How do you go about designing your Game :D
So Im fairly new to GS and I was wondering, whats the best way to go about starting and finishing a game. Right now i have 1 level done for my game, for the art i just searched stuff on google cuz I'm a visual person and can't do white or colored box actors for everything. Now I AM planning on changing the art, just didn't want to waste any time on it now BUT I've written down some ideas and a basic story but How should i go about it !! I don't want to just sit in front of the computer and pretend to do stuff, lol. Putting on some video game soundtracks seems to really help my concentration !! ANYWAYS, how do YOU go about making your game to get the best results from your time spent 
i hope this thread brings a lot of different ways of doing things and that it inspires other developers in some way or another
David
i hope this thread brings a lot of different ways of doing things and that it inspires other developers in some way or another David
Comments
Yeah I do a lot of thinking first, sketches, story boarding if it pertains, start a prototype with just blocks, slowly add art, add sound last....
I have a BG in art, design, photography...u name it so my style is drawn...so to speak, from all those.
Side Note: If you do decide to use SimpleMind, do NOT buy the app for 6.99. Download the free version & upgrade via In App purchase for 3.99, plus that one is Universal Build vs the 6.99 is NOT. Crazy huh.
that is just 3 clicks and I am up and running
usually jot down in the textFile in that folder an overview; click open myTemplate enter some thoughts in the Description/Instruction fields lay-out a scene or 2
and storyBoard with textDisplay and generic actors and save it.
Make some Sticky notes for gamePlay, colorScheme, GFX, SFX, 2Do, etc. save them in appropriate subFolders in the projectFolder
then when I want to work on them … I haven't lost the slips of paper … plus, I have a good idea what needs to be done next.
so as you no doubt can guess, I have about 50 newProject folders going! all well started and all in various stages of development
all filled with lots of info so if I get bored with a currentProject, I can play in a newOne! @-)
and, yes, with Lion I have six desktops to contain my work environments (Yuck need 2 more for iBook Author and iTunes University)
while none of this is good for my ADHD problems … I at least have things to focus on when that ADHD kicks-in bad!
@};- MH
Usually *something* will inspire me, be it music, tv, something I read on the 'net or saw in a movie or another game, or read in a book, and the old mind goes into overdrive imagining what this new game will be like.
I'm talking cinematic imagery within a 2D world, and trying to get a sense of what it will *feel* like to play the game, and an overall thematic continuity that will 'frame' the game. This takes weeks, if not months...
The ideas just stew in my head while I do other stuff.
Then I start thinking of 'features' and 'systems' - if you do this, what happens? How do you keep the action on-screen? What kind of recycling can I do to keep performance high? etc etc
The name comes pretty much straight away. It encapsulates the whole game, tells the story, and leads the design in some cases.
I look to see if there's anything similar on the app store. Research is important! If I play 10 run and jump games, for example, which ones did I like? Why? What *didn't* I like? Why?
Then some art is done, to get a feel for the look of the game, and I make a folder that everything pertaining to the game is stored in.
"To do" lists, and a list of features in general, is written down in a text file on my desktop. I have books with the roughest of sketches in them too, but I find that as I'm only ever working on my game on the laptop, having a text file there with everything in it saves me looking around for stuff.
After that, I just build the game, feature by feature, step by step, testing it constantly as I go along, tweaking values like movement speed, enemy appearances, just getting it absolutely right from the start.
One thing all my games have in common is that the first level is always finished before any more are added. This just saves me a bunch of time later. I can copy/paste scenes and edit them once I have the gameplay down.
So, level 1 is finished. Great! Let's do level 2! You change a few things around, see if it still works, see if you can go from scene 1 to 2 ok. Testing just those two levels to make sure everything works. Then adding more levels, one at a time, always playing the game, always testing it… and make sure the pacing is just right...
And here's the important part. After spending a couple of months working on the game, getting it just right for me, I give it to other people and see what they think. Feedback at this stage is invaluable!
Also, the last two weeks I put more features into the game that occur to me as the game's drawing to a close. The reason is, I get bored. Playing and testing the game for two months makes me tire of it. So I add things to spice it up for myself.
I reckon if *I'm* bored after two months, other people may get bored sooner. So let's put that off by adding stuff!
I'm also asking all the time "Is this enough? Will people like it? What more can I add?"
And I always, ALWAYS try and think of ways in which people might break the game, and try and make provisions for it!
My latest game, an adventure called 'ProjectSAMMY' for now (it's not the actual title of the game - but I don't want to give away too much this early) is probably my most planned game yet.
I haven't started actually 'making' the game yet, haven't even opened up GS at all.
But I'm working out the systems in my head e.g.. about 6 locations, split into a maximum of 9 rooms. Use one scene per location, move the camera to see different 'rooms' with it.
How will the inventory work? How many items will I have? Where can I go to get photos of certain locations? Will there be character interaction? What kinds of puzzles would be fun? How will the map work? etc etc
For this game I've got myself a little book! I write in it in pencil, so I can change things easily. I set out the maps for different locations, work out puzzles, work out what screens go where etc etc.
Here's a pic! https://twitter.com/#!/Quantum_Sheep/media/slideshow?url=pic.twitter.com/w0grsBA4
There's a work in progress screenshot of the game here too: http://quantum-sheep.com/news/
This is all fun for me. Imagining a world, how it works, the unique problems each game brings to be solved… it's fun!
It's also a lot of hard work, a lot of planning, a lot of questions, a lot of testing and feedback… but it kinda works
Don't know if that'll help anyone! I hope it does!
QS
:DKeep em coming ppl !!
I wanted to make a first person adventure game. Started to learn Game Salad. After I've finish learning it, I had a scene where I was testing different behaviors while leaning Game Salad. And what was happening in that scene was kind of fun. So I decide to make a game from it. You can call this scene a very rough prototype of my game. After this, I’ve started to “write code”, write design document, make art, searching and collecting music, graphics asset and a lot of different information at the same time. Down below I will give you more detailed look at the process.
Tasks
Most of my tasks, ideas, bugs, are going to Google Tasks. This is awesome, because it’s available on any device and it’s pretty fast to manage. I will advice you to use free iOS app, called GoTask for this, because its makes process of adding tasks from iOS device, a lot faster.
DesignDoc
Right now, my DesignDoc consist of dialog\monolog lines of the characters. Basic description of first 10 levels, for some new levels I will draw a scheme. Basic description for the enemies, bosses, upgrades. Still a lot of thing is just in my head.
Art
Doing it by myself. It mostly consists of different free images combined in Photoshop. Also I did have to learn some 3d software for this project. Most of the time I’m making graphics with the “code” or even before the “code”. I can redraw some things couple of times, but I can’t work with white squares. I need to see how this thing fit in to the whole picture, what size should it be etc. I’m not a Photoshop guru, but I like how my game looks.
Music
Already have spend more than 300 hours trying to find good music for the project. I’m sure it will take a lot less for the next project. Those are in my opinion about the reasons of why it’s taking so long.
1. I’m considering music a big and very important part of the game, that’s why I’m so picky.
2. Don’t know why, but most of the music just didn’t match my current project.
3. At first I was trying to find free or very cheap music. As soon as I switched to the paid music, I’ve started to find good and not bad tracks for the project. But it did happened just recently.
Sound
Right now there is almost no sound in my game, but I’m planning to make a demo, and give it to my friends, to gather their opinions. I’m planning to have a sound for every event in this demo.
Marketing
Did made a website ( http://creashock-studios.com ). And I’m always gathering information for marketing. Before release of the app, planning to make a detailed doc with the description for my marketing actions\strategy. Right now it’s just a big pile of different docs.
Self-improvement
After I’ve learned Game Salad, I’m always reading books about GameDesign, Storytelling, Marketing. Of course, I also read internet on same topics. As I mentioned before, did also learn some new software.
Information and resources
I’m always gathering something. Templates, music, sounds, graphics, information. For example my docs folder, where I’ve gather information only related to my app, contains 150 files. Most of those files was created by me, and contain very useful information. Strongly advice you to use dropbox to have all that precious files backuped, and be available from every device with the internet.
Also I did want to say that I’ve always thinking about my next project. I don’t think about it too much, because it can distract me from the current project. But when I’m browsing templates, music ect. I’ve also gather some thing for the next project, if I found something that matches it.
Hope that help, feel free to ask a question.
True That LOL
-Thomas
-Thomas
Quite simply: Relax and let your mind wander.
Jake
When using things like speed and accelerate its always best to make a game attribute for these as you can tweak on the fly with out going into the actor and changing.
Darren.
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