[Discussion] — The Curious Case of Abandoned Games

[Meaning Less]

Time doesn't equal quality automatically, though. There has to be a vision. Patreon often leads to the spaghettification of plot lines, as some characters / fetishes are added by stretch goals. As a developer, you can't please everyone. And you don't have to.

I also agree with this, I've played plenty of completely amauter games and ended enjoying even more than many professional looking games.

Afterall adult games are a collection of different skillsets, there is no secret sauce and usually what someone might be lacking in art will be compensated by stronger gameplay, writing or their vision.

 

[Airell]

You can hit nails all day long and you will be pretty good at doing that but you won't learn new things.
Some things you will never learn from repeated experience alone, you will have to venture outside of your confort zone and actually study/attempt new things to learn new stuff.

That sounds too abstract. You talk about learning new things when, from a development point of view, you only need to learn what is necessary to fulfill the game's task.

In short: I need to learn and specialize in RPG games, I don't intend to make games of another style.

Hardly the devs radically change the style of gameplay they are used to because of this. That means starting over from 0 when you already know how to do something else very well.
There's nothing wrong with that, you create what you do best. No dev or team specializes in making all existing types of games. Even studios have specializations, while knowing the basics of other styles of games.

 

[Meaning Less]

In short: I need to learn and specialize in RPG games, I don't intend to make games of another style.

But you could make an rpg game with text only, with rpgm, with unity, renpy, writing native code, the options are endless. There are many variables you can change and improve to make things faster on your end as well as improve overall quality.

you only need to learn what is necessary to fulfill the game's task.

The game will most likely be limited to your skill and the initial concept.

For instance, it is unfeasible to create a game with custom character creation that uses prerendered 2DCG/3DCG assets because it would require you to rerender every scene with every possible combination. But if you know how to create rendered 2D or 3D games than this task will turn into something much more trivial.

There are many things that you can learn along the way that will not only make your task easier but also enable you to move on into bigger and more ambitious projects and concepts.

 

[Neo Nocturne]

Before game get ABANDONED tag it can be active by years or decades. So, it's hard to understand what are you talking about...

'Female Agent' and 'Who is The Father' didn't abandoned at all. And there is army of supporters for this projects.

As literally...never played any ABANDONED games. If it is listed as abandoned, I have never played it.
(Edited: If it was listed as 0.X or work in progress prior to their abandonment, I probably have played a few.)

Is there some other ways to be interpreted into absolutely something else? (Edited: I am bluntly honest. So I am not sure if there is a better way to say that.)

And yeah, didn't you read on? Or are you those who can read 1 line then immediately respond to that 1 line? I do know there are supporters for abandoned games which was partially why I started the discussion. I want more information, more opinions and diversified views on the topic.
(Edited: I assume you did, but yeah, really interesting response there so weirdly interesting...XD)

 

[Neo Nocturne]

If I paid you to create a game for me following my specifications then I would expect professionalism... But when I support you as a patreon it is because I hope you make good use of that money to follow up with your vision at your own pace, not mine.
That's the main difference between paying for a service vs willingly supporting a creator you already appreciate.

True.
If I paid anyone to make a game, I expect that person to be do as I told them to.

I always envision Patreon as a platform for us to support creators on working toward their vision at their own pace...which is why you might see me telling people here, perhaps we shouldn't be pushing the developers to do certain things or add fetishes when the game was under development. Give them time and space to do whatever they want.

Unless the developer asked for suggestions, we shouldn't push for contents we desire most.

 

[Neo Nocturne]

It happens, but at the same time highly successful games, like Summer Time Saga and What a Legend were the most ambitious and also the first games of those devs. This has to do with wasting time "practicing" vs putting all of your life into one fantastic game.

A mistake I personally made, and many devs made is that they believed they needed to practice with many smaller games and projects. Personally I made five games over the last five years, almost all of my free time for two years, and then I left my job and worked for three years full time living on savings making games.

None of those games were very successful because a small game with a small story very rarely will get people's attention.

If I could go back and do things differently, I would have spent those five years working on only one single game. As I got better at writing, I would have went back and rewrote parts of it. As I got better at graphics I would have went back and redone the the art. When I decided that 2D art was something I preferred, I would have gone back and redone the art to be hand drawn, and as I improved in my drawing abilities I would have continued to redraw and improve the art to make it better. As I learned which game engine people preferred, I would have transferred it to a new engine, and continued to improve it in all areas as I learned...

but I would not have spread those five years out over multiple smaller games. This isn't a mistake I will make again in the future, but one that people don't realize how bad of a mistake it is until they've actually gone through it.

Hopefully another up and coming dev reads this and can avoid a good portion of their lives lost on small projects.

Another mistake I see devs make is those who will spend five years without going back and redoing the art and writing, only pushing forward with their story which is just as bad.

A little additional information about me: I had been a DM/GM of a short homebrew DnD campaign and a longer one (just using those 2 times for this case).

The amount of time for plot, preparations, setups, playtestings is exhausting, boring and weary. My 1st short was a little bit over-prepared, but overall, my players enjoyed everything. I was satisfied. They loved some of those details they didn't expected and the detailed customization+plot for individual characters to expand upon.

The next longer one was also a success. Again, a bit overly prepared, but even more customized contents and expansions. Again, the details and unfolds were some of the best surprises. Apart from those, new customizations too, so there were things for everyone.

I felt like I had set my 1st project a bit too much (as you may say it: ambitious). But yeah, having an ambitious project first does help me to prepare my longer 2nd project even better.

 

[Neo Nocturne]

I've heard it said that Dark Cookie was a professional backgrounds artist before starting work on SS. Dunno if it's true or just an urban myth, but it would explain how he was able to paint relatively high-quality art from the beginning. 2D is incredibly difficult and time-consuming to get right. People underestimate the amount of time, effort, and skill that's required for even mediocre 2D art.

So true. There is a reason why I will always have a strong preference for 2D art over 3D ones. The amount of time, effort and skill for 2D art are tremendous.

Given the right tools, I actually had some easy time on modeling 3D art. I was then totally impressed by 2D art regardless of style/form/colouring. But I do not like lazy overlay etc., simply, I can do those too on Photoshop or any photo editing softwares. And 2D animations are harder than 3D ones...so much harder...