The GameDev Lounge 00000011

[Daxar]

Its stupidly ambitious and at the very least would be a technical achievement to get 1 world running, would it be worth me trying? or should I just make something stupidly simple?... feel like I'm answering my own question

It's a common game development trap to expand upon an idea TOO much and to start a project that has far too big of a scope. I think it may be due in part to just how many MMOs and open world games are out on the market currently; it makes indies fall into the trap of thinking they can do this sort of thing, without realizing these companies have giant teams of hundreds of people working overtime for years in order to make each game. And that's using a lot of technology the company already has built or licensed from other companies! Unless you'll have a team of that size, and will be able to put that much time and effort into it yourself, there's a massive scope problem.

That's not saying it's a bad game idea; it's not. Implemented correctly the idea is great. Therein lies the problem: Anybody can come up with great ideas for games. Good game design is knowing your budget and scope, and being able to effectively communicate these ideas you have in a way that your team is excited to build their part of the game. Or, if you're going an indie route, knowing how to build each part of the game yourself, knowing how to limit your scope properly, and knowing when to keep polishing your game and when to stop.

I guess I'm becoming more of a killjoy as the years go on when it comes to game design, but I feel there's honestly too little realism that goes on when it comes to indie games (and games in general), and I feel like too many people are jumping in on the bandwagon without sitting back and thinking at length about important things like scope, budget, etc. first.

That's not to say that everything you make has to be stupidly simple if you're working by yourself, but I've found in my own game design endeavors that I've learned a whole lot more from making tiny projects (like a 2048 clone that I decided to add all sorts of crazy tech to) than from all my other countless game ideas I started programming and stopped midway through because I ran out of steam (like an ambitious space RPG/exploration game idea that I'd still REALLY like to make, but jumped in too early without figuring out where I was going with it first).