It takes a lot of work to make a game look good. Even games with minimalist pixel graphics. Good ones, make sure that every pixel has a purpose. There has to be a reason for this object or this sign or this color when it comes to how it guides the player on their journey. It takes a lot of planning and testing to figure out where the precise placement should be.
As an artist, you just want to create. Let me go on my own adventure as I come up with crazy new worlds and characters. Often times you’ll find its not as easy as it seems, that you may become over whelmed with the sheer scale of the project or simply the details of an image. Perhaps your eyes or imagination are bigger than your skills or time schedule. You might create a really awesome character or asset then move on to your second and third only to find that they don’t quite mesh with the first.
A full team collaboration.
There must be a visual and complexity consistency across the entire game. You can’t have a highly detailed bush with leaves and branches next to a tree top that’s comprised of abstract shapes and air brushed shading. It just looks weird. As indie developers there might only be one or two artist on a project so it is important for them to communicate and agree on the style and direction they’re taking. The same thing applies if you are working on a solo project. Make sure that your ideas are in agreement and you’re working within your skill set. This is where all the planning comes in.
Concept artwork, style guides, story boards, menu tree maps, game design documents and an asset lists. All of these things play a vital role in building your game from the ground up. Having all these references make it so much easier when you do start working toward a more polished product. More than that, they can give you goals to strive for. For example, today I will complete the code for running and collisions. Tomorrow I will create the App’s Icon. From there you can continue to check things off your list as they are completed. Not only will you feel like you’re accomplishing something, you will actually be accomplishing something.
Your first idea might not always be the best idea or the best for a certain situation. You have to be open and willing to try new things, experiment with different looks or mechanics. If you obsess over a certain aspect having to be a specific way it could harm the surrounding elements. If you’ve done proper planning this might not be such a huge issue, you might be able to easily find and isolate a specific section of code or remove a plant from the scenery without it affecting the overall look and feel.
Plan. Plan. Plan. That’s all I can say. It’s the most important process when doing anything in life, especially when it comes to creation. There is a fine line to walk however. There comes a point when you have to start doing. You can’t plan forever by constantly changing ideas or art styles or gameplay design because you have the new idea of the day. Take often delayed Fez for example, years of delay from reworking new and old aspects of the game. Know that you’re going to have to make changes along the way, that nothing is going to be perfect right out the gate. You have to take a step forward, then take another and see where it leads.
When I create something I try multiple variations of things. I try different color patterns, different facial expressions or different scaling. Even if they are things I know I will never use as a final product. In my mind it eliminates the possibility that I missed something, or that there is a better direction out there. There may very well be a better version that could be created but I can’t dwell on what other creative minds might do, someone that may be smarter than me or have more experience with better skills. There comes a point when you just have to let it go and no one can tell you what that point is, it’s just something you have to find yourself, and this is where deadlines come in.
Give yourself realistic deadlines. Obviously creating an entire menu system and functions from scratch will take more than a night of work so focus on smaller chucks, break it down. Tonight work on creating functioning buttons, tomorrow work on a background screen for the options menu. Then in a few days time you will have all the pieces you need to fully compile and implement your vision. Your asset list and menu tree maps should come in quite handy for this.
All in all there is no right or wrong way when it comes to indie development. There are teams out there of dozens of people working on the same project while on the flip side there are solo operations working in to the long hours of night. As a team of five, we are working on our first game and everyone has varying levels of experience and talent when it comes to games. Every game is different and has different needs with their development cycles. The one thing that is constant in all creation, Planning.
“Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity.” – Henry Hartman
