Making Short and Sweet Games
Posted by Rampant Coyote on June 12, 2013
This was supposed to be what the one-game-per-month idea was supposed to be about (which I’ve not really done much to participate in). But the other day I saw this ad:
There’s a part of me – the kid who spent way too much time and money in the arcades in his youth – who would just love to make games like this forever. Once I had the engine “down” and a bunch of tools and pipelines ironed out (and some reliable content partners), I could maybe crank something like this out in six months… three months to make the game, and three months to just test, debug, polish, and get ready for release, and just make it as fun as can be. I mean, from the looks of it, it’s really just an expansion on Defender, right? Mixed together with some obvious LOLCat cuteness and some late-8-bit / early 16-bit sensibilities and gameplay, a bit of modern snarkiness (note the Xbone snark), and… boom! Sounds like win.
Working on a game that’s short, fun, and out the door in just a few months? As much as I love making RPGs, there’s something pretty awesome about that. And yes, I realize better than most that games always take longer than one expects. But hey, it’s my fantasy, I’m-a gonna let it play out the way I wanna. The guys making these games put every bit as much blood and sweat into making these “smaller” indie games, but just turn their efforts into multiple smaller titles. That’s very cool. And some days, that sounds like a lot of fun.
I’m constantly torn because, as a part-time game dev, I feel I should devote every productive work moment to my primary focus – which is, right now, Frayed Knights. Anything else is just a distraction. But by the same token, it can get easy to get burned out on a project that takes such a long time to reach fruition. And I’ve got more games I want to make than I could get done if I live to be 100.
Filed Under: Indie Evangelism - Comments: Read the First Comment
Cuthalion said,
“And I’ve got more games I want to make than I could get done if I live to be 100.”
I feel like that about everything. And I’m still young. D: