Hey every time I quit a project I come closer to actually finish it!
My last project actually reached the stage of public Alpha (almost beta).
The best thing to do is to carefully plan your project, make a roadmap, divide the project in small tasks for each aspect of the game then do not leave a task unless it is completed.
I personally have a lot of fun typing in a bunch of crap that is meaningless to almost everyone and then having a beautiful game result… I’m only 19 and pretty new to it all, compared to a lot of you guys, but I have a brain that can think the right way and I have some really cool ideas, so I think I’ll keep at it.
My history:
- In seventh grade a made a text game called Fight! on the graphing calculator, all self-taught. I was hooked.
- I found WorldBuilder, an old program with a simple programming language used for making adventure games. B&W. Don’t think I ever finished a real project on that.
- I got a copy of flash and started making cartoons, then taught myself action script and started to make games in that. Finished a couple, they’re around on the internet.
- I took a Pascal and and a C class. Neither helped me learn anything at all. I hated those classes.
- I took an incredibly intensive Java class for 9 months, where I learned a lot. I ended up making my own multiplayer Tetris, a networked Mario (other players control Luigi or the enemies), a program to make simple animations that you can import into java projects, and a few other things. I never really dubbed any of those finished and haven’t released them anywhere.
- Currently working on my first real game with my brother, a 2D SNES-style RPG. It’s got innovative and interesting stuff in it like the ability to kill anyone in the game or have anyone join your team, and a comprehensive LevelBuilder that even has its own scripting language that compiles and can do most of the methods provided in the game. Fun fun.
Pretty much I just enjoy it a lot and it keeps escalating up and up. I am unhappy with Java2D and am trying to learn OpenGL and LWJGL so that I can use that instead, and maybe dive into the world of 3D. I would like to make games as a career, but I don’t want to be poor off my ass either. We’ll see what happens. 
[quote]What do you get out of game development?
[/quote]
It’s the ability to ‘create’ that I like. Several hundred lines of code later and you can have this really interesting scene that you can interact with. It’s fabulous!
ooh, never seen this thread…
Currently for me, is to put everything interesting that I always wanted to research/develop into a little melting pot and see where things go from there, im pretty much implementing everything I can think of that would be “cool to code”, putting it into the game, and seeing what happens. Thats going to be my latest release, but that kind of thing is very temporary, you get the feeling, the project is over, bam, im bored again.
But long term projects are about the social factor for me, working with people I like, helping people with problems on the forums/irc or whatnot. Its just all rounded goodness…
And if I learn something along the way…bonus!
I’d extend this to side projets in general.
I often start side projects in order to learn something new by doing.
SOmetimes I do smal lprojects to help other people by producing examples
Sometimes I do a porject because I really want a program that nooen else has written.
My current projet I hope to finish eventually, but its intend for two thinsg:
(1) Base of a demo for the game sevre project
(2) Open starting point for others to riff on
For what its worth, I got into the industry without having written any ganme code (though I had done CD-I which was closely related to platform development.) You arent likely to get project lead on a game projet that waym, but there are other ways in. I started in tools.
Like most people here I’ve started alot of unfinished games. When I was younger I would start a lot of games with my brother, he drew all the graphics and I did the coding. He usually had a pretty short interest span in a game… and when we got to some boring parts of development, he’d get a new cool idea, draw some cool graphics for it… and then I’d be lured to leaving the ongoing project…
Well, it’s been quite a few years since trying to write a game… and I felt something was missing in my life… :-)… so I decided to make games again… so currently I’m working on my first game in java (have done qbasic, vbasic, c++ before). And I must say coding in java is so much more fulfilling than the other languages I’ve used… and it’s a great help to take part in these forums as well!
The current game I’m working on I have high hopes of finishing… it’s already in a state where a lot of players can play against each other, and most people trying it thinks it’s really fun… so I got a small bunch of supporters encouraging me to keep on developing… and that’s a great help! (I will put it up soon for testing here… but 1st I’ll have to convert it from tcp to udp to make it possible for players to host… and make it webstartable…)
I think it’s alot more rewarding to do a game over the internet where you can meet the players yourself, than to make a single player game (of course you have to do those first to get some knowledge… but it’s alot more rewarding to do multiplayer games!).
As some people have said here… I agree that it’s the last 5 - 10 % that is the hardest to finish… but I think it can be a very important lesson to actually complete a game… so that’s what I intend to do now… From time to time I get a cool idea for another game… but I’ll just make a note of it and save it someplace for the future… because now I really want to finish a game…
personally, i always want to finish what i start because i can publish the stuff then and i’m always curious to see what people like and what not. this doesn’t mean that i’m able to finish everything i start. too often i get stuck with an unresolvable problem. and sometimes i’m too impolite or too lazy to do research for days/weeks.
but development is always the best part of it. i learn with every game that i make. the last one was done using a framework-like setup that allows me to almost completely separate game logic from the stuff that you need for every game. and i have the game available as webstart app AND as an applet, which is cool because people are somewhat afraid of webstart games or just don’t have the neccessary software installed…
Fun, fun , fun. Writing a game was my dream since my Commodorre 64. In that late 80’s I did some poker games, ninja sprites, space ships, but I was simply too young to chew up assembler and to do something worthy. NOw, a year ago I discovered java, some 4 months ago I discovered lwjgl and openGL, I always learn something along the way when trying to write a game. Since childhood I haven’t do some real programming (tough faculty of science :P), so now I got a job and have more time to enjoj with my game projects (don’t tell my boss ;))
btw : is there any chance to earn some pocket money with java gaming (garagegames, for example)?(This big JRE is getting to my nerves!) Does anyone have some experience with that? Or should I found my own company…
Learning and discipline.
Once I start coding I get really into it; doesn’t matter if it’s a game or not. A game, like all my other projects, draws me in.
Some people become relaxed and/or feel at peace with themselves/the universe because they smoke, pray, or meditate. Me, I code.
I’m just 17 so it’s definitely just a hobby.I think you guys should try translating your games into J2ME if you want to get some money.The syntax is almost the same and I saw 4k games that were lot better than commercial mobile phone games. 
satisfaction of being creative. hope that I will be able to stop doing contract programing one day - or do it much more lightly and just the one that interests me. Some money (almost half of my salary per month right now - which is the lowest possible because I am self-employed).
While having the aim to finish a project when I start one, I actually do not begin at all. At first, it takes a lot of time and planning, and I dont feel like I have that time and peace in my life right now. But my life wont change soon, so I better get used to it.
Second, while I still have a pile of (professional) games waiting to be played, I usually prefer playing these before creating my own.
Third, I have a hell lot of concepts, maybe 30 or more, all have a more or less interesting part and I really liked to play games like that, but I cannot decide which to begin with. I should do the easier ones first, but these are the less interesting and innovative ones. In the end I have a game of the day, depending on which movie I saw or game I played there is always one idea on top. It changes almost every day.
I’ll roll a dice in the end. And probably I will not finish it.
-JAW
That sounds a bit like you’re already demotived because you’re setting the bar to high.
I found that I get a real kick out of recycling old, simple ideas that are doable just by myself and adding new ideas to them. The feeling of your code producing something on screen at the point where everything becomes playable and fun is really priceless, no matter how simple the game mechanics or the code behind it really is. That’s the point where I usually get inspired with new ideas for improving an otherwise old concept.
Well, that was how my own humble game Hyper Blazer was born. I didn’t have to worry about flashy graphics, beautifully animated 3D models, deep story lines, or any other things that tend to take millions to produce.
The feeling became even more priceless when that game turned out to be the 2nd most played game on my website (for more than 8 months now!), beating loads of classic emulated games like Ms. Pacman, After Burner 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog. I’m not saying my own game is better than any of those but for some reason, the visitors of my site play it much more. Priceless!
If you want to create your own game but you don’t know what to go for, first think of a concept which you can do just by yourself. There are so many old but still viable ideas from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s to improve upon… And of course even more original ideas! Just as long as you don’t start something which is simply impossible to do just by yourself.
Yep. I decided on “yet another space shooter” like steer the little spacecraft around and shoot a lot of things, simple 2d. The lack of almost any terrain and the simplicity of AI and other gameplay elements make this project manageable.
But I need time. I think you dont make games in 1 hour a day or so. I have only time on weekends and after my job, but I think you need some time to get warm for programming, so 1 hour is too short to start things, I wont have done much before time is up. Sadly my GF is good in taking my time or at least fragmenting it to bits, so that I hardly can spend 3 or 4 hours for programming in one piece.
This is what blocks me right now. I’ll write down some Gamedesign Document and prepare as good as I can, so that I really know what to do when I start to code. I’ll find time somewhen.
-JAW