I just kinda want to keep this forum active so it does not get axed. With being promoted to full time at work, and later being promoted to a "lead" position (manager-type duties, but no manager pay...), it's pretty much sucked all the desire to work on my game(s) out of me. The last thing I want to do after working for 8-16 hours a day (Xmas season is a b*tch in retail) is to come home and "work" for another 2-4 hours. I also recently (August, but semi-recently....) bought an Xbox 360 and an HDTV, so my PS2 has only been turned on once in the past 4-5 months.

There's an extremely likely possibility that I'll be "stepping down" in the very near future at work and go to full time sales, which would considerably alleviate a lot of the stress and tension I've been experiencing in my current position (and I'll probably be averaging $4-$6 more per hour). So once I settle into a rhythm in sales, I'll probably have a lot more motivation to spend time working on a new game (and possibly FINALLY releasing, in demo form, my farming sim, Series 3).

That's all for now. Unfortunately, even if/when I begin working on a new game, I'll not be posting about it. Every game that I've actually started making (ie-actually spent a decent amount of hours on), I've given progress/idea notes on (moreso at the Pav), and the majority of them are sitting unfinished/unreleased on one of my 6 PS2 memory cards. Granted, I've released 2 full games, a teaser, and 4 garbage games, but I'm tired of building up some pre-release hype about a game I'm working on, and never seeing it come to fruition. So until it's actually released, I will not post about it.


Just in case anyone's still interested in my game-creation process....

Good luck. Why not make shorter games?

Bah!! Shorter games? What are those?? There's a reason there's a memory capacity display in RPGM3....it tells me that when I reach 94%, I need to start finishing things up (Series 1 was at 99.9%).

I DID make one of my garbage games that lasted less than 2 minutes (the Game Over screen lasted longer than the "gameplay"), but for some reason, I have a tendency of making big games, be that in terms of overall length to play, or in terms of using tons of complex coding that chews up memory and takes a lot of time to work out.

My 4 garbage games were my outlet to make something small and simple to get it out of my system. When I make "real" games, I think big. Why make a simple "Collect the four crystals and defeat the bad guy" game (even though, at its core, that's exactly what Series 1 actually IS....it was my first game, so I have an excuse) when RPGM3 is capable of so much more. Just look at Obright's new Tree of Life game for evidence of this.

In short, the game I'm currently planning/working on will most definitely be the biggest challenge I've ever had to face working on an RPGM3 game, but if it works out how I want it to, it will also be the most gratifying, and unlike anything ever seen in the RPGM community.

Now I'll shut up before giving too much more away.

The reason I suggested shorter games is that it is not easy to sustain the motivation to create a long game because one's interests, passions, motivations, etc. changes so the longer the game, the more of a chore and less of an artwork it is by its finish unless you can sustain your passion throughout the entire gamemaking process. It seems from your collection of "unfinished" works that a shorter game might help you to complete a work that you are satisfied with, but if as you say you need to both complete the work and the work needs to be long for you to be fulfilled, then I wish you luck.

I appreciate the comments, Mr. Bo.

My first released game (technically also the first game I spent more than 10 hours working on...I began work on a "test" game just to acclimate myself to the software) was started very soon after RPGM3 was released (I came to the community in September of 2005), and was released in April of 2006, a span of 7 months. I DID take about a three week vacation from game creating in the middle there somewhere just to distance myself from it a bit, to prevent any serious burnout, but for the most part, I worked on my game a good number of hours during that time. I roughly guestimate it took me over 200 hours to create and playtest the thing (and that's not counting all the times I just turned on RPGM3 and didn't even touch the controller, and instead just sat and brainstormed). So I know all about sustaining the passion in the creation process.

As I mentioned, the game does not necessarily have to be LONG (gameplay-wise) for me to be fulfilled. I just honestly don't see the point, from my perspective, in making something simple. The majority of the enjoyment I derive from creating games with RPGM3 is through challenging myself to see a limitation or liability in the software, brainstorming, and then figuring out a way to sidestep these limitations (or even turn them from liabilities into benefits) and have the software accomplish these complex ideas for coding that I tinker around with, and have it work the way I need it to.

Basically, creating complex (by RPGM3 standards, anyway) coding through using logic and problem-solving, is what really drives me to continue creating games. If I was to make something simplistic, it would not be a challenge, and would therefore cease to provide me with a desire to keep working on it.

So, yeah...it's not the game's length I have problems with; it's the amount of brainstorming and coding I need to incorporate into my games to keep me interested that is the major problem. Because once I reach one of those "Eureka!" moments, and then I need to spend the next 5-10 hours of creation time doing "busywork," I tend to lose interest in my project very quickly. I know it's all part of the creative process, but if I'm not being challenged, I lose interest and want to start working on my next "brilliant" idea. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of a copy or clone event function in the software. The second game I worked on, a proposed sequel to my first released game (Series 1), was going to involve manually entering the code for close to 40 events of 5-6 modes each, 30-50 lines per, that were for all intents and purposes (with a few slight changes) identical. Thus, "busywork," and a loss of interest.

I've mentioned before in various threads and IMs to different people that I tend to concentrate on manipulating the code first and foremost in all the games I make, with a story coming in, not quite as an afterthought, but with much less priority placed upon it. In the process of brainstorming for new ideas after the release of A Series Aside, I came upon a really interesting, creative idea that I knew would work, but would involve a lot of work (ie-coding), and after just having finished the code-intensive ASA, I needed to make something fairly light. So I decided to focus on a game that would have an interesting, cohesive storyline as the main focus, which is something I had never done before.

Unfortunately, after more brainstorming, I came to the realization that in order to tell the story I needed to (and "challenge" myself in the process), I would have to create two episodes (games) which played out chronologically simultaneously, 2 "teasers," one for each episode, a third episode which was tangentally related to the first two (and was the initial idea that I had wanted to wait on due to its complexity), and a prequel. If I would not be able to create all of these (with the possible exception of Episode 3, which could be dispensed with if need be with no real detrimental effect to the story I intended to tell), the story I had envisioned just would not work.

So after I began publicizing this "Series" of games, I realized what a huge hole I had just dug myself into. I completed and released the first "teaser," and began work on another 2 of the games, but at that time, the Mag's contest reared its head, so I put this massive undertaking aside to try to make a game for the contest. As usual, it turned out to be a lot more complex than originally envisioned, due in part to a "creator's block."

The garbage contest at the Pav then was announced, and it was literally a breath of fresh air, and very freeing and liberating. It was the first time in a LONG time where the creation process actually began to feel fun again instead of being "work" or a chore.



Sorry for the wall of text, but in short, that's my way of saying that "short" games just do not suit me.

Again, thanks for the support, Mr. Anonymity. I truly appreciate it.

...Event transitions?

Well, at that point, I didn't understand what those were (thanks for showing me the light on THAT about a year back, Hito...), but it wouldn't work anyway. The basic framework for each event was identical, but all the little details were different for each one. So I really could not just have one "master" event to transition them all to. Each one was slightly different, so they all needed to be programmed individually. With a clone option, I could just replicate the majority of the work, and change the details for each one. Unfortunately, the way it was, I would have to make nearly identical events almost 40 times. Not like it would have been that hard to do, but seeing something like that ahead of me just kinda sucked the creativity right out of me.