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Owed, Weird, and Other Game Ideas
3 years ago
Over the last couple of weeks I've been getting some positive feedback on my game jam games. Not the usual condescending obligatory non-praise from indie dev communities, but what seems to be genuine interest. This is in stark contrast to the "I'm not playing that" and "I can't fap to this" feedback of my previous work.
It's strange seeing such a sharp switch in opinion. I'm guessing part of it is my recent jam games have been 3D instead of 2D, and that means things like lighting can do the heavy lifting when it comes to graphics.
There are lots of things on my todo list. Gifts I'd like to draw for people, be it just because I like them or their work, or people I feel I owe in some way. But what if I made them a game instead? It's something I've thought about before, but the amount of work required for results no one liked was off putting.
One idea I might have mentioned before was a Wario Ware or Bishi Bashi style game where each mini-game would be made in just a couple of days, and each could be made for a different person. Another is to make a small game and have other people's OCs cameo in some way. Recently, I saw a jam game that was a fixed camera horror game made in 30 days. It was janky with floaty movement and spotty polish, but it was playable. Character modeling has been difficult to me, but since people seem fine with the thrown together game jam models, maybe I'm being too harsh with my standards.
Finally, there's the "weird" part of the title. I was thinking about the weird, off the wall, and niche ideas I've wanted to see more of but have never been delivered by others. My fixed camera horror game with Leanna is basically that, but there are others I'd like to see. There is common indie dev advice that you should focus on many smaller projects so that you get good at finishing games instead of constantly making big things that you never finish. However, that method wasn't helping me. So I focused on working towards a single goal. Any small games should fold back into the bigger games in some way. This seems to be working well so far with me building up a base of stuff I can re-use in other games. Maybe I'll get to the point where I can make better, smaller games in less time, provided they fit in a certain loose action game template.
It's strange seeing such a sharp switch in opinion. I'm guessing part of it is my recent jam games have been 3D instead of 2D, and that means things like lighting can do the heavy lifting when it comes to graphics.
There are lots of things on my todo list. Gifts I'd like to draw for people, be it just because I like them or their work, or people I feel I owe in some way. But what if I made them a game instead? It's something I've thought about before, but the amount of work required for results no one liked was off putting.
One idea I might have mentioned before was a Wario Ware or Bishi Bashi style game where each mini-game would be made in just a couple of days, and each could be made for a different person. Another is to make a small game and have other people's OCs cameo in some way. Recently, I saw a jam game that was a fixed camera horror game made in 30 days. It was janky with floaty movement and spotty polish, but it was playable. Character modeling has been difficult to me, but since people seem fine with the thrown together game jam models, maybe I'm being too harsh with my standards.
Finally, there's the "weird" part of the title. I was thinking about the weird, off the wall, and niche ideas I've wanted to see more of but have never been delivered by others. My fixed camera horror game with Leanna is basically that, but there are others I'd like to see. There is common indie dev advice that you should focus on many smaller projects so that you get good at finishing games instead of constantly making big things that you never finish. However, that method wasn't helping me. So I focused on working towards a single goal. Any small games should fold back into the bigger games in some way. This seems to be working well so far with me building up a base of stuff I can re-use in other games. Maybe I'll get to the point where I can make better, smaller games in less time, provided they fit in a certain loose action game template.
