Another consideration is that I would guess most devs don't actually have a full idea about their game before they start considering it.
Nor to how many time it will need to do it, or how much it would cost them (because Daz3D is free, but not the assets, nor the computer).
Here's a live demonstration of what you said, perhaps will it make things more understandable, and help readers who would want to start their own game have an idea regarding what await them, while avoiding some traps :
The first time I said, in a discussion, I will star to works on my own game should be in the end of 2018. And I have already shown... nothing more than the fact that I'm still starting to works on my own game.
Well, I lied, I'm not anymore starting to works on it, because I have a story...
Or more precisely, I have enough stories to make games during the whole second 50 years of my life, and probably the half century that will follow it.
The problem is that I did like everyone do, I had an idea, so I started working on it. But an idea is never enough.
An idea is the premise of a story, and some ideas, whatever how good they can looks, just can't be turned into good stories. Therefore, I worked on my first idea, past time thinking about it, developing it, until the moment I hit the wall. It's not that I don't know how to continue this story, just that the story can not continue. Either there's an effective dead end, or it start to run full circle.
It wasn't a problem, other ideas came to my mind while I was trying to make this one works, so I followed another one, then another one, and so on until the moment I finally found (cross his finger) the one that works from start to stop.
People tend to believe that an idea is enough. It's never, and when they hit the wall, they give up and quit. They have no other choice, they talked so much about their game, about their story. It's difficult to admit that you failed and publicly say, "Hey, well, you know, I'm restarting from scratch, with something totally new and different".
I also have game mechanisms and the code that goes with them...
But obviously, the story I'm now following need different game mechanisms than the one I was working on before.
And here, there's a trap. Twice I started to explore a story not because of itself, but because of an idea of game mechanism that crossed my mind. I wanted to exploit it, and needed a story that goes with it.
Readers, do not try this at home. It's a hell. The story should come naturally, if you force it, it will be a disaster.
The second trap is when you finally have a story that works not too bad, but totally fail to find a way to express it into a game format. It's frustrating, oh my fucking god what it can be frustrating.
You've to think about the story and the game mechanism together. Each time you come with a "and at this moment, that will happen", also think how you'll make it happen in the game. And once you've found the answer try to see if you can effectively code it.
And here come the more difficult part, at least for me, Daz3D...
It's also something that will limit your imagination. You need to know what is possible, both in terms of software but also in terms of available assets, before you write your story.
And by "what is possible", I mean for you. Globally speaking, nowadays you can do everything with Daz3D. With a little post works in Photoshop, Lovecraft could have turned his novella and books into kinetic novels... At least if it was good enough with Daz3D to do it, what isn't something that anyone can do.
Regarding Daz3D there's also a question of cost. If you limit to basic renders, a computer that was a top one 5 years ago can be enough. If you want more realism, you'll need a now top computer. If you want to have marvelous effect, expect to put US$ 6.000 into your computer. And if you want to do this often, so need the computer to render fast, go to US$ 10.000.
Or accept that each render you'll need for your game will need more than one hour to be done...
Plus, obviously the cost of the assets, you don't have great quality ones below US$ 15, and consider the double as the average cost.
So, yeah, there's people who start a thread, or release a preview, or even release the first update of their game. They works on it, they talk about it, they even sometimes release more... until the moment they hit the wall and vanish.
They think that doing so will give them the motivation they need. But they forget that it's not just a question of motivation...
Wanting to make your own game is a good thing guys, and girls (we need more girls in the scene). But, even if you lack of motivation, talk about it only when you're fully ready for this. Therefore, only when you've a full story, you know that it can make a game, you know how to code the game, and you know how to make the CGs for it.
Perhaps that you'll abandon before you finally make it, because you discover that it's not something for you. It's nothing to be ashamed about. Making a game isn't for everyone, you can do things that I can't, that most of the game authors can't. Anyway, you'll learn new things during this journey, so it will not be wasted time.
But is you start to effectively talk about it, then later discover that you can't make it, you'll feel really bad. So, avoid it...
And here ends the "Uncle Anne (yeah, I know
) tell you his life" episode of today.
