Guys and gals, Since there is still a large amount of people posting here every day looking for help with one idea or another, but getting little other than flamed, I've decided to create a resource in this thread for anything and everything related to game design/development in terms of articles (both from this site and others). What I want is people to post articles/blogs/webpages that refer specifically to start-up teams/mmorpgs/development times and costs (amatuer of course), or general thoughts and ideas. I will then either: 1) Delete the post and place the link here (with a submitted name of course) 2) Leave the post if it's an opinion that I think others should read. I'll leave this sticky and if we get a decent resource, then all it will take in the future is ME/MYSELF/I to refer to this thread in any topic that warrants it. --- MUST READS --- READ THE FORUM FAQ! Helpful sticky thread which you can post responses in and generally discuss the issues - boolean. REACTOR13 - Excellent example of an indie team! -- sunandshadow's excellent design journals -- ----- Read BEFORE you start recruiting! ----- A game is a very complicated object. Taking the plunge into designing a game. Coming up with a concept. Roughing out a design. -- raduprv's mmorpg development -- Eternal Lands Post Mortem parts 1-3 (there will be other parts there as well, when I'll finish writting them) A Beginner's Guide to Creating a MMORPG -- GENERAL -- Game Development: Harder Than You Think. An overview of the beginning programming issues - Fruny Game Design - Tips for the one-man army - Kazgoroth

   Marc.

Note: Use this thread as intended, any crap/flames and you will be dealt with harshly. [Edited by - mlambert on March 29, 2005 7:25:25 AM]

exactly, Game Development isn't Easy,

I would like to see a document that describes the personal sacrifice and trials that an indie game developer and his/her team must go through, the ups the downs and weekends spent alone by the glow of a monitor, the sluggish monday mornings heading off to work after programming till 2 am on sunday night, few startup teams realize the sacrfices that need to be made by all involved in both time and emotioional devotion to a project.

I would imagine such a document exists (does anyone have a developer journal that reflects this?) if i wasnt so busy myself i would document my own experiences.

I think that is really where development teams start to fall apart, when the realize, no, they cant go out on friday,saturday and sunday night if they want to stay on target.

Quote: Original post by TheArtifex
Anyway, this article deals primarily with the day-to-day psychological and emotional hardships of game design. If this article gets any sort of good response, I plan to work with the appropriate members of the team to develop other articles in the series, such as one that deals with organization and project management hardships, one that deals with financial hardships, one that deals with PR hardships, one that deals with design hardships, &c. Since these articles are being categorized, you might just put ours under the header "Hardships of Game Design".

That's exactly why I decided to design games as a hobby rather than a profession. Hearing so many horror stories from people working in places like EA just...turned me off from the industry. It made me feel like I'd actually start liking games less if I was subjugated to such constant punishment. I think game design is one of those careers that everyone thinks they want, but they don't realize how hard and stressful it really is. I'm not talking from experience here or anything, just reciprocating what I've heard again and again from others.


Anyway, I agree that game development is very difficult. When I started my project, I had a concept, I had some good ideas, and I had a vision. I even had 4+ years of programming experience in several languages and a bachelor's degree in computer engineering to back me up, but I still got my ass handed to me those first few months. It can be frusterating at times, even doing it just as a hobby. However, I feel that if you can stick with it and achieve your goals, then the difficulty of game design is well-worth that feeling you'll have when you accomplish your dream. [smile]

Guys, I appreciate the discussion and I urge them to continue, but two important parts of my original post:

1) Delete the post and place the link here (with a submitted name of course)
2) Leave the post if it's an opinion that I think others should read.


Helpful sticky thread which you can post responses in and generally discuss the issues - boolean


While your opinions are valid, conversations about them aren't. I'm sure you'll understand that I want to try and keep this thread as clear as possible (hence the reason I'm deleting posts containing links and putting them at the top), so newcomers are more likely to pay attention. Again, I welcome the debate wholeheartedly, just please take it to boolean's thread [smile]

   Marc.

Building a game on your own
Strayfire: Writing a "simple" game

MMO Specific:
MMOG Considerations
So you want to make your own MMORPG?

Also, I think For Beginners and the For Beginners Forum FAQ should be considered to be re-listed here under must reads, as a lot of people don't seem to have read them before posting here.

Well,

Justin's post inspired me, so I decided that I would write up my journey from sub-noob to where I am now, *a long journey*

this may not be what you want on this thread, but I am throwing it our there in case anyone wants to read it.

The Journey of Raymond Jacobs

hope it helps some people =)

I found this article very applicable for this forum and I have pointed it out to many people who are starting their own projects.

The Indie Team Pseudo-Mantra
Written by sckoobs

Edit:

Here is two more good ones

Indie Developer FAQ
Working With Teams
by Steve Pavlina, CEO, Dexterity Software

[Edited by - Wijitmaker on February 11, 2005 9:07:55 AM]