A question to those who've completed a game

A question to those who have completed creating their game(s). At some point in the process, at least for me, there is a big question slapping me in the face. "Is this game fun?" Storyline & functionality aside, is the game fun? And in the beginning, you assume it would be fun. The story is interesting and the ideas you have for features are also interesting. Then you put it down in the project and I can't tell if it's just because it's fun in my head not in reality or I am just tired of working on the game so it's not fun anymore. Either way, at this point I usually stop myself from continuing because I will convince myself that the project isn't worth it and I've wasted my time...then moved on to the next idea. 

 

I am assuming you get hit with the same questions. How do you either push through this and complete the game? Or do you just spend a large amount of time designing the game first, seeing there that the game isn't fun and the above scenario doesn't happen to you? I'm doing something wrong and I'm just trying to figure it out. Because I have these ideas I think are fun and interesting but always end up with the "cycle" in the first paragraph. Is it a question of staying motivated or having everything documented so if you just complete the list your game will be done regardless of your brain telling you to give up and start on another idea?

The game I completed was for the IGMC contest, so it really HAD to be finished by June 30.  So, the hard deadline made it pointless for me to say "Well, is this concept good enough?"  Because if I decided that, all of the work I did up to that point would be discarded.

However, I really haven't completed any other games but that one (which frankly wasn't that good :p ).  I tend to discard game ideas when I think the game isn't good enough (I compare the RPG to the RPGs I've loved like FFIV, Chrono Trigger, etc), or I feel I'm getting nowhere with the idea.  And sometimes I get sucked down a rabbit hole for a particular part of a game and get sick of being in the rabbit hole.

But, I think we can be our own worst critics.  If you've had people playtest parts of the game, and enjoyed what they played, it's a pretty good bet the game itself is enjoyable.  If not, playtesting can definitely be very helpful.

So I know how you feel, and I'm sure a lot of fellow RPG makers do too. 

But, if nothing else, I think it's a lot better to throw away a game that doesn't measure up, than to release it and find the game is crap THAT way, and worsen the reputation of RPG Maker made games to boot. 

I'm in the same position as whitesphere. My only (recently) completed game was for the IGMC contest, so it had a hard deadline. That meant no matter what, what I had on June 30th was it, for better or worse. Though, what I did after the contest was enter the game in the secret santa contests we had on here, and as a result 3 people on the boards got to play through the game and provide feedback. This has then since been applied to improving the game going forward.

However, you could do something similar to this. Set a hard deadline, then release it to a small audience (maybe on here under the feedback pages? Or if it is for the IGMC entry you can get feedback from those who play it). If some find it fun, improve on it (for example: my game went 3 for 5, 3 of those who provided feedback liked it, 2 didn't. But, for a first attempt in 20 years, batting .600 is better than I thought I would do!).

I think this is a common problem with all creative types who work on big projects.  I've never completed a game before, but I have done other large projects like writing a novel (typing "the end" felt like a huge lie), or making tilesets (I always think they're ugly and uninspired at some point), and a few other things, and I always get to that point somewhere in the process.  I've heard stories of award winning authors who want to scrap every single book the write about 3/4ths in and completely forget about it when they get to the same point in the next book.  The only reason they have any books is because the editor tells them to finish anyway, at which point even the author loves it again.  My rule of thumb is that if I'm over halfway through on the project I have to just push through anyway, it's probably just in my head.  Worry about it after you're done and let someone else decide if it's fun.  Finishing things is a skill too so even if the game does turn out to be unfun the time spent on finishing it will be useful.

I usually end up disliking games I have released because I realize I did some stupid things that I would like to change, but I'll put them out there anyways.  For example: I absolutely detest the ending to my game, Painted Red, yet I've gotten mostly positive feedback on it.  It is something I would like to go back and fix, but there's also a dozen other things I want to fix with it, such as redoing the graphics, content I had to cut to meet a deadline, and other stuff.

"Is this game fun?"

Yes, I played my own game many times and I never get bored on it. Some people may dislike their own game, but me, I'm really proud of it. Because I have something to show to other people which is (I think) it's different. Also I built my game in player perspective. I'm also perfectionist when playing game. If the game is too easy or too hard, I get bored so easily. So I put some challenge in my game which is quite challenging but beatable once you know the pattern.

What makes it boring? I'm always questioning those kind of questions. Trying to be honest, and answer it myself. If I can't answer it myself, I always ask ppl to give their critiques. 

However, my first complete game and also as my only complete game was my 4th game I tried to make. The others are either scrapped or hiatus. Because I realized that my forte is to build the gameplay instead of writing a story. That is the main reason I moved to next project, instead of dislike, I can't really make it.

(P.S: if you want to look into my game, click Eremidia Dungeon: Skyward Temple below my signature)

In both my completed games I had a crisis of confidence, about half way through. Having someone else whose judgement you trust playtest it will help you have an objective opinion about it. Put it on an Early Project thread and get wider feedback. Let the community here act as the editor that was mentioned above.

There is a fine balance between having high standards and having a destructive perfectionism. There is also a sort of defensive perfectionism, whereby we ditch our work rather than run the risk of putting it out for public scrutiny. For both of these a trusted friend is the best solution.

I have this certain trait in which I find everything that I make a bit lacking even if others tell me that it's good... So what I do is try my best with the time that I have, then release it to the public then make updates depending on player comments and suggestions...

One thing I'd say is that whether the game is fun or not is down to opinion. Some people will find it fun, others won't. That will apply to pretty much every game under the Sun. However, what you can do is increase the number of people who find it fun and decrease the number that think it's not. The way to do that of course is to receive feedback from testers and to try and understand where they're coming from. If a tester reports some feature to be annoying, then probably it is. If more than one tester say the same thing, then the issue they're pointing out should be given some attention. By tweaking little things here and there, your game will be enjoyable to a larger number of people. But it won't ever please everyone. Trying to please everyone is a futile goal that's impossible to reach.

Even if the game isn't “fun” it might still be worth finishing it for practice. End-of-project tasks like fine tuning encounters and thoroughly searching for bugs are valuable skills that will make it all that much easier to complete your next, and hopefully better, game.

Then once it's done you can leave it alone for a couple weeks then replay it to decide whether it's actually better than you though and worth sharing or if it should just be filed away as a valuable learning experience.

My first game was finished. It was a learning experience and will never see the light of day. Sometimes you just need to make something while you're learning the system and move on.

But for the rest of the projects I haven't finished? I know from that first one that I have a hiccup in the middle, and have no idea where I was going anymore. Usually just setting that project aside for a while, and then coming back to the project with a fresh eye helps. I playtest it and take notes, things like "PC Evard said "Bladdy-blah" in cutscene at the docks. Sounds important. What did he mean and don't forget to wrap this up!"

Just don't forget to create notes during your initial planning stages, or you and me (and Evard) will be in the same boat with a mysterious line that we now have to figure out.