. The most important thing, however, is that hobby developers have time and no real pressure when it comes to success. Nobody cares if it takes you like 20 years and your game ends up being a disaster, as long as you had fun working on it.

I've been working on my project for 3 years now. All alone and its only 57% done. And mine is three parts two region per game.