How Do You Plan For Your Games?

[daikiraikimi]

Hello!

I have been looking into making a game myself and I want to set some reasonable goals. I am the artist and programmer of my team, so I want to set up a schedule of things to do each day/week etc. and I can continue to make progress at a reasonable rate. So, I was wondering how do you plan your games?

For example, you get a game idea. How do you start planning for this? Do you decide about how many game sprites, CGs, romanceable characters, endings, length of story (in words) etc. before you begin?

What goals do you set for your artists in terms of X amount done in X time? How many words/routes from your writers? Obviously, this will be different depending on the artist/writer but a range estimate would be greatly appreciated!

In addition, when you start a game, what is your first step? Do you like to get some art done first? Or do you program the basic mechanics before you start writing?

Thank you very much for any advice you could give me!

[jack1974]

To be honest, it changes from game to game. I make several games a year compared to most other indies who make 1 or max 2 a years so my approach is a little different. Since artists are totally unreliable (on average, there are exception but the general rule is that one) I try to have as much art as possible BEFORE even start writing a game.
However if I wanted to describe the IDEAL process (which in my experience, was never able to do for a ton of different reasons):
- design (which varies a lot, if is a RPG, might last MONTHS, but even a simple dating sim would require planning all the scenes in advance)
- writing (really writing should be the FIRST thing to do, so you have a clear idea of what to ask the artist to draw. Only exception are the characters maybe, since is safe to draw those already I think. But for the CGs, no)
- art production
- music is a sort of jolly for me, I can do it at any point of development since is easier to tell the musician "I need a sad/happy/rock/pop song"
- testing, polishing, etc the final step

[daikiraikimi]

Haha, I've been doing lots of art and character sprites as the first step since it's the one thing I have complete control over. It makes sense to start the writing first, though. I'll have to crack the whip on my husband who will be my writer.

So, for the programming, if I recall you did/do a lot of programming yourself but I have also seen mention of a hired programmer. What do you think about programming yourself vs. hiring a programmer?

[jack1974]

Well depends, if you code it yourself you have full control so is definitely the best option. But if is something big, or if you don't have the skills, is better having someone code it than struggle and waste lot of time IMHO!

[daikiraikimi]

Haha, that's fair! For starters, I'm not trying anything terribly ambitious programming-wise, so I think I will be able to manage on my own and learn things as they come up.

Another question if you don't mind? How do you determine the scale of your project? For example, how much you're willing to spend on it, how long it's going to be, balance between interaction level and effort to make the game etc.?

[jack1974]

You can have a very very vague and general idea of the game but I always kept adding stuff to them, increasing costs and development time in every game.
So is really impossible to determine that in advance, and everyone who tells you the contrary is LYING

[daikiraikimi]

XD Well, thanks for the help! I had been looking around at other people's planning, but most of them were 1. non-commerical and 2. not organized. >< I just want to develop good habits! But yes, your advice was very helpful so thank you again!

[Lonestar51]

The discussion has been very interesting, but one topic has been absent: Marketing.

Jack, how do you plan out the marketing when you start a new game?

Some points may not apply for new developers, as you already have a number of returning customers, subscribers to forum and blog and newsletter and such. Is this enough for your needs, or do you do additional marketing. And if yes, how?

[jack1974]

My marketing is only through social networks. I believe there's currently a HUGE GAP between what journalists play, and what people want to play. None of my games have been featured on popular gaming news sites like RPS, Kotaku, etc, despite me doing everything I could. Talking with other indies, they got articles basically with ZERO effort (just sent them ONE email). So I realized that basically they don't want to talk about my games in specific
However also talking with other indies, reviews sites aren't really important as many others think, they all agree that social marketing is MUCH more important. So I try to post updates as much as I can on twitter, facebook, tumblr, youtube, etc. It's a lot of effort though, almost more than making the game.

[Lonestar51]

I remember at least one interview with you at RPS, which may have been some years ago... But basically you are right: I have never seen any coverage of your games at RPS in the last few years.

Does social marketing also attract new customers? I would have thought that it is a way to make satisfied customers returning customers, but not that many new customers go your way that route. How does one stumble to your games? (Except via Desura, like me...)