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Share your work in progress (WIP) projects do any good?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by bayunanda, Apr 13, 2015.

  1. bayunanda

    bayunanda

    Joined:
    Jul 18, 2013
    Posts:
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    Hi all,
    Since i can't find about this article on google, I just want to ask.
    Does sharing your work in progress game/app in blog / forum / websites etc do any good for the project?
    I've never done that, but as from my logic, the reasons are :
    - You want to become exist in the community
    - Shows the level of your efforts and attention to details on that game/app
    - Shows how fast you can develop a certain kind of game/app.
    - Encourage your mood to continue on development.
    - You can't wait to show to people about what your great idea, but you know it still needs time to develop.
    - Attract investor / crowd funding
    But i see some cons are :
    - Someone stole / use your main idea and publish it before you do, whether it's from the system, interface design, character design, etc, with a less or better quality than yours.
    - Your WIP article spoils the goods, so the hype is more on the WIP article than the released product itself.
    - Need some more time to write down your progress, and reply a feedback.

    That's all i can think of.
    So if anyone ever experience the real good or bad things about sharing your work in progress project please tell us. Because sometimes i feel want to share some of my WIP for some of that reasons but afraid i'm not in the right way to share some WIP that could lead to the cons..

    Thanks!
     
  2. Darkcoder

    Darkcoder

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    Of course it does.

    If you're worried about people stealing your ideas, spoiling your plot, wasting time interacting with the community, etc. Then don't make a thread, but also don't expect anyone to play your game.

    Ever heard the phrase 'ideas are worth nothing' ? This is relevant to game development because everyone has their own game ideas they want to make, and anyone can think new ones up in minutes. Unless you're higely successful (e.g. Minecraft, Angry Birds), I doubt anyone would even bother to try and copy it.

    The most important part of games is the execution of these ideas, and WIP threads are an excellent way to get feedback on this.
     
  3. Schneider21

    Schneider21

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    Totally agree with @Darkcoder. However, I'd be careful about this one:
    While creating my first (and so far only) asset pack, I kept a WIP thread to pique interest and get feedback as I went. Right after posting, I had a few responses, but as I continued to post progress, I was getting very little if any activity in the thread. It become frustrating and disheartening to bump the thread with an update I was proud to show off, only to have the thread sink to the second page within 15 minutes without any responses.

    I guess this is a lesson in the dangers of seeking your validation from external sources. I'm still super proud to have completed what I set out to do, and excited to put work in for the first update, but I'll definitely be managing my expectations moving forward.

    That said, if keeping a WIP thread is satisfying to you for any reason, you should absolutely do it.
     
  4. bayunanda

    bayunanda

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    @Darkcoder well said,
    But for the ideas, it's just one of the probability, out of millions of creative and skillful developers (who doesn't need other people ideas) who viewed it, that's still possible, maybe not from this community etc. Because that's what most people glimpse of worry about posting a WIP right.
    And as for me, I was actually willing to share some wip because i thought it'll be fun, but i'm just afraid that i'm not in the right moment (maybe it's too early or something), think we need some articles about "where you should or should not share your wip" lol.
    P.S : Sorry for the "wasting time with the community" what i meant is not that rude actually, i just i heard from someone who shows his WIP on daily / weekly video, and one day he stopped his routine for a while because of that reason, that's why i put it there, and not all of those cons refers to my worries, it's just my logic thinking and what i've seen somewhere.

    @Schneider21 I see, you just made 1 more possible cons there, lol. Yea, think it's because of there are lots posts in this forum, so for someone new in here to expect getting supported by community still needs some effort and luck.
     
  5. ShilohGames

    ShilohGames

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    Darkcoder is right. Ideas are worth nothing. All that matters is implementation. The people with enough skills to implement gaming ideas are already busy implementing their own ideas. None of your ideas will be so awesome that other people will suddenly abandon their own ideas in order to take the time to steal yours. BTW, I am not judging the quality of your ideas. I am merely pointing out that everybody values their own ideas more than other peoples' ideas.
     
    zombiegorilla and Kiwasi like this.
  6. GarBenjamin

    GarBenjamin

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    You probably shouldn't worry about people stealing your ideas but I disagree that it never happens or that it is not a valid concern.

    I don't know about the rest of the people. I can only guess they have never encountered any people who copy others ideas. I have encountered such people many times. As hard as it may be to believe there are people who have no ideas and are always trying to think of something to make. Even very experienced and skilled people. They may be great a software engineering or great artists but that doesn't mean they also have many cool game ideas.

    Anyway as far as sharing your work on the forums I guess it all depends on your reasons.

    A few good reasons would be Accountability, Feedback and having a log of your journey. By accountability I mean when you throw it out for the world to watch your development it may make the difference between you choosing to spend 3 hours working on your game instead of spending that time watching tv. In a sense the forum becomes your accountability partner. Feedback is a great reason but I'd recommend posting in the Feedback thread on the Game Design forum for that. If you make a thread in the Work In Progress forum and maintain it with weekly (or more frequent) updates including screenshots, videos, what you worked on and what you will do next... that could be a very interesting journal to look back on later.
     
  7. willemsenzo

    willemsenzo

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    If you're taking this road and I think it's very necessary to get some following you have to 'dripfeed' your target audience. Often developers give away too much details about their project/product while the trick is the get people's attention by feeding them appetizers. Do this every now and then but don't overdo it, and always try to dose it right. You want to achieve the effect that people can't wait to be fed a new snacky cake and when they get the cake, it should be sweet and you want them to beg for more but they have to wait again. If you feed too much at once they get spoiled and you lose whatever you have achieved. If you don't feed enough they might lose interest and once again you're not in control of the situation. Sounds a bit hardcore maybe but who said marketing was pretty haha. You obviously don't tell your followers to sit down and listen to you but you can at least make a subtle suggestion, that makes a huge difference :)
     
  8. djweinbaum

    djweinbaum

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    I have a WIP thread for my game and the pros for me are:
    - I get to show off the stuff I'm working on
    - Its a pretty decent traffic source to my website
    - Its nice to hear some feedback
    - I appreciate when other devs show their process so its nice to contribute to the pool

    I wouldn't worry about people stealing your idea because ideas are pretty cheap in this industry, and as a small developer, nobody is paying attention to you anyway. Even on the rare chance that someone does decide to copy you, and is competent enough to outdo you in execution and marketing, it still probably won't hurt your sales.

    The only con for me is that cataloging my development is actually a lot of extra work. Its an ongoing job if you want to be consistent with updates (which I am not). If you're going to spend the time to have a blog/WIP then I'd recommend having your own site for it as well to better capitalize on the work your putting in.
     
    bayunanda likes this.
  9. bayunanda

    bayunanda

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  10. tedthebug

    tedthebug

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    If you have something that conveys your key gameplay you could also post a link to a playable version/demo in the Friday feedback thread of the game design forum. The current one is open now & people will give feedback on what you've got so far.
     
  11. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    There is actually some science that suggests sharing your work early robs you of some motivation. @GarBenjamin had a long thread with research about it a while back. It's part of the foundation for @Gigiwoo's 12 week challenge.

    I'd suggest doing a double check before you get too invested in sharing progress.
     
    Gigiwoo likes this.
  12. bayunanda

    bayunanda

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    @tedthebug Nice, thanks for the info, hopefully next week I've done all of the core gameplay elements, I'll post some demo when it's set.

    @BoredMormon I've experienced that things before (some projects ago), when I shared some cool core features to my friends, I've received feedbacks too early while it's still a long hard way to go..
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2015
  13. Master-Frog

    Master-Frog

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    Good luck with finishing and releasing if you're nervous about feedback.
     
  14. goat

    goat

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    Wrong. Ideals are the basis from which you proceed to even begin, how can anybody intelligently claim anything else? Ideals are worthless? That is absurd.

    If you have a good ideal and do want to implement it yourself then keep it to yourself. If you have a good ideal that you don't want to implement or have not the resources to implement than share if once if you don't mind using your time that way and then move on and forget it.
     
  15. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    People say that ideas are worthless, because everybody has tons of them.

    Most of the ideas are not unique, were done before or are already being done by other people. That's because most of the people are thoroughly average, so when your average guy gets an "amazing killer idea", it means that half a million of other people thought about the same thing.

    Other people can hold pieces to the puzzle/problem you're trying to solve, and unless you share ideas with them, you won't get those pieces.

    Ideas don't matter much. It is their execution that makes a difference.

    IIRC, the whole thing is a bit different.
    Talking about your project, kills desire to work on that project, because it tricks your brain into thinking that you're making project. "Hey, I talkied about it, it means I must've done something with it! Time to relax". Or something like that.
     
  16. goat

    goat

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    Everybody has tons of ideals? Well that explains all the zombie and war games that are so fresh and original. I'm calling the bluff here, they denigrate others ideas because the way they denigrate others looks, intelligence, mastery of some technical feat, or so on. They do this to intimidate and silence people that don't agree with their view of the world. Execution means nothing except self-indulgence in most cases, sometimes the best ideals are not executing the your ideal at all. People want to have their cake and eat it too. Real life doesn't work like that.
     
  17. neginfinity

    neginfinity

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    Ideas. Not Ideals.

    The guy before you was talking about ideas. Then you started talking about ideaLs, for some reason.

    And yes, ideas are cheap or worthless. You also can't copyright them.

    What matters is execution and combination of different ideas. THAT one makes big difference.
     
  18. tango209

    tango209

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    English isn't everyone's first language here, it seems to me he was talking about the same thing.

    The point of the "everyone has ideas" thing is that very few execute on their ideas, so don't bother worrying too much about someone stealing yours. Your problem will be if it is a success when everyone trys to get in on your gold rush.
     
    Gigiwoo and neginfinity like this.
  19. Prototypetheta

    Prototypetheta

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    I have a close circle with which I feed details about my project to (whether they want me to or not hehehe), when it's a little more complete and presentable, I'll start poking around, maybe make a few threads here and there to test the waters.