I’ve made games that are too short.
Ones that are too long.
Ones that are probably the right length but if you get stuck early on then there’s nothing
to do but to quit with frustration.
Hopefully with Destruction Darius 2 I’ll do it… better.
You know when you start a game, get into it, think ‘this is good!’ …and then it ends?
Yeah, most of the games I’ve made are too short.
And it seems like such an easy mistake to avoid!
I’m sure that any gamer who hasn’t made a game themselves would LOVE to make levels
for a game that they enjoy.
The only thing that’s stopping them from creating their own is… well, making the
game itself.
But take it from me, IF YOU KNOW HOW then making the game is easy.
I mean, it’s HARD, but it’s rewarding and very mentally stimulating.
You’re always making decisions, always making progress.
It’s just that bit that comes afterwards, that it becomes hard.
Because it’s too easy.
If that makes sense.
It’s just time-consuming!
And dull.
I recently made a video about this mid-development hell, which is largely focused around adding
polish and crushing bugs.
It’s an unexpected hold-up in your game making journey and as such tends to defeat
those who don’t expect it.
But depending on how you’ve made your game, you might also have to chuck ‘adding levels’
in there, too.
The level editor I’ve made for Destruction Darius 2 was hard to implement, but now it’s
in place it allows me to pump out new levels in a matter of minutes.
But with most of the games that I’ve made, I’ve jumped straight in with the level making
as I’ve entered mid-development hell.
And I normally don’t last long.
Deragon Eremine, for example.
I really had to force myself to add that second level.
I’m pleased that I did since it more than doubled the length of the game!
The thing is, I loved this game.
I played those 2 levels to death.
But the idea of making another for it… my God.
I had a mental block there.
I imagined getting there in a year or so, when in reality it would have taken just a
day.
I blame this on my age.
I was about 14 at the time and was way too easily distracted by new projects.
I think I spent about half an hour drawing some boots for a house level and the idea
of decorating the entire place in that much detail was enough to make me give up completely.
I can certainly say that with age, I’ve become a lot more patient and better at prioritising
the time I spend on a project.
Still rubbish at it though.
Death Giver 2 was made 6 years after.
I was older and more focused.
The game’s engine was made in 6 hours!
But the game itself took half a year before it was done!
In reality it was more like 50 hours, spread out across a few days where I forced myself
at gunpoint to work on it.
It’s funny, most of the time I spend too much time on the game’s engine and not enough
on the levels themselves.
But Death Giver 2 is the one where it took so long to finish that I kind of wish I had
justified more on the core gameplay, which only took me 6 hours from start to finish,
after which it was just the levels that needed making.
Light Cubed is another short game!
It even has a user review telling me it’s too short!
This game turned out how I wanted it to.
I deliberately kept the concept simple, so that I could spend my time levelling up my
polishing ability.
You know, like to brush up on the later stages of game design, cos I was a bit rusty at them.
All in all, it was a great success!
But as a game it was just too short.
The gameplay was too limited and I relied on replayability to add length to the experience,
as the main appeal of the game was about shaving seconds off your time as you mastered your
technique.
Which is fine, for the type of gamer who enjoys doing that!
But a lot just want to play through it to the end and say that they’ve done it, and
by making a game deliberately short you’re immediately disappointing a huge chunk of
players who won’t bother replaying a level twice.
Too long?
When have I ever made a game too long?
I can’t say I normally manage this, I guess this would more apply to simple games with
limited gameplay that have 1000 levels you have to grind through to beat.
The closest I’ve got to this is probably Sundown Shambles and Santasatnas.
I mean, they’re not THAT long.
But they don’t have the gameplay to keep the player’s attention to the end.
Half the length with faster paced gameplay would have made these a lot more popular.
And then there are games like Jimmy’s Unlikely Resurrection, where you have to beat each
level before moving to the next.
Great for players who are determined enough to do this.
But many lack the skill, get stuck early on and give up.
This is the real tragedy, cos these are potential fans of your game who have been deterred by
an uneven difficulty curve.
The second game was the same, but I later changed it so that if you download it now
you’ll find you’ll have immediate access to each of the game’s chapters.
Can’t beat a level?
Just skip to the next chapter!
But of course this upsets the hardcore gamers, who enjoy a challenge and the feeling of overcoming
it by all means necessary.
This is kind of rendered obsolete when other people can simply bypass the challenge and
then continue on their way.
I think you get the idea.
And honestly, the feedback I get from each of my games has been from a handful of players,
at most.
A small enough sample to seriously change the sort of feedback my game would have received.
If launched on Saturday then it might be met with praise because the 6 gamers who rated
it found the difficulty curve and gameplay to their liking.
But if the same game had been released on the Sunday, then maybe the 6 reviewers that
day found it boring or too difficult.
Not their fault.
They’re not trolling.
They were just looking for something else.
Problem is, how do you make a game that caters for every type of gamer?...
…well, you can’t.
But that doesn’t stop me from trying!
So I’ve reflected on what I’ve done wrong in the past.
In my next video in this series I’ll talk about how I hope to apply what I’ve learned
to my next game: Destruction Darius 2.