Please help me to become more confident in my game

[CoconutPanda]

Hello I think a few months ago I asked what things you need in an RPG game. I was free back then but now I go to continue school for most of the time and I find it hard to have motivation to develop the game after a ton of schoolwork. I find myself relaxing or just doing whatever I want.

The state of the RPGMaker game I am making right now is almost complete on chapter 1. However I am not confident on it yet.
It has been a mess. My ideas between gameplay, writing and story always gets messy in my head. "I feel like this should work!" Then I'll go straight plan the idea and add more until I mess everthing up which leads me to not wanting to continue the idea, therefore wasting my time. Ireally really want this to make it work I just need more confidence and motivation so please give me tips!

I will show some screenshot on my gameand I want to ask you people what do you think about it? Is the art fine?
(By the way my main inspiration for this game is blacksouls and the takamakuran games. Why it led me to make my art style through the whole game like this.)

 

[Icarus Media]

Sounds like Analysis paralysis, where you're so fixated on planning and getting it 'right' that you forget the 'Doing' part. It's far better to do, even a little and get it wrong than not to do anything at all even if the theoretical planning is 100% sound in your head. At least in my opinion, doing something badly in game development can always be improved, suffering and becoming demotivated by analysis paralysis cannot be improved because nothing has been 'done' to improve.

In short better a crappy basic game than none at all. Crappy at least is a foundation which you can build on.

 

[Icarus Media]

Alboe Interactive Dammed Baka plays Avaron1974 Doorknob22 PTGames Rafster

Any advice for this guy?

 

[CoconutPanda]

Sounds like Analysis paralysis, where you're so fixated on planning and getting it 'right' that you forget the 'Doing' part. It's far better to do, even a little and get it wrong than not to do anything at all even if the theoretical planning is 100% sound in your head. At least in my opinion, doing something badly in game development can always be improved, suffering and becoming demotivated by analysis paralysis cannot be improved because nothing has been 'done' to improve.

In short better a crappy basic game than none at all. Crappy at least is a foundation which you can build on.

Hey thank you! Honestly I've done mostly of the game what i originally wanted, Just a few more adjustments and fixes and boom, I think I would be able to release a demo or a playable version publicly next week(schoolwork takes most of my time)

It's just that I feel like I could improve more and more to it that I never implement them into the game for an example a system like in Grand Ende II where you could talk to your companion anywhere and possibly have sex or do some funny interactions with them. I had ton of rough sketches and these were the examples


believe me I had a ton of ideas to add more but I think I'll go with what you said, I'll just go with my original idea than adding more stuff into it. I just want to be more confident on what I'll be releasing next week after even though it's gonna 'probably' be bad.

 

[Icarus Media]

Hey thank you! Honestly I've done mostly of the game what i originally wanted, Just a few more adjustments and fixes and boom, I think I would be able to release a demo or a playable version publicly next week(schoolwork takes most of my time)

It's just that I feel like I could improve more and more to it that I never implement them into the game for an example a system like in Grand Ende II where you could talk to your companion anywhere and possibly have sex or do some funny interactions with them. I had ton of rough sketches and these were the examples
View attachment 2051210 View attachment 2051211 View attachment 2051213

believe me I had a ton of ideas to add more but I think I'll go with what you said, I'll just go with my original idea than adding more stuff into it. I just want to be more confident on what I'll be releasing next week after even though it's gonna 'probably' be bad.

If I may, you seem to have this idea that if it's a bad release that is a bad thing. Falling off your bike when you were learning was 'bad' but you didn't think too much or throw in the towel, you got back on that and you rode again....and again...and again...did you worry about making a mistake or looking bad? No, in school and college and society and work if you make a 'Mistake' it's 'bad' but in real life and when you are a dev responsible for your own self and the things you produce, mistakes are 'good'. They help you to become better and put out a better game, just like your thought process every time you fell off that bike.

So put the game out, take any flak or feedback and keep going, you don't fail just because you were 'bad' and fell off the bike, you only fail when you stop getting back on it and learning from the last time. Same as being a developer, or indeed...most things in life. Good luck.

P.S. improvements can always be done later, no pyramid was built in a day, the foundation was built first and then more stone put on top later...

 

[Baka_Energy_studios]

Here's your new daily routine to gain confidence:
1. Get up in the morning
2. 150 push ups over rusty nails
3. Jog 2x around the country you live in
4. Drink 50 ml of water(men don't need to drink that much, that's a myth contrived by the fitness industry)
5. Eat one slice of a banana to feed the ancient gorilla gene inside you
6. Go swimming in a hawaiian lava lake. Ten minutes only!
7. Disrupt a feminist meeting and scream PENIS as loud as you can.
8. Go to a shooting range. Train focus and patience. One shot, one target only practice.
9. Jump to the moon. Barefooted!
10. Go home
11. Say mom you love her. (It's important for your emotional well being. A lot of folks don't do that. Don't be like them. Be better)
12. Complete a 5000 pieces puzzle in 15 minutes ... blindfolded.
13. Drink 50 ml of water again.
14. Eat a beestock raw. Carbs. And protein!
15. Sleep.
16. Repeat.

 

[Icarus Media]

Here's your new daily routine to gain confidence:
1. Get up in the morning
2. 150 push ups over rusty nails
3. Jog 2x around the country you live in
4. Drink 50 ml of water(men don't need to drink that much, that's a myth contrived by the fitness industry)
5. Eat one slice of a banana to feed the ancient gorilla gene inside you
6. Go swimming in a hawaiian lava lake. Ten minutes only!
7. Disrupt a feminist meeting and scream PENIS as loud as you can.
8. Go to a shooting range. Train focus and patience. One shot, one target only practice.
9. Go home
10. Say mom you love her. (It's important for your emotional well being. A lot of folks don't do that. Don't be like them. Be better)
11. Complete a 5000 pieces puzzle in 15 minutes ... blindfolded.
12. Drink 50 ml of water again.
13. Eat a beestock raw. Carbs. And protein!
14. Sleep.
15. Repeat.

*sigh* this is why you're not invited to parties...

 

[Baka_Energy_studios]

*sigh* this is why you're not invited to parties...

Spoilsport!

 

[Rafster]

I wish I could help you buddy, but my idea-planning process is also a chaotic mess, I'm always all over the place when I design-plan-program... etc. But you're right on one point: feedback is useful, especially feedback BEFORE launching the game.

I wouldn't advice to publish right now, at launch you only have a chance to make a good first impression, and if you fail at that, players won't be eager to give your game a second chance even if it improved. You can always do what I did: Start a thread on the programming, development and arts section of the forum, and put a demo there, along with info and screenshots of the game. There are users that will try your game, and you'll be getting feedback. I did it for 11 months, until I had enough content to put the first version here. Well, don't do it for 11 months like me, that's crazy... but at least one or two months, to gather feedback about your demo would be good. And you might build a userbase even before you publish the game here officially.

 

[おい！]

Here's your new daily routine to gain confidence:
1. Get up in the morning
2. 150 push ups over rusty nails
3. Jog 2x around the country you live in
4. Drink 50 ml of water(men don't need to drink that much, that's a myth contrived by the fitness industry)
5. Eat one slice of a banana to feed the ancient gorilla gene inside you
6. Go swimming in a hawaiian lava lake. Ten minutes only!
7. Disrupt a feminist meeting and scream PENIS as loud as you can.
8. Go to a shooting range. Train focus and patience. One shot, one target only practice.
9. Jump to the moon. Barefooted!
10. Go home
11. Say mom you love her. (It's important for your emotional well being. A lot of folks don't do that. Don't be like them. Be better)
12. Complete a 5000 pieces puzzle in 15 minutes ... blindfolded.
13. Drink 50 ml of water again.
14. Eat a beestock raw. Carbs. And protein!
15. Sleep.
16. Repeat.

Really?
2. 150 push ups over rusty nails? Real men use broken bottles?
4. Drink 50 ml of water(men don't need to drink that much, that's a myth contrived by the fitness industry)? Real men just drink their own piss.
13. Drink 50 ml of water again? Same answer as number 4.

The rest seems OK.

 

[Alboe Interactive]

The state of the RPGMaker game I am making right now is almost complete on chapter 1. However I am not confident on it yet.
It has been a mess. My ideas between gameplay, writing and story always gets messy in my head. "I feel like this should work!" Then I'll go straight plan the idea and add more until I mess everthing up which leads me to not wanting to continue the idea, therefore wasting my time. Ireally really want this to make it work I just need more confidence and motivation so please give me tips!

Developing and learning is an ongoing process. It's defeating to constantly bump up against your own skill ceiling. Having ideas that you seem unable to implement feels like a waste of time. Or at least that's what looks like at first glance.

So try a different perspective. You don't know what you don't know. Every time you experiment you are learning by gaining a better understanding of your limitations. Even if you don't end up with what you wanted, the time spent trying is still a worthwhile skill-building exercise.

You said you're almost done with the first chapter, so I'll assume you have an outline. I would suggest you split your outline into two categories: Must Have, and Nice to Have. Build all the essential Must Have stuff first, then experiment and see if you can reach Nice to Have stretch goals. Sometimes the brain takes a lot of time to work through a problem so the first time around you may fail, but after a while, it may finally click what you needed to do. And often, what you needed was more experience which is something you can't conjure up out of nowhere.

If you always view parts of your work as a failure, it's going to be harder and harder to come back to it and stay motivated. I know this from firsthand experience. Keep the development process fun and engaging for yourself so it doesn't feel like a chore. Everyone's first attempt pales in comparison to what the future version of them is capable of. A great deal of confidence stems from competence. And a good way to gain competency is to refine your process by experimenting and learning.

 

[Losersriot]

Here's your new daily routine to gain confidence:
1. Get up in the morning
2. 150 push ups over rusty nails
3. Jog 2x around the country you live in
4. Drink 50 ml of water(men don't need to drink that much, that's a myth contrived by the fitness industry)
5. Eat one slice of a banana to feed the ancient gorilla gene inside you
6. Go swimming in a hawaiian lava lake. Ten minutes only!
7. Disrupt a feminist meeting and scream PENIS as loud as you can.
8. Go to a shooting range. Train focus and patience. One shot, one target only practice.
9. Jump to the moon. Barefooted!
10. Go home
11. Say mom you love her. (It's important for your emotional well being. A lot of folks don't do that. Don't be like them. Be better)
12. Complete a 5000 pieces puzzle in 15 minutes ... blindfolded.
13. Drink 50 ml of water again.
14. Eat a beestock raw. Carbs. And protein!
15. Sleep.
16. Repeat.

You forgot paragraph number zero. Here it is:
0) Burn before reading.

 

[Doorknob22]

Seeing the end of project, even a tiny one, gives you a sense of accomplishment and motivation. On the other hand, getting buried under an ever growing heap of half baked ideas will despair even the most determined creator.

Hence my beginners' tip would be to start with a tiny game you can start and finish. Let's say an hour or two playing time. Nothing fancy, no huge ideas or groundbreaking innovation. Release it for free. Get some feedback. Maybe some fans if you're lucky.

Then start working a second game, which may or may not be related to the first. Make it bigger, but again: limit your vision to something you can finish.

Once these two are out, you'll know how to to proceed.

Good luck!

 

[Davos2]

First off, love her design.
Second off, like Icarus said, you are probably over thinking it and should tell your brain to shut the flag up and make something [Easier said than done I'll admit...I know I'm still dealing with time management and getting over my own nerves].
Third, I'm not sure if this would help in your case, but try to get a little something done each day as long as it is not interfering with your real life [college work, job if you got one, and own personal well being.]. Even if it is only like 50 words or a few line of code. Slow and steady, even if being in a blazing mindset is nice.

Fourth...This is your first game right? Try to relax a little. It's bound to fall short in some regard due to inexperience and tinkering with things.
Fifth...I know I'm going a bit on, sorry....Maybe collaboration to ease the workload?

 

[Baka_Energy_studios]

Really?
2. 150 push ups over rusty nails? Real men use broken bottles?
4. Drink 50 ml of water(men don't need to drink that much, that's a myth contrived by the fitness industry)? Real men just drink their own piss.
13. Drink 50 ml of water again? Same answer as number 4.

The rest seems OK.

Broken bottles? Beer bottles perhaps? NO. NO. NO. You can't risk fatal liver failure while winning the Iron man marathon with both arms tied behind your back.
Only hippies and other crazy fucknuts drink their own piss. Their breath stinks like it. Don't get associated with them.

 

[anne O'nymous]

It has been a mess. My ideas between gameplay, writing and story always gets messy in my head. "I feel like this should work!" Then I'll go straight plan the idea and add more until I mess everthing up which leads me to not wanting to continue the idea, therefore wasting my time. Ireally really want this to make it work I just need more confidence and motivation so please give me tips!

From my point of view, what you need is to limit your imagination, more than effective confidence and motivation. You feel that what you did is not good enough, then loose the desire to continue, because you've gone too far.

One way to deal with this is to write the story first, but not straight from start to stop. You need to define limits that you'll split into smaller limits, and so on until you've the whole canvas of your story.
You start by the outlines of the story. This way, you know where it start, how it should end, what will be the universe and the background of the story. This will already limits what is possible. Any idea you have that don't fit this is to forget directly ; at worse keep it on a post-it for your next story.
Then you split in chapters. They don't need to be effective chapters, but they'll be different parts of your story. Once again they'll act as limits. If it's the story of a shy guy and you're on the first chapter, any idea that imply a high level of confidence from the MC is out of place, so forget it.
And you continue to split, adding the different key moments of this chapter, then this sub chapter, and so on until the moment you just have a suit of scenes. Each time the limits are smaller, keeping your imagination on track.
It will just be the outlines at this time, but when you've the outlines of each scenes, your imagination can't go too wild. You've to write something that correspond to those outlines, and that match with what happened previously and, more important, match with what will happen next ; you can't have the MC go full tantrum and leave the room if in the next scene he's supposed to be calm and still in the room. At worse you messed a scene and just have to rewrite it, it's not something really important, all writers have been in this kind of situation. What is important is that you'll notice relatively fast that you're out of track, fast enough for it to not really matter.

The confidence and motivation will grow slowly while you'll be doing this. You've already done "all this", it's more than you've done before, you should be proud of you. And you'll also starts to love your story, what will motive you to continue it.
I don't remember what famous author said this, to be honest I don't even remember how exactly he said it... Well... some famous author once said that he continue writing after the first chapter because he's like the future readers, he want to know what will happen next. And this is the best motivation one can have to continue writing.
It's also a good way to put writing into perspective. Even writers that sell tons of books aren't omniscient persons who know everything about their story before they have wrote the last word.

 

[Skylar Reign]

My ideas between gameplay, writing and story always gets messy in my head.

I am going to add my 2 cents as a writer, and it's a long read. First and foremost, let's talk about your MC. Is it female or male would be the first question; futa isn't my cup of tea, so I can't comment on that. Now take that character and flesh him/her out, age, and physical description first. With age, you chose sexual experience; if he/she is 18 (because we don't want loli), you could write the said character as sexually inexperienced/virgin and build upon that. If they are older, you can give them a backstory of their sexual escapades, the reader doesn't need to know this, but you do. This brings us to the character's wants, needs, and desires; give the character a backstory; where did they grow up? How did their parents treat them, were they orphaned? You get the gist.
This may help you out with that -

You must be registered to see the links

Now we have the main character figured out; let's put a cast around him/her. I would advise keeping things simple and having 2 to 4 love interests at the start. You could always have one-off sexual encounters with characters that aren't pertinent to the story. Repeat the above process to your main LI's. Yup, things just got real you have a cast now, love, congrats. Now that we have all that figured out let's get into the story and first figure out how each of the above characters will interact with each other. Your character outlines will aid you with that.

Let's start writing the story. Figure out your starting point; a narrative can begin in many ways. For example, I went the cliche route with my game, making my MC wake up from her dreams; she just got a new job and was starting a new chapter of her life. After you get the starting scene/story sorted, jump straight to your end. How do you want to end the game? How many endings do you want to have? Does every LI get an ending? Maybe there is a throuple ending, maybe there's an ending where the MC ends up alone and broken. You get the point.

Now comes the meat and potatoes of the story; write an outline with broad strokes of how your MC will get to those endings. You will get major plot points/scenes. YAY, you're almost there. Have fun with it; it's YOUR story YOU want to tell. When you get to this point, there are two ways of proceeding. You could detail the outline more, meaning you write short lines of how your MC will get from the starting point to the first plot point, etc. (This makes the writing easier because you know exactly where you're going). The next option is to write as an exploration from your broad outline. I have detailed only my true path in my game; call me a sucker for love; the other paths I am writing as it goes according to my broader outline.

I hope this helped. Just remember art is subjective and what one person thinks is perfection, another would think it's trash. Also, people will criticize and call you worthless. And that's fine; they are entitled to their opinion, but don't let that be your reality. As for feedback, first, before posting the game, ask someone creating a game similar to yours or on the same engine to playtest it and ask them to criticize it. I sent chapter one of my game to Rafster , and he called me an untalented dumb whore; I kid you not (He is a gem, and I love him, JK). He gave me feedback and told me that my game needed to be longer, and I heeded his advice. As for community feedback, that is helpful, too; as of now, the main criticism I am getting regarding my game is the stylized images being over the top. And if that sentiment persists, I may give the folks another image pack later down the road. So do listen and be prepared to evolve.

Don't be afraid; just do it. If you fall, just get up and take that next step; that is why we live. We need to fail to get better, learn, and experience new things. Good luck, and I look forward to seeing what you have in store for us.

 

[Alcahest]

Hello I think a few months ago I asked what things you need in an RPG game. I was free back then but now I go to continue school for most of the time and I find it hard to have motivation to develop the game after a ton of schoolwork. I find myself relaxing or just doing whatever I want.

If "doing whatever you want" is not working on the game, now, before the first release, I would take that as a warning sign. Things will not get easier once you release the game and you have to fix bugs and work on updates. My advice would be to aim for a short game so you can see how it feels and if you are cut out for a longer project.

 

[CoconutPanda]

First, thank you all for responses and after reading all of them it makes me quite happy to know there might be more better decision than what I was originally going for!

Start a thread on the programming, development and arts section of the forum, and put a demo there, along with info and screenshots of the game.

Hello! This is actually what I wanted to do, I wanted to release the game on a specific section of this forum and see what people think and give me feedback on it and you seem to point out the dev and art section. If possible so, how did you post yours? I would wanna know since I'm still kind of a newbie here when it comes to posting threads.

So try a different perspective. You don't know what you don't know. Every time you experiment you are learning by gaining a better understanding of your limitations. Even if you don't end up with what you wanted, the time spent trying is still a worthwhile skill-building exercise.

You're right maybe I should look more in different perspectives. All i've been doing now is just trial and error leading me to be frustrated but I guess I'm way too focused on what's bad and not what's actually good. Thank you!

tiny game you can start and finish. Let's say an hour or two playing time. Nothing fancy, no huge ideas or groundbreaking innovation. Release it for free. Get some feedback. Maybe some fans if you're lucky.

Hmm I won't lie but I think my game already can reach 1 hour atleast from prologue to chapter one. I was already ambitious to make like 3 chapters for this one whole game (originally) as an introduction on one of main protagonist of the world I am building.
Ofcourse after I release this demo, I've been wanting to make very VERY simple games I could make without using a beginner friendly engine like RPGMaker.(Ofcourse that doesn't mean I won't make any game on RPGM forever) Thank you!

The confidence and motivation will grow slowly while you'll be doing this. You've already done "all this", it's more than you've done before, you should be proud of you. And you'll also starts to love your story, what will motive you to continue it.

Again thank you, but yes all of this, I think I'm proud, on doing this game only by myself and all of the tips you have given me made me rethink how I am going to pace the whole story for each chapter >

First off, love her design.
Second off, like Icarus said, you are probably over thinking it and should tell your brain to shut the flag up and make something [Easier said than done I'll admit...I know I'm still dealing with time management and getting over my own nerves].
Third, I'm not sure if this would help in your case, but try to get a little something done each day as long as it is not interfering with your real life [college work, job if you got one, and own personal well being.]. Even if it is only like 50 words or a few line of code. Slow and steady, even if being in a blazing mindset is nice.

Fourth...This is your first game right? Try to relax a little. It's bound to fall short in some regard due to inexperience and tinkering with things.
Fifth...I know I'm going a bit on, sorry....Maybe collaboration to ease the workload?

Thanks for the compliment on her design ^o^/
If we're talking about collaboration to ease the workload, I kinda stepped into that...almost. When I was still in starting the chapter 1, finished doing prologue. I was way too motivated to make the game all by myself as if I thought I could make the game as a solo dev atleast for my first game. Unfortunately still have that mindset, let's just say it's a test of "proving of self" kind of thing.

 

[CoconutPanda]

I am going to add my 2 cents as a writer, and it's a long read. First and foremost, let's talk about your MC. Is it female or male would be the first question; futa isn't my cup of tea, so I can't comment on that. Now take that character and flesh him/her out, age, and physical description first. With age, you chose sexual experience; if he/she is 18 (because we don't want loli), you could write the said character as sexually inexperienced/virgin and build upon that. If they are older, you can give them a backstory of their sexual escapades, the reader doesn't need to know this, but you do. This brings us to the character's wants, needs, and desires; give the character a backstory; where did they grow up? How did their parents treat them, were they orphaned? You get the gist.
This may help you out with that -

You must be registered to see the links

Now we have the main character figured out; let's put a cast around him/her. I would advise keeping things simple and having 2 to 4 love interests at the start. You could always have one-off sexual encounters with characters that aren't pertinent to the story. Repeat the above process to your main LI's. Yup, things just got real you have a cast now, love, congrats. Now that we have all that figured out let's get into the story and first figure out how each of the above characters will interact with each other. Your character outlines will aid you with that.

Let's start writing the story. Figure out your starting point; a narrative can begin in many ways. For example, I went the cliche route with my game, making my MC wake up from her dreams; she just got a new job and was starting a new chapter of her life. After you get the starting scene/story sorted, jump straight to your end. How do you want to end the game? How many endings do you want to have? Does every LI get an ending? Maybe there is a throuple ending, maybe there's an ending where the MC ends up alone and broken. You get the point.

Now comes the meat and potatoes of the story; write an outline with broad strokes of how your MC will get to those endings. You will get major plot points/scenes. YAY, you're almost there. Have fun with it; it's YOUR story YOU want to tell. When you get to this point, there are two ways of proceeding. You could detail the outline more, meaning you write short lines of how your MC will get from the starting point to the first plot point, etc. (This makes the writing easier because you know exactly where you're going). The next option is to write as an exploration from your broad outline. I have detailed only my true path in my game; call me a sucker for love; the other paths I am writing as it goes according to my broader outline.

Thank you very much! For the amazing response. Although some of the parts, I've already implemented in my brain because of how some of my friends who write stories tell me same thing when it comes to character's/cast and the progression of a character. As for the multiple ending I think I would wanna make a linear ending first(True ending) before I add new ones, I think that would give me more workload! ToT

I hope this helped. Just remember art is subjective and what one person thinks is perfection, another would think it's trash. Also, people will criticize and call you worthless. And that's fine; they are entitled to their opinion, but don't let that be your reality. As for feedback, first, before posting the game, ask someone creating a game similar to yours or on the same engine to playtest it and ask them to criticize it. I sent chapter one of my game to @Rafster , and he called me an untalented dumb whore; I kid you not (He is a gem, and I love him, JK). He gave me feedback and told me that my game needed to be longer, and I heeded his advice. As for community feedback, that is helpful, too; as of now, the main criticism I am getting regarding my game is the stylized images being over the top. And if that sentiment persists, I may give the folks another image pack later down the road. So do listen and be prepared to evolve.

Jeez now I wouldn't be suprised if I get criticized with an added insult xD But honestly would want a criticsm with advice on how to improve it or atleast steps too.

About art is yeah, I've been thinking of how I'm going to deal with the critism of my choice of artstyle and the look/feel of the game. But I already overcame those worries and I ended up with "Just take it and improve, this is your first game, don't get stressed about it."

Again thank you so much for the amazing response, this will help me think more about my characters!