Please stop post unfinished products!

I am trying to be helpful to maybe newer Unity developers...but I see it all the time from even higher experienced people. When you have a project and want to talk to the moon about it, that is fine. When you have a playable demo and want people to play it, that is fine. But please for the love of GOD stop posting incomplete Showcase or WIP topics. Too may times do I open the forums and click on a WIP or Showcase item and BAM either a wall of text, a link or 1 graphic. If your screen shots contain mostly prototype art and Unity's built in GUI, don't show it. If you have no screen shots, please hold off until you do. A wall of text is nothing. That is not a Work in Progress no matter what you or anyone thinks. Games have to start from somewhere but they don't start from you coming on here blabbing about a game you "want" to make and all the "ideas" you have to make said game. Also the whole I did this game in 6 hours projects...that's great that you did something in 6 hours but why does anyone care. 99% of the time your 6 hour project is just that, a 6 hour project filled with bugs, unfinished game play, 1990's graphics, stolen audio and lack of polish.

Game Design is a major part of games and it should be talked about but not on the forums for your project unless you are making a community project where everyone has input on how you design your game, and even then it's still a big no no. Spilling out your ideas on the forums is your own business and it's your choice to do so but please if you want to be taken more seriously and professionally then don't show off projects that are not close to being done or have even been started.

Your screen shots should contain aspects from your actual game, not prototype art or asset store bought items. If you are eager to share your ideas about a game you want to make, do us a favor and make it, then talk about it. You will get more people interested in your project if it has something behind it.

Here is a list of what you should do when posting your project to the forums...

-Put all images/videos embedded inside of the actual forum page. Links are lazy and show me that your project doesn't even inspire you to import your images into the forums.
-Text should have minimal spelling errors, how hard is it to run it through MS Word or Open Office Word
-At least 3 screen shots should be in the forum and 1 of those should show off game play
-Update your first post with the newest information so we are not forced to scrub through pages to see the newest works
-Look at some top rated showcases and see how they took their forum post seriously. Try to mimic their style, be professional and you will be treated professionally.

Lastly I would like to add, when your making a game always ask yourself, "Why would someone buy this game?" If you are making a game to sell or get people to play that should be the first thing in your game design document...Why would people want to play this game? If you can't answer it how can we.

 

The majority of Asset Store artwork is intended for "final product" use, isn't it?

 

The asset Store artwork can be intended for final product so they contribute to the final product but in no way are they the final product. There's an obvious distinction here.

In other words, buying an asset pack and then taking screenshots of them in a scene and calling this a game doesn't really work. That is what he means.

so its probably: "Your screen shots should contain aspects from your actual game, not only prototype art or asset store bought items."

 

Game in 6 hours?! You talk about this?! The origin of this post probably.

 

Someone needs to just get over it and themselves.

 

Sounds like you're talking less about unfinished projects, and more about projects that haven't began - and, aren't likely to - in the first place.

I've seen just about a 0% correlation between a posted wall of text and a completed game. If you're going to do something, most of the time you don't talk about it - you just do it.

 

TLDR; What is this wall of text? It's nothing!

Okay, joking aside, HELL YES!!!
Thank you!

I just wish there was a time machine that I could use to send this back to me two years ago.

Also, I think it would be a good idea if the forums could issue ranks for people on their profile like:
-New
-Yet to Make Something
-Contributor
-Published
-Profitable
and
-Legend

That would shut some people up...
(people like me <sniff>)

 

It really annoys me when people put unfinished titles into the Works In Progress section.

 

I don't think this would be a good idea, in fact I believe this to be counterproductive and only lead to an unhealthy atmosphere.

While I don't agree with everything the OP said, he certainly has a point about people posting lots of garbage and unfinished ideas, generic terrain screenshots, etc, which are far from showing a game idea. However, it doesn't bother me that much, because senseless posts will quickly vanish from the first pages, never to be seen again. We're not forced to comment on those and if people do, there seems to be interest in such posts after all.

Honestly, I'm much more bothered with all those flappy bird clones cluttering the showcase section, but that's another matter.

Your suggestion however, wouldn't change that. People could still post whatever they want. All this would do is lead to elitism and bolster a few big egos, which would like to be recognised not by the content and competence of their posts but by a simple subtitle, giving their opinion instantly more weight than others and the perceived right to judge and direct peoples behaviour because of a seemingly senior forum rank. ;-)

I just don't believe in those things and either way, regular readers will get to know who is competent, and what their background is.

 

I'm running on the assumption that this is sarcasm.
There is a huge difference between a work in progress and posting something mocked up from a single tutorial, such as a menu or a terrain.

 

You know, sometimes people create games for their own amusement and don't care about whether or not other people want it.

 

Dex, I can tell your intentions are good, but it really is not up to any of us to decide at what stage of the project people can start publicly talking about their games, or how. You can follow your guidelines and they might work for you, but they don't have to be a standard to be enforced. Not everyone is going to the same places, so there's no "one true path" here.

 

You understand the concept of work in progress, right?

 

But a mock up is a work In progress....lmao..

and to the OP..."DO YOU EVEN DEV BRO?!"

Entire games have been developed from asset store items only...sorry to rain on your little parade.

 

People never read the forum rules here before posting. That's never going to change.

 

Personally, i have no issue with this. If you are worried that your own "awesome" WIP is getting buried by dreamer posts, then you are probably in a similar basket.
Make games, not war

 

I personally don't mind wall of text (I think I post wall of text in my own dev threads most of the time ). But I don't like when there is just a wall of text and no screenshots or videos or anything visual of the game to show. If its just a wall of text and nothing else than its just an idea with no progress if there is nothing to show.

I think most of the time people don't even read the wall of text, or any text the original posters post in their thread. They just look at the screenshots or video or play a little webplayer the original dev has up and then they decide to comment. I do that. I really like going to the works in progress thread and seeing what people are working on, but also I like to see actual progress. When I click on someones works in progress thread I first just check to see if there is any screens, videos or even webplayer, then I read what they wrote. If I just see text and nothing else I loose interest and end up leaving the thread and I honestly think this is what most people do as well.

 

One rule could be that people should use puncuation and the Enter key sometimes when posting walls of text, though.

 

Unfinished titles aren't the issue, not started or 1 screen shot with basic cubes and no textures are. If your putting stuff in the WIP section it should have something in it that lets me see the game, not a "I did this is 4 hours now look at it and tell me what you think" threads.

 

Not trying to enforce any rules, just ranting. Anyone can do anything, I may not care for it but it doesn't mean I don't get annoyed. Annoyed enough to post about it because I see it happen so often. People are entitled to free speech and are able to make a post about anything, that's what makes this an awesome forum to be in. I just hope one person reads it and goes, "He's right, I am not going to just make post with no content of what I am working on". This is all I want lol.

 

If they don't care about what others think...why post it showing it off? I get they may want to make something silly and never plan to sell it, but at least make it have something in your post with your game and not just ideas.

 

The mods here do check -


Yesterday the Mods deleted a UDK work-in-progress game, posted on the Unity work-in-progress forums.


I found it amusing that someone posts UDK game to the Unity WIP forums

 

Well, there's no rule in the wip section that state to post a complete playable demo. I don't like small thread with only one image or similar... But once I asked a moderator if I could post a wip containing only art (so very far from a game) and he said yes, but remember to post progress every week.

So I think you demand too much. Moreover I think the issue is the opposite: there's no art or concept section. I'd like to discuss the very early stage of my game. Bu I think it's a problem of mine.

You are right about good English. And almost often I say I'm sorry for bad English

 

There is an issue here. The issue here is that you would grant that much power to a post/wip in the wip section allowing it to modify your mood and make you annoyed.

 

I'm sorry to rain on your tiny parade as well, but he isn't dissing the asset store in any way. He is just saying that posting a picture of an asset that you bought does not constitute progress. Of course if everything was put together in a final form it would be acceptable, but one purchased asset does not progress make.

 

What about all the guys that have never made a game in their life, that suddenly have a game studio with a "Team" and act like they are professional, this is so funny!

You look on the facebook page and they are some college kid that has never even had a job.

 

And your point is? Some of the most professional people I've ever worked with were the college kid that never had a job. In the end, we all start somewhere so I wouldn't try to insult someone else's beginning.

 

It's funnier when they say something like "Hi, my name is ... I'm 13 (almost 14) and I'm CEO of Super Awesome Games". That said, they should be free to keep doing it as long as they do it in the correct forum section, they'll learn eventually.

 

I'll tell you the point, Its funny! No one said they are not professional and no one said that college kids can't do great things, you are definitely missing the point.

Just to clarify I am not "insulting someone Else's beginning". You are right, we all have to start somewhere, but making grandiose claims is still funny nevertheless.

 

Can you give an example of these grandiose claims and why they end up being a claim?

 

Do you mean an incomplete WIP or an incomplete topic?

Because the whole point of a WIP is that it's unfinished because it's, you know, Work In Progress.

To clarify, I do understand what you're driving at with regards to walls of text that represent nothing but ideas. But I see nothing wrong with a WIP having prototype art or being buggy or having unfnished mechanics. The whole point is to get feedback before it's finished to help guide you along your way to finishing in the right place, instead of some random place. Or to stop you from wasting your time on an idea that just turns out not to be fun in practice. Or whatever.

I agree about not posting a WIP unless you have some development to show. But I think that showing prototype or early development stuff is perfectly cool, and is something that the community should be supportive of. My work sure as heck wouldn't be of its current quality if it wasn't for throngs of people playing it all the way back from its early stages.

 

There are so many they are almost rule and not the exception. It would harder to find an example of a grandiose claim that resulted in even a finished project.

 

Unity forum is not only for professionals, a lot of hobbyist are here too and should be able to show there work too. So you might think their WIP thread doesn't look serious but it doesn't have to. Unity forum is not a restricted place for only "professionals"...

Sure thread that start with just an idea might not look like WIP, but the point of the WIP forum is to open a thread for your project that you should update times to times (at least once per month), so others can see the PROGRESS and give feedbacks.
Idea / Game design is very important in the life of a project, if people post what's their plan for their new game, the good things to do would be to read it and give feedback, but definitely not complain about it. Experienced ones can give their input on what is feasible or not, so the OP can start the dev with better goals.

I understand that not too much persons want to "waste" their time helping beginners, what i mean is the problem doesn't necessarily come from those simple WIP threads, but the way we deal and interact with them.