How much have you cut out of a game?

Just a friendly discussion.

Have you ever made a big game, that was completely unrealistic, and thought of abandoing it, but then by cutting out a lot of features, been able to get get a smaller yet still fun game out of it?

That's where I'm at at the moment. I was making a game which is totally unrealistic for one person to make. But now I think if I strip out some of the more advanced features I could make something that is not my original idea by still an acceptable and nice game. (It makes me think how the creator of Spore must feel like.)

But I must say, it's a pretty painful process. But the alternative is to have something that is never finished.

On the other hand, it's kind of freeing, in that now you can concentrate on a smaller core of features that will work properly. But it will end up more like a $5 game than a $20 game.

But then again, I feel kind of like I didn't live up to my own expectations.

 

Everything, almost and even then it's barely feasible.

 

Never, just put it very far down the backlog

 

I generally like to take as much out of a game as I can while still achieving the core experience. It's the experience that's important, not any individual piece of functionality or content.

And, broadly, if I have to choose between less stuff done better or more stuff done worse, I'd much rather the former. I've never thought to myself "woah, that game was awesome, it had loads of stuff that was ok". On the flip side, I've often thought "that was awesome" of a game that did a little bit of stuff really well.

 

This is why I like to plan so small it seems pathetically easy at first. Then every time you actually have more time than you planned for, it pumps you up, you feel so smart, and that you are having the fun of adding new stuff rather than taking away cool stuff.

It's all about manipulating the self.

When planning, in the military you have whats called a Four Point Contingency Plan. Or a P.A.C.E. plan. Primary, alternate, contingency, emergency.

In planning your game, you can do something similar. Certain features must be in the game. They are primary. Others would be really important to have, but can live without to make deadline. That's alternate. Contingency is stuff you add in during polish if things go really well and you got time. Emergency is wishlist stuffs.

You cut from the backend. But you don't just cut willy-nilly. You have a plan for when you gonna decide to cut something. e.g. "If we are not done playtesting the primary features and happy by x time, we will cut the alternate features production."

The more important decisions you make up front, the more you can stay cool-head focused on work and get S*** done like a boss throughout the entire development. The more "oh S***" moments you have, the more development is gonna drag, tire you out, and then you gonna make poorer decisions.

 

Oh, you know...

Spoiler: the usual amount.

 

I cut out so much all that I have left is a hello world program.

 

First you kill stuff because you suck at gauging how much work is involved. Then you get better.

Then you kill stuff because you suck at predicting if it's actually going to be fun. Then you get better.

Then you kill stuff because KPIs are down the drain because you didn't understand your market. Then you get better.

Then you kill stuff for fun, because at that point, you're a masochist if you're still in the game.

 

I don’t create “big games”, I do however suffer from the same issues. Create a todo list, work backwards and remove everything that can be delayed till the next update. I have removed a conservative 30% of a pre launch todo list, e.g. leaderboard, social media sharing, etc.

 

Edit: I have even gone one better, which is to start a game, discover through prototyping that it was way to complicated for me, then used some of the concepts that I liked from the abandoned game, in order to create a new game.

 

^^^ This guy game devs.

Repeat after me, "maybe in the sequel".

 

Step 3, seeing that the game is doing OK without these extra stuff, never get round to adding back in the 30%.

Best thing to do is under promise and (slightly) over deliver.

That's my plan. Cut out 50% but advertise only 25%, so then when they get the game they will get a surprise 25% extra!

I'm considering re-naming my game a "mini game" because I can't face working on it for another year to get it finished.

 

Anders also knows how to promote and market as well, he plugs VF in just about every other general forum topic on this site.

 

Thats not marketing Other devs are not target audience I havent even bothered with subredits like r/Unity3d and r/gamedev.