Worldslayer608
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- 894
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- 16
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- Age 34
- San Diego
- Seen Nov 10, 2020
HELLO WORLD!
Confession of a Game Designer
It has been a long time since I have made much of any post content here on PokéCommunity, and while I am not always actively logged in, I still love to browse the forums here and see what is new in many areas of the forums. But I am not writing this post to tell you how awesome some of the content is, or how excited I am for Pokémon Sun & Moon, or even to tell you that I am working on a new project to show off here.
I am here to tell you where I have been in this community, where it has taken me, and where I am now. My hope is not to discourage you, or tell you that you can do anything if you set your mind to it. My hope is that if you read this, you read it in its entirety. That it may serve as a looking glass to examine your own self, your project, your goals, your ambitions, and even your failures.
Where it all Began
Let's turn back the clock. The year is 2009 and I am finished with high school and self employed doing various things to scrape up what money I can to keep a roof on my head and activities to partake in with my girlfriend who I had just moved in with. In high school, I spent a lot of my elective classes focusing on creating things - woodworking, jewelry, pottery, you name it. If I had the opportunity to create something in a class, I was on it. When I finally finished high school, my creative outlet turned to doing graphic design work for newsletters at the community college or websites for small businesses or individuals who had no idea how to make one for themselves. I was fortunate enough to manage my time so that I could fit in a good amount of hours into the video games I played at the time, and one of them was jumping back into Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire. After searching online for ROMS to play on my computer, I stumbled across the ROM hacking section of the PokéCommunity and immediately started diving into how I could partake in modifying the ROM to create my own story within the Pokémon world. I began work on Pokémon Dissension, having no clue how to do much of anything other than insert tiles.
After a few weeks of reading and asking questions, I slowly started picking up the ability to alter scripts and use them to start bringing my story to life.
Discovering Challenges
It was not long before I started realizing the limitations ROM hacking had, and I eventually wound up in the Game Development section shortly after Dissension was awarded the title of Hack of the Week (HoTW #59). It was a very exciting time, and I felt like nothing was going to stop me from making an epic Pokémon fan game. After porting everything over, Pokémon Dissension started becoming a really interesting project and I was able to explore a lot more in terms of development and design. I started working on one of the early concepts of an expanded Graphic User Interface for a Pokémon 2D fan game, using multiple view ports to create something similar to a DS screen in functionality, but with more flare to help fill up a computer screen. The colors of the tiles grew brighter, wider, and I had a full range to work with when it came to graphics.
But even with the limitations of ROM hacking removed, there was even more limitation in my ability to continue working on the project myself. Creating tiles was not a skill I had, nor was writing scripts to bring all my fantastic designs like the GUI to fruition. I quickly realized that what I had started as a hobby, was something I would be working on for a decade without much to show if had continued to work alone. I had begun asking others for help with things, and ultimately turned up slightly empty handed. Most of the help I did receive was from individuals giving me pieces of a puzzle that I would have to start putting together with myself. It is not an easy feat when there are so many intricacies you have to learn in order to bring something together. It was like I was looking at a mountain from 100 miles away, only to realize how incredibly immense it is when standing at the base and looking up to the peak.
When the Journey REALLY begins
When I finally started understanding the basics of many of the different facets of creating a Pokémon fan game using RPG Maker XP, I decided that Pokémon: Dissension needed a face lift. I officially changed the title to Pokémon: Lost Legends, and polished up the story and graphics as well. It was at this time, I understood some of the basics of how the scripts worked within Pokémon Essentials, but did not really know enough about it to where I could get very far. I knew enough to follow trails of crumbs that many of the amazing senior members here would leave for me, to get a foundation set up for what I wanted to accomplish. It was that very foundation that allowed me to start building stronger relationships with members within the GD section and start receiving help in which they would offer to look at my work and help fix it for me. Most of the time, they would continue to leave me bread crumbs however, and what seemed like a cold shoulder was probably some of the best support they could have given me. Looking back, it was this tough love that pushed me to keep trying to figure things out on my own so that if I failed, I was the one to blame for it and if I succeeded then I really had the right to feel like I achieved something.
As I continued learning the skills I needed, I also continued growing the skills I already had. With that, my project continued to come together in a really beautiful way.
When Your Project, Actually Becomes a Project
After 3 years or working with my game idea, things really started finally begin coming together. My ideas were more polished, my graphics were more consistent, my innovation started moving even further ahead, and my project became an actual project... One that I feel was fairly respectable. There was a lot of time and love put into it, and while it did not seem like I really got very far at all, it was evident to me how much work it took to get from where I began, to where I could finally rebrand the project as Pokémon: Pillars of Destiny. It was at this point that some of the other senior developers were willing to pitch in and help in areas where I needed it, so that I could work on other areas and development could move faster than if I were doing it alone. It allowed the project to get a lot more work done, and even help bring new ideas together in ways that were not possible if I were to work on it along, at least not in any conceivable amount of time. It was at this point, that the project really started to come together.
The Reality of Game Development
Another 2 years passed, and it was 2014. The amount of time I had invested in working with my game, was substantial and while I felt like I was really making progress, it is hard not to begin looking ahead and evaluating how much more time is needed to make a release. Ideas are the number 1 reason why people find themselves in this section. Everyone has ideas, and everyone wants to make them a reality. In fact, I might argue that the idea of an idea is far more arousing than ever accomplishing something that makes those ideas something tangible. The problem with having a team, is that everyone has these ideas and they do not always line up with other projects. Having a "team" in the Pokémon fan game community is not an easy feat to accomplish. While developers can come together and work on certain things from time to time, it is less likely that it has much longevity to it. Projects like the Pokémon Gen 6 project were more plausible because they had a smaller scale and a much more narrow focus. Direction was very clear and the amount of necessary skill sets was also pretty linear. It was in June of 2014 that I had realized just how much work lies ahead and how little time I had to work on things for it, and the game was cancelled.
The truth is; that while the idea of working on something for years is not one that scared me, the inability to prioritize it as my life grew around me was. Over the years, I accumulated debt as I began college. My time became consumed with a dog, a girlfriend, raising rent and other bills accumulating as my life moved forward. The pace in which the game was developed, was much slower than the pace in which my life was growing. Even with all the time in the world, unless developing games is your goal in life, it is not difficult to become overwhelmed by all those little things that make up your life outside of your game development. For me, developing my game was something I considered a passion. The real passion was not making the game though, it was the process of making a game.
Who and Where am I Now?
It is almost 2017. I am 27 years old, I have completed high school, I have obtained a college degree in a major I do not actively use, and I am in school for a major I intend to use. I have worked on a board game that was developed and published, as well as 2 card games. In my own eyes, I am still that passionate designer who develops things - it just is not a fan game. As much as I would LOVE to pick work back up on Pillars of Destiny, it is not in line with where my life needed to be and the amount of time I have to devote to developing it is not enough to work on it alone. I have accepted this, and in fact I think that acceptance has really taught me a great deal about design and development, and not just in working on games. Looking back, I can say that while some of the ideas I had working on a Pokémon fan game were exciting, they were not all necessary. If I were to look back and examine the ones that I had back then, and evaluate how important they are in the grand scheme of things, I would say this:
DLC was perhaps one of the most overlooked features I thought of working with. The idea that updates could be pushed through to players was a developing feature that was supposed to allow me to keep things exciting, when in reality it should have been used to get content out there and offer me milestones (releases) to keep me motivated. It offered the benefits of letting players play though unfinished content while making releases small enough that they would leave the player and myself feeling like something was accomplished over time - without many loose ends.
Details are incredibly important. It is often said that graphics do not make the game, and while that is somewhat true, it is also pretty false. Using graphical detail means you can leverage it with literary content to make small portions of your game feel much larger than they actually are. This is incredibly valuable when you consider how much time you need to invest in making your game, and you can keep things small and cut down your workload if you pack the details into the graphic assortment and literary content rather than mechanical features. Small maps with lots of detail, leaves a player feeling like they are exploring a lot when the reality is that the map is not as big as it feels. The same can be said for your story line and other aspects of your game. Putting your time into making one thing look good, will pay off when you keep your scale small, where putting your time into making many things look decent on a grander scale, is only setting yourself up to be burned out.
Taking your time does not stop time from taking you.
If I Were To Do It Again
If I were to do it all again, I would do it differently. Much differently. It is easy for me to tell you that you are underestimating how much work you need to put into your project. In fact, it is just as easy as it is for you to tell me I am wrong and do not understand how devoted you are - or how much free time you have to work on your project. If I were to do it all again, here is what I would do.
- Find an existing project
- Work on rebranding the existing project to bring all ideas to the table
- Spend less time on the larger picture
- Dedicate my time to polishing the details
- Open myself up to other peoples ideas, rebranding my project
Everyone has ideas, but not finding another project to assist with added YEARS to my workload. It is more beneficial to everyone involved, if you are willing to find a project you are interested in and offer to help with it and discuss merging your ideas within that project. By doing this, you are adopting work from a project that has already had time put into it as well as a partner to help work on things together, making your workload much smaller. Additionally, cutting down the idea of a large picture stops you from getting distracted and lets you pack in the details for a smaller release that feels larger than it is. In some ways, if you do this right, the smaller release can even seem larger than your original ideas. Finally, I would always keep the door open for new people to bring their ideas to the table and allow myself to remain flexible on my story line and characters in the same way the original create of the project I joined, had extended to me.
It has been an amazing ride here on PC, and while my project has ended - I wish all of you the best of luck and hope that even if you fail, you enjoy every moment of it.
Thanks to everyone who has helped me, inspired me, drawn inspiration from me, and opened themselves up to the other developers in this community. A special shout out to: seeker, Maruno, venom12, Luka S.J., and mej71 for their help and support.
