Post by torchbearer in Pumpkin's Task comments

Viewing post in Pumpkin's Task comments

I'm very grateful for all of the information you have provided Gunnar, I have found myself continually retracing my steps to these articulate and focused bodies of text that you write so that I can present my creations just that much better! I made these games to challenge myself and I enjoyed making them for me so when you decided to play all three of them back to back it dawned on me that, holy crap, people are going to play my games and they will have opinions hahah, shoot.

The video was amazing, I had never expected you would make that. It was gut wrenching in a way because I had never seen someone play my game other than the people who are close to me. Pumpkin's Task was my first finished game and Surf's Up was a game I slapped together in 2 days and posted because I thought it was hilarious. When you played it, like a spoonful of cold medicine I had realized I should probably present my games a lil' bit tighter... but it was still really funny to see your reaction to Pumpkin and the crew getting cooked and the spinning surfer. What a blast.

By the way I'm impressed by the quality and length of feedback you're willing to put out for the newbie game dev and I can see why that would be so important in the culture. With this analysis I feel a lot more clarity with the "How the hell do I make video games?" question. Not that I really know how but I know that the road has been paved by more experienced devs that are willing to be helpful. Thanks a million

Gunnar Clovis4 years ago

I'm so glad ^-^

That's definitely my goal with commenting and recording; I want to encourage new game developers and offer guidance wherever I can, and show that people can and will play their games. Really just try to provide what I wish someone did for me when I was starting out. I really want to record more itch.io games... I was trying it without commentary originally, but while it's more work I think it's far more worth it to provide with commentary.

And thanks for clarifying that Pumpkin's Task was your first finished game... that's so awesome! Definitely a very high-quality first game. You're starting out at a pretty high y-intercept on your plot of game quality! Keep it up!

Some parting suggestions for the years to come:

Make new games, very often. Try a game a week. There are lots of consistent itch game jams, like the Weekly Game Jam and TriJam.
Make lots of small games, don't try to make too big of games too soon. Quantity over length in terms of the games, and shorter but better games are better than longer but more mediocre games. See this Extra Credits video on Awesome Per Second.
Read this Webcomic The Art of Being An Artist.
Absorb content like Game Maker's Toolkit and other game design-focused content creators.
Play other people's games often, and critique them! It's good to engage with the community (as you've already been doing! :D ), and pointing out the successes and failures of other games is one the best ways to learn how to improve your own games. It's much easier to dish out criticism and feedback than to implement it... My games definitely don't adhere to everything I preach, and that's alright. It's a continuous process to improve. Find cool things to copy from other games, and find what you want to avoid.
Keep working and improving! Everything is a skill and skills simply take practice (though also see this The Art of Being An Artist piece of Practice Doesn't Make Perfect).

Congratulations on your first few games! I hope I can see a lot more from you in time to come! :)