ID:24247
 
So the past few days I've been working on a new project, even though I said I'd probably be getting back to champions. Blame Vortezz. I don't anticipate this one taking very long, though; it ought to be pretty much done for good by next weekend.

I keep thinking I ought to feel guilty about making a game that is, for the first time, unabashedly and 100% a fan game. Which isn't to say I haven't drawn heavy inspiration from other games before, but never so closely tied to a single game--Delve! and Bombard took a lot from Gauntlet! and Scorched Earth, respectively, but they were open homages to the entire genres those grandfather games had spawned.

On the other hand, in spite of a few cosmetic changes the new project is, for all intents and purposes, Aerobiz. The design goals can be summed up as "I want to play Aerobiz online". Not "I want to reinvent Aerobiz" or "I want to remake Aerobiz"--I just want Aerobiz and nothing more.

Fan game or not, it feels pretty exhilirating. I mean, yeah, it feels great just to be working again at all after so long an absence. But it's amazing how much difference it makes to be working on a fully defined project--I've always thought I've done a good job of planning out games most of the way to completion before starting work, but the difference between working on a game that's "most of the way" defined and working on one that's fully defined is pretty amazing. It's just so much easier to work knowing exactly where you stand in terms of your progress--I've written up 80 to 90% of a game's planned features ahead of time, but I've never really noticed how much stress that last bit of uncertainty was adding. I think this explains a lot of the motivational problems I've had with previous projects.

Of course, then the difficulty becomes forcing myself to finalize that last 10% before I begin... I've always been a concrete, hands-on sort of developer, which has led to its own share of problems. It's just always been easiest to flesh ideas as I come to them, and now I find myself wondering if this is not the key reason I have so many broken and half-finished projects lying around...

Then I say to myself, "No, wait. I have so many unfinished projects because I am a lazy bum." Then I stroll away, whistling nonchalantly. (Or I would if I could whistle very well. Instead I mostly just hum, which isn't quite as nonchalant.)
"The design goals can be summed up as "I want to play Aerobiz online". Not "I want to reinvent Aerobiz" or "I want to remake Aerobiz"--I just want Aerobiz and nothing more."

I feel this way many times when I create a fan game. I don't want to remake it, or make it into something new, I just want to make it online.
Delve! is still my most least anticipated project of yours. When are you going to finish not finish it?

Going into a project with a gung-ho no-plan attitude is guaranteed to make your project fail. I'm the living example. At the same time, however, not taking any time to allow yourself freedom to implement random features here or there will quickly destroy your interest in the project and turn it into work. If you're getting paid to do it, who cares?, but most of our games are being developed on our own time and money for little or no kickback.
That's how I felt about Drugwars. Although I did end up changing some things to make the game better, I just wanted an online multiplayer version.

That reminds me, I need to clean up that source code too.

What I love about games like what you describe that take a short time to finish the notes and a short time to finish the game, is they are a lot of fun to make. I had a blast writing some of my libraries, because they only took a week or two to write. When it comes to working on trivial content in Dungeon Diver, the AI in Surreal Dreams, car weapons in Fate, etc. I just get extremely demotivated due to how long and boring it will be.
I can't whistle either.
The design goals can be summed up as "I want to play Aerobiz online". Not "I want to reinvent Aerobiz" or "I want to remake Aerobiz"--I just want Aerobiz and nothing more.

I don't know how much more you could've hit the nail on the head how I feel and the fact that you feel the same way excites me greatly! :D

BellAir will be alive again!
Vortezz wrote:
BellAir will be alive again!

Possibly not, or at least not just yet. At this point it pregenerates corporations with automatic names; while I'd like to include the ability to name your company, that's probably going to be a host setting and won't be implemented until the game is ready for hosting. During the testing phase I'm really not particularly interested in the cutthroat corporate rivalry between "ur a fagget" and "SUCK MY DICK LOL".
You remember CGSG too, huh?