[hseiken]

I'm curious as to how people tend to go about making their games in general with regards to genre. I figure gaming on a whole is on a 2 point sliding scale. One one side is methodical, highly puzzle oriented or narrative driven and on the other side is pure action. Think Zork on one side and Geometry Wars on the other. Inherently there's going to be a different approach to these extremes, but what about ones that are somewhere in between? For instance a narrative driven action game?

At any given time, I've got too many projects 'in the works' but I started noticing that depending on what the intended outcome is to be, I somehow start in different areas of the process. For instance, if the game is very narrative driven and the story more important than compelling arcade game play, then I write the scenario out first and figure out how to structure the game around it so that it's coherent. If I'm working on an action project, I build a proof of concept single board to test out my idea and see if it 'feels' good and then figure out what kind of BS story to throw as a coat of paint on it later. I know everyone tends to work differently and that someone working on an action game might actually start off with a premise and figure out how to make it work as an action game after the premise is decided. Sometimes, I just make some graphics hoping an idea of what to do with them will magically zap it's way into my head about half way through.

So I guess this is really an open discussion and invite for anyone who is bored and feels like talking about their process of 'getting started' and the first steps of their game. I tend to always feel like I'm 'doing it wrong' in some way, even though the only wrong way is the way in which the game crashes or is too slow to run (technically speaking) and I'm more or less bogged down by so many game development discussions that dissolve into pointless tech talk that speaks nothing to about the creative side of things, so that's really the intent here. It's also a given we're all taking the part of auteurs here since there's no 'big mzx development house' with a full team and director, so it's probably interesting how different folks set on their quest to make a game.

I'm looking forward to the responses if any. />

[GetDizzy]

This is really going to vary a lot person to person. I know there's a lot of MZXers that put in a lot of planning and design work before ever really opening MZX, and there's others who don't even really think so much of a game they want to make as an engine or mechanic they want to see if they can use and often end up with little more than an engine.

Personally, when approaching a more action-driven game without much in the way of a story I'm the type who likes to dive right in and start making things right away, even if I might have to discard them later. I want to put the rubber to the road immediately and get a sense of what things are going to look like without relying on visualization or an excess of planning.

On the other hand, and this is part of the reason *why* my "big" (actually intended to only have maybe 5-10 hours of gameplay at best >.>) narrative driven RPG has taken so long to go anywhere, if it's something with a concrete narrative I find I do need to do a lot of planning and notes and scenario writing beforehand. This is actually something I find it kind of hard to do, because even though the idea I have in my head is awesome and I feel inspired to write, I still find the process "boring" and a large part of me wants to "skip ahead to the fun parts", even though that's not really doable.

Don't know if that really answers your question per se, but it's a look into my creative process such as it is.

I find this tends to lend itself well to BKZXs and DoZes and such things where spending too much time planning is practically a death sentence, but it's probably a big reason why so many of my larger projects are just kind of mouldering on a hard drive somewhere.

[CJA]

Every single game starts with the core engine.

Often, if the focus is really and truly on the story, for example in a BKZX, or with Bonesteel, I just don't write an engine because it's not really needed to tell it most of the time, and get started immediately on the opening cinemas. I really like to focus on the flow the player takes through the game rather than the way individual story elements feel independently. It's very important to make things feel cohesive... rather than just focus on big events and then glue them together, it's much more focused on the journey.

[djtiesto]

I've always preferred making more story-focused games in MZX, gameplay honestly feels like a bit of an afterthought. I'll write basic concepts, come up with ideas for the areas, and then get set to programming the interactions/cinematics... then the puzzles and core gameplay are added later.

[Dr Lancer-X]

Not that red was hugely story-focused, but I did the same thing as djtiesto. I had practically the entire game made in terms of maps, cinematic sequences, NPC interactions and so forth first (so it was an 'RPG' that you could explore through, there just wasn't any combat, nor really anything in the way of items to pick up.) Then, once I was happy with that, I started going through the game, adding encounters, equipment, drops etc., simultaneously while playing through it.