Be creative, work hard and don't give up

[Khaikaa]

Hi guys, today I wanna say some things about games created using intersect. This may get a bit long, and my english is terrible, so feel free to kick this topic right in its ass and to not read anything.

 

As many of you already know, I found this community only a few time ago. I was looking for some mmorpg games to play and just accidentaly found this place. After reading a few, I found out the intersect engine(I thought intersect was some kind of mmorpg game, not an game developing engine). That was a big surprise, I tried making my own mmorpg game before using alter engine(any of you know it?), but intersect engine looked nice to me since the first time I opened it. I found a great oportunity to fulfill one of my biggest dreams ever and I started learning how to use the engine. At the momment I'm writting this post I think I know very well most part of the intersect engine tools, specially the event system. I think I'm exploiting almost all its potential(version 4.8.1) and I'm so happy someone developed something like this for free.

 

At the momment, I managed to do almost everything I wanted to do. Also, I teached all I learned to a good friend of mine and both of us are working on the same project. Our project is growing slowly this days because its pc died and he can't afford a new one until June(or even July), so I'm currently working alone on the development(but we still do the game design work together). Also, I'm currently paying 2 people in order to get our own graphic resources(one of them works with the tilesets, charsets... designs and the other one works in the interface designs). It's incredible how our project has grown after all this time of hard work, but we have no confidence enough to show it yet.

 

But how? How can this be possible? We've been working on this project for more than 3 months, and we can't even feel confidence enough to even show it?(releasing it is, obviously, even farthest in time).

 

Both of us want to finish its development as soon as possible, we can't wait to see how players enjoy our work, but we don't feel we've done a good work yet. We've made the most important game mechanics, we've made 3+ different game modes, we have enough graphic content to make simple game stages, we even have enough graphic content to let players decide between 5+ fight styles and 3+ armor sets. With all this content and with all this work done, how can be even possible that we have no confidence enough to show our game yet?

 

Since I'm here I saw a few great intersect projects(such as Arcwyre & Nightmare, the most famous projects on this community) and other projects that look so great(for example, kasplant dragon ball fanmade game or the dinosaurs game whose name I can't remember atm lol). But I see some intersect projects that I can't get so seriously. I talked about this with Skyward a few time ago, and I think I changed my mind a bit since that. I see a lot of projects that don't use its own graphic content(can't even talk about own music). I understand that not everybody can make its own graphic content(I just can't make any kind of graphic content), and I understand that not everybody can afford an artist, so the only way is using intersect default content & other's content. Obviously I would like to see more intersect projects with their own and unique graphic content, but that doesn't mean that a game without original graphic content can't be a good game.

 

The bad point is that I see a lot of mistakes on some "final versions" and "full versions". Some mistakes are small and hard to find, such as a bad layout work on a corner of the world, but other mistakes are terribles, such as not enough blocking attributes on houses, cliffs... others have infinite conversation loops... It is even possible to find empty places on some of them. And, for those who release games like that, I have a question: why so much hurry releasing your game?

 

 

If you are making a game just for fun... that's ok. You don't have to do the best game ever if you only want to have some fun. If you are making a game because you want others to recognice your work(and even try to get some money)... you are throwing stones at your own roof. If your game feels empty, or if it is full of bugs, or if it is not well balanced, or if the story is not even good... and most important... if your game is not funny... the player's game experience will be terrible. People will think your game doesn't worth the time and won't play it never again. Also, a lot of these people won't play any game you develop afterwards, so... what are you gaining releasing it?

 

I know some of them are young, and they feel excited about releasing their first videogame. That's why I'm writting this. If you are not young and you are releasing a bad game anyways... there is nothing I have to tell you, that's your own problem. Do whatever you want with your time. But, if you are young and you don't have experience making games... ask for help. Ask for help here, and ask for help to your friends and family. Let us help you. Making games is not easy, and of course is not quick. MMORPG is not the best kind of game someone should choose at the beginning, but if that's what you want to do... keep in mind that it will take a while making a regular mmorpg game. You won't finish it in 1 day nor 1 week nor 1 month, it may take several months of hard work.

 

First of all... do you really know how to use intersect? do you really know how to use every editor? and not only that, do you even know how to manage the xml files? If you don't... it's time to start learning how to use intersect engine. If you can't learn something by yourself... just read the documentation and ask in this forum. Don't start any serious project if you don't know how to use intersect engine. You will find that you can't do many things that you wanted to do in the first way you thought, you will lose a lot of time and effort and you may think about giving up. You'll have to redo most part of your project not once, not twice... but several times, and you'll be frustrated. Some people make a big mistake here and release their game anyways, and I can't imagine many worse ways to get frustrated that seeing how people try your game and leave to never come back.

 

After that, if you know how intersect works... think about what are you going to do before starting any project. Think if intersect is the right tool you need or not. Many kind of games can't be made with the current version of intersect (or it may be so difficult), so don't lose your time on that. If your project can be made using intersect engine... it's time to start working. Start with the basics... which kind of character can use the player at the beginning? where will the player start playing? what will need the player do in order to move along? When mapping... work map by map, don't start the next map until you finished the current one except if you really know what are you doing. Test every map thousands of times in order to find bugs(such as missing block attributes, mistaken layers...). If you do this scrupulously you will make good maps.

 

Be original. You can referencing other games/films/books... you can even get some inspiration from other's games/films/books... but you need something that make your game unique. A nice story, a new way to play a game, your own mechanics... everything matters! Not many people will play a call-of-duty-like game if they can play call of duty. Work hard creating your own content(in my opinion, both graphic and music content are very important as they give the first impression to the player). If your game is funny and original people will like your game and will play it, and if you achieve that... your work will be recogniced and you could aspire to earn some money. So... don't give up, work hard, don't be hurry and you will get recognition and also will help growing this community.

[Kibbelz]

It was a good read. Its worth noting myself and @Xenogene have been working on Nightmare ever since myself and @jcsnider started working on Intersect. Thats over 3 years ago now. Making a game does not happen in a month and you will not complete it without long breaks as you will burn out. A lot. Don't be afraid to take months off and come back when you are less busy with life and motivated

[SkywardRiver]

Life Forge was almost an entire year in development before we released the open Alpha. Since then it's come a damn long way. Good post with a good message.

[Beefy Kasplant]

Very nice post @Khaikaa! Also your English is good (better than 90% of people here in Madrid at the very least  ), enjoyed reading it! 

 

I actually had an idea for a DBZ fangame 10 years ago, and this is the first version that has made it close to a level where I can think about a release.

Just to show that it can take a very long time before a release