The opposite of progress
I’m starting to question whether or not I’m going to ever get this game-design thing off the ground. It’s almost paradoxical to me because I was making games — stupid, simple, crappy ones, of course, but still functional and fully-formed — almost fifteen years ago, but somewhere over the last decade I lost track of whatever it is that got me into a state where I was creating stuff and enjoying it. Maybe the technology changed too quickly, or maybe my brain stopped learning so readily. Either way, it’s been almost three months since I began devoting a huge chunk of my time to learning how to design games, and I still don’t have a single functioning thing to show for it.
Although I’m tempted to blame Flash and its byzantine structure, I think it’s ultimately my fault. I’m too easily beaten down by my own impatience and frustration. And even though I’ve poured countless hours into reading about game developers, rubbing elbows with them at conventions and (perhaps impolitely) sending them my awkward questions about their profession, I still don’t feel like I have the right stuff to do it myself.
Maybe I just need to keep looking for the right toolset, or the right idea, or the right state of mind, or the right situation. But at this point, I’m just so frustrated with being frustrated that I’m tempted to just give up for a while and focus on something else.
July 19th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Turns out the browser can do a decent job at powering a game engine using Canvas. Torgie put together a little proof of concept this weekend. He doesn’t want anybody to see the code yet so I took a screenshot instead: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronpk/4809290693/in/photostream/ This is written entirely in Javascript! No Flash required. What kind of game are you trying to make?
July 19th, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Honestly? Even though Flash is a recommended format for getting your games out into the open, you’d probably be better off starting from scratch with Game Maker or Pygame. The tools themselves are cheap and easy to experiment with, manuals are easy to get a hold of, you can still make your finished games commercially available if you really want, and only assholes on messageboards will give you shit for using them.
Not that either of these should be a final step in an illustrious game design career, of course! As far as getting used to making games and putting them out is concerned, I think this is your best bet.
July 20th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Hmm. The comments engine seems to have eaten my first one. Well, here goes:
Though I don’t necessarily doubt your programming abilities, you should consider trying more accessible tools like Game Maker/PyGame, if only so you can get back into the mindset of putting your concepts to life and releasing them. There are no commercial limitations to publishing your projects through either format, and they’re both versatile enough (with a gentle enough learning curve) that I can see myself putting a project or two out with either before I’m out of college.
Don’t give up; you can do this, comrade! I believe in you!!
July 20th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Aaron: That’s impressive! I wasn’t aware Javascript could be used to do anything involving complex stuff with sprites, but I hadn’t heard of Canvas before either. That’s pretty exciting, especially because I actually understand the basics of Javascript. I’ve got a billion ideas for games of all kinds, but right now I’m just trying to find something that would be easy to make and hopefully fun to play. That’s as good of a starting point as any, I think.
Madeline: That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for: some sort of simple, accessible toolset that lets me focus on doing fun, creative things, even if there are some significant limitations (kinda like with LittleBigPlanet). I’ll check those out. Thanks for the encouragement!