Making Games for Me

Hey there, Gamers and Game Makers!

This week, I want to talk a little bit about something I've noticed with my designs as of late. In the past, when I was working on a game, I viewed that game project very much as a product. Now, of course I still enjoyed working on my past games and I'm very proud of some of those ideas. Hide The Body being a prime example of a game which had such a goofy premise and yet was a great deal of fun to both make and play. Yet, I viewed it as a product.

Since, I've been back in college for year 2 of my computer science degree course, I've had less time than last year for my game design work. Now this doesn't mean I haven't been working on games. I have one long term game project that I'm chipping away at. I also have several small game ideas on paper that I think I'll breath some life into in the coming Christmas break in the form of short jam style game projects. The thing about working on these games by chipping away at them in what little spare time I have is that they've become more of a hobby than a job. I feel as if I've gone back to making games purely for me as opposed to for a market audience. Having removed the very strict deadlines I used to work towards and making the long term project on a much more flexible timeline has taken away a lot of the pressure I once put on myself.

The addition of making small random games in short spaces of time has become that creative outlet that I very much crave amongst the day to day work of my computer science studies. It provides me with a creative outlet that still requires a lot of the technical knowledge I need to keep sharp. Making these kind of short games also allows me to take risks with game ideas I normally wouldn't take. The great thing about this is while you may make a lot of stupid games, you might make one or two gems that hold potential for a more developed version.

So, I guess what I would like for people to take away from this post is that it's ok to simply chip away at a game project for a longer period of time or just make short stupid little games. You'll enjoy it more and do better work as a result of not rushing your game. Have fun with it. Wasn't that why you started in the first place?

Until next time!