guys ive been away for a very long time , ive lost my inspiration and ive been stuck with my colossus project. id like to get back into it.
any inspo suggestions ? how do you deal with writers block or whatever this is in the dev world …?
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i recommend participating in a game jam! there’s lots of game jams happening constantly on itch.io, and the best part is that a lot of them are pretty short! hell, there’s one that happens every week called the trijam where you have to make a game in 3 hours, i’ve made a couple games for that
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Ayy it’s you! Been quite a while.
I would recommend looking into different genres you usually wouldn’t. Maybe mix genres together. That’s usually fun. Like cosmic horror mixed with a collect-a-thon or something.
If you’re talking about Thrall, I think this same sort of experimentation can be applicable. Writing down a main idea of a story can help. One I wrote was a small idea about a game called “Symphony”, where you live in a muted world and have to find special “instruments” (abilities) that would slowly build into the soundtrack.
I had a few more ideas about it as well. Also, a very fun thing to play around with are time skips. Not too many games do it but they are super satisfying and can create a great twist or some nice tension. Maybe even a time travel story, not many good time travel stories are in games and is pretty unexplored in the medium.
I hope you can get through this, and I hope this helps! Cheers!
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I usually listen to music and sometimes I’ll generate ideas for various stories and concepts.
Can’t say it’ll have the same effect for you, but it definitely helped carried me through writing my novel, lol.
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Are you stuck on a current project or can’t find an idea for a new one? (I’m assuming it’s a continuation, but just in case)
What I would recommend if it’s a new project decide what you want to make (Platformer, top down, stationary, etc)
When you decide this, then you can begin making an idea because you now have a “world” for it to fit into. After that you can work on:
- For platformer I recommend working on movement first because the entire game will work around that probably.
- Top down is really game dependent, so it’s hard to say. I’d figure out if it’s a combat game, exploration/story game, or puzzle game. Once you get that you can begin think of things related to that.
- If it’s neither of those then that is game dependent and I can’t give much advice on that.
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If it’s a game you’re already working on then these things can help.
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Write a list of everything that needs to get done. Then slowly check things off that list. This will help keep things in focus and you’ll spend less time thinking what to do and actually doing it.
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Figure out the end goal. How does the game end, does it even have an ending? This will add clear direction to your game so you know how things can be developed to fit this.
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Limit yourself. If you’re working a total of 2 hours in 10 minute spurts of work, that’s unproductive. If you’re like this or lose motivation to work just set 1 hour aside to work on it. If you work 100% doing this time you’ll get much more done and actually save time.
Just remember to not work too much, burn out is a very common thing. -
Work on the big picture. Don’t focus on small details like particle effects, sprites, etc. Focus on what needs to be done to make a playable game. After that you can focus on making an enjoyable game.
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Create a person devlog. Even if no one else sees it, creating a daily log of what you’re doing can keep yourself motivated to work and helps in general to see what’s already been done.
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Sorry if this is really long, these are just some general principles that I try to follow , I hopes this helps, good luck with all your projects!
(A lot of the things between working on a new game compared to one you’re already working on can be done for either)
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