Programmer's Block in Off Topic

ID:112337
 
Apr 22 2011, 4:34 pm
I've been in a state of flux for the past, I don't know, maybe two months it feels like now. I want to make something, but I just can't. I'm limited on time nowadays, what with college and all, and it's rather annoying in some aspects. However, when I get a programming assignment, I prioritize it above everything else, because it's usually the most interesting to me. I guess, if I didn't get those assignments, I probably wouldn't have any programming done in the last two months at all.

I want to make a small game, but I'm not creative enough to think of something I can contain (all of my ideas have potential to expand in some direction, which I have time/dedication issues with).

Now, we have a game development club at our college, but they want to use C++ for everything. It's not that I'm biased, but I can't get anything to compile to save my life, because the current project they have suffers from dependency hell. Three of us spent about two hours trying to get it to compile, but none of us could replicate how it was set up by it's creator, even with full access to the computer and resources. Maybe we're all just that bad, I don't know. That's one of my dead ends.

I had a small itch to make a NDS program, too. I was going to write a media player (before people flame me: I dislike moonshell and every other player I found either is broken, doesn't have enough features, or doesn't run at all). Was. I can't even get a hello world program to compile on the NDS, across three different IDEs (or command line), following all instructions. I could probably handle C++ if I didn't have to deal with the linker, libraries out the wazoo, and everything else that I can't think of. I got closer today, but then the makefile acted up, so whatever, I just set it down and I'll probably look at it next week. Another dead end.

I want to make something 3d. I have played with Coggoid (formerly known as CoreFactory), and OGRE, and OpenGL, and Ogre4j(ava), but I guess I just can't wrap my head around 3d space yet. There's that, and I don't have any assets (meshes or otherwise), or the time to create them myself. Or the time to learn how to create them. Yet another dead end.

I want to make a DM game, too, but those end up larger than they should be. I guess I just don't know where to cut my feature list, or think things through completely. There's that, and I feel like I ran out of interesting ideas. And they're all too large. I want a small idea. YADE.

I wanted to try my hand at making a game with Java or Ethanon, but then I run into the issue of "art what's that," as well as having to learn how to use the latter. I can use Java to make applications just fine, but apparently when it comes to games I'm just doomed.

I know people are going to go like 'lol placeholder art,' and I know, I can make placeholder art. But sometimes it's not really the art, it's learning how to use the tools (blender for 3d, 2d is less of a problem, some engines I'm unfamiliar with).

On an unrelated note, I've tried Unity, I can't wrap my head around the UI. Something about it makes me completely unable to figure it out. Maybe I was just having an off-day when I tried to work with it.

The worst part is, it's not even a motivation issue this time. I don't know what's worse, having motivation and nowhere to put it, or having no motivation but having places to put it.

/rant

On another unrelated note, I'm surprised to see that people are playing Doomed Dreams still. Neato. Yes, that's all I have to say.
#1 Apr 22 2011, 5:45 pm
What do you mean "but those end up larger than they should be"? You make it sound as if the game grows on its own. The only thing responsible for the project is the developer - if you want something small, make something small. If you have 20 ideas, make a game with the first 2 ideas and, through updates over time, make your way to 20. If you try to do all 20 at once, you're going to quit the project.
#2 Apr 22 2011, 5:50 pm
My active imagination pushes ideas into projects without me even realizing it. Then I receive suggestions for a project, and that basically doubles it's size. It is a fault on my part, but without a lot of mental fortitude, I can't change that. That's how the end up larger than they should be. I realize it doesn't happen on it's own.
#3 Apr 25 2011, 7:09 am
EmpirezTeam wrote:
What do you mean "but those end up larger than they should be"? You make it sound as if the game grows on its own. The only thing responsible for the project is the developer - if you want something small, make something small. If you have 20 ideas, make a game with the first 2 ideas and, through updates over time, make your way to 20. If you try to do all 20 at once, you're going to quit the project.

I would go a step further and outright ignore most of the ideas you have. What slows me down the most (aside from a complete lack of free time) is when I have a well-developed idea that's just a little vague, and I can't get the game to match the idea. If I add features as I think of them, I don't have weeks to mull them over and its easier to make the game match the idea because the ideas are simpler. For example, I might make a game and think "it needs another level", so I make another map. If I spend a few weeks planning the new map in my head it'll get so complex that it can be hard to sit down and make a satisfactory map.

Start with a simple idea (ex: a five word description of a game) and get that working. The details its missing will become obvious. No need to worry preemptively about all the details.
#4 Apr 25 2011, 7:18 am
I agree. That is what I ended up doing (at least, I did something similiar). So far, it's been nice -- I haven't thought about much else besides what's on my todo list, which I'm attempting to keep rather small (and I'm keeping a list of things to be added in each version, so each set of features will dictate a version, instead of just having every few features be a new version, and having no idea what I'll do until then).