Group items tagged

2. Playtesting

it essentially guarantees your game will be enjoyed by more people than it would have otherwise.

3. Restricted Art Style

4. Upgrades

They want something that rewards them and keeps them invested in playing, something beyond the intrinsic rewards of getting better and competing against your own (and others') best scores.

5. Passion vs. Innovation

If the games had some innovation in them (Crossfire, Inferno, and Fluid did, in my opinion) that was a bonus. But I knew that getting a game done is hard, and by making games that I had a passion for, I'd be more motivated to play them, improve them, and most importantly finish them.

What Went Wrong

1. Pricing Indecision

2. Mental Beatdown Making games is hard in so many ways. It's hard to choose which idea to work on next. It's hard to hone a prototype into a solid direction. It's hard to bring all the different elements together into a cohesive design. It's hard to write music, create art, and code. It's hard to hear people say your game sucks when you thought it was almost done.

3. Minimal Personality There was a great article in Game Developer magazine this past year about how to inject personality into your games. If you've played my games, you may have guessed that I never read it, but you'd be wrong. I just rarely spent time thinking about it.

4. Branding Baggage

5. Too Many Modes