Hard Decisions And Dilemmas (Game Dev)

My thoughts and personal techniques for dealing with hard dev decisions.

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[GonziHere]

My spin on it: Don't craft the mechanics, but the experience. The special attack meter for example:

Should I feel like a seasoned Viking? then reward hits per second, combos and so on...
Should I feel like a "villager surviving the raid"? Then refill over time, as that character struggles to catch the air.
Should I feel like a leader of the clan? Then have the stronger attacks be done by orchestrating other team members.
...
This really helps with everything (story, setting, gameplay, economy, combat mechanics...). As another example, you've mentioned the economy balance... well, if it's raiding viking, maybe don't have a "store" or something like that. Have a village that is as good as your loot from your raids is. The better the loot -> the better the village -> the better the quality/size of your armory. There, economy solved by "the experience".

It almost writes itself: Have a loot per map, maybe different difficulties of the maps with different possible loot, maybe timers - you didn't get to the church in time, so the golden cross isn't there anymore, maybe there is a cost to the whole travel to someplace, so you cannot start the hardest missions from the beginning and so on and so forth...

^ Nothing here was meant as a direct advice (I'm not really familiar with your game outside of "it looks cool" :D ), but as an example of a 'proper' way of thinking about these issues. It's just about "does this mechanic or that implementation support my vision, or does it hinder it"?

IMHO

[wakajak]

This is so relevant to me atm. I'm making a zelda-like game, and I've spent the past few weeks thinking about what is actually motivating my character, which impacts the design of the game, and I'm paralysed on making the wrong decision.

[PeterMilko]

Was just at PAX East. I have one of those hard decisions now. Publishers are interested in Dwerve but it's hard to decide what to do.

[fille.imgnry]

I definitly recognize your thoughts around this subject and I also like to draw the problem. I use an app on iPad called Endless Paper which is perfect for this. And yes, very often it will be my subconscious that solve the problem in the end, and I wake up shouting ”eureeka!! Ive got it!”. Keep up the good work! 👍🏻

[aryavatan]

Love your videos brother. I always feel so inspired after watching them. I really need to commit to a game idea because I'm currently in that "jumping from one prototype to the next" phase but I miss having an active game dev project to ponder over in my mind lol. Keep up the great content!

[RewdanSprites]

Alright John. Solid video. Each time I was like: "Well, you should try this" John was like: "You should do this". So I think you hit a majority of the points really well!

Only thing I would add is considering your design pillars when making decisions to help go in the right direction.

[erikm]

Wow, as you said you're so lucky to live at such a beautiful coast. I, too, often go for a run and come up with really good ideas I just couldnt while sitting at my desk

[LostRelicGames]

I'd love to hear about your experiences with with game dev decisions.
Also, I'm starting a game dev newsletter with tips and fun dev things.

[jorava]

Nice vid! Usually when I'm working a lot, I tend to start thinking of a problem in a way too complicated manner, taking too many irrelevant things into account and overestimating what I can reasonably ask of myself as a solo dev. Stepping away from the project has definitely been an important part of solving problems and finding new perspectives. Often, the problems I need to solve have much simpler solutions than I initially thought.

[ananths]

last few days, was glued to my notebook, writing so many things, glad I'm not the only one dealing with this process....sharing a little idea that seem to help, either take all paths at a compromised cost...or imagine as if completing it, went to the end, and then imagine it failed, or it succeded, and ask yourself why or how

[sparksdojo]

Thank you for this video, I've actually been in a crazy critical crossroad in my professional life as of late and it's nice to get someone to pull you out of it to tell you that it's just something that is normal to deal with. Breathe and just keep walking forward. Thanks man!

If you are still struggling with the meter issue, Fighting games are masters at a player meter. If your looking at something to research for ideas. Games like Street Fighter you gain meter either by getting hit like the more modern street fighters or you gain meter just by hitting the opponent like you suggested such as street fighter third strike. However there are a variety of other fighting games that approach this in several ways, a lot of anime games have you gain meter by moving forward, or only when you land special attacks.

[developRHUNT]

This was a very well made video. You did a great job explaining all the things about gamedev I could never put my finger on. 100% can relate to all of this

[TheBuzzSaw]

Yup. I'm coming to grips with this reality right now. I sit and obsess over what the "best" or "right" decision is. I try to push the burden onto others by writing forum posts asking for feedback on a couple directions I could go. I'm finally learning to assess decisions for myself and just push forward with my project. I won't make all the perfect decisions the first time around. Instead, I should move forward with a decision to *quickly* highlight the problems of that decision (if any).

[ridlr]

In addition to the pros and cons list, you can also think about modifications to either choice that might alleviate some of those cons. For example, in your case, you could make combat fill up the meter, but also let it fill up naturally, up to a certain percentage, over time. Or maybe you could place things around the map that refill it when you interact with or destroy them. In my experience, there are always ways to deal with the unintended side effects of a decision.

[sarahm]

For me talking to a mirror helps. I just sit in front of a mirror and start explaining what I want to do. As I hear myself saying it I start getting Ideas or I start realizing what works and what doesn't

[nichegames]

Good stuff, I'm catching up on videos.

[jaycristobel]

I really love the way you broke down how to relax and just put it on paper first. This video will help my younger team members to learn how to apply these suggestions to help them through making decisions. Thanks alot.

Great

[beardordie]

I love me some resolved clarity nuggets.

[bimboi]

Getting too attached to ideas is something I struggle with. When I have a hard decision to make I explicitly write out my goal of the decision to properly examine whether or not a feature or ruleset actually aligns with it. I personally can get really strong blinders when working on a feature and lose sight of the bigger picture, I find this helps.

[iDentityGamesYT]

Golden moments would sometimes come to me in dreams, very clear also…Normally after waking from a dream they’d come back to me blurred and confusing. But it’s something about those golden moments, quite a phenomenon.