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View Full Version : Game development: Idea or execution?



T_Kill3r
19-02-2012, 03:15 PM
I understand that creating a successful (read "fun") game requires both a good idea and proper execution, but I'd like to hear what the general opinion is here on the forum. Those of you who have some experience developing - and possibly trying to sell - games should know which aspect carries more weight.

I always take a look at the indie games on steam, and the ones that usually grab your attention are the ones presenting a new idea, new visual style, new gameplay mechanics, etc. Yet to me it seems that most of these titles disappear after a month or two. Is it because of poor execution?

What about Minecraft? Would you agree that its a case of idea > execution? Its so simple, and so much more can be (and is being) done with the game, yet its probably the most successful indie game to date.

Game development is something I really want to get into this year, and I'm not sure if I should put all my effort into a few ideas which I think are good, or should I spread out my efforts so that I can execute a better end product when it comes to already proven ideas.

dislekcia
22-02-2012, 01:10 AM
Personally, I'd say neither. The most important thing is persistence.

If you persist, relentlessly writing down ideas and fleshing them out into games in your head, you'll have more ideas. Eventually a few will be good. After a while you'll be able to tell the good ideas from the bad ideas. Hopefully one day you'll be able to have good ideas all the time. When this happens to me, I'll let you know ;)

If you persist, continuously trying to execute the game ideas you do decide to turn into games to the best (if not slightly exceeding your best) ability, then eventually you'll get good at execution. You'll develop a skillset and a style that will help you execute better ideas in ways that you wouldn't have been able to before.

Ideas and execution always steal the limelight, so it's easy to assume that those are the most important thing, but to be honest they're both functions of persistence. They both increase in quality over time, slowly. In fits and starts. As long as you just keep grinding away them. When you can't execute an idea well enough, practice your execution. When you can execute everything you can think of easily, you'll come up with more challenging ideas. It's not like you'll be able to stop yourself thinking things up while you're working on a game anyway... The hard part is to continue working on the game that's nearly finished, because it'll be 90% finished for ****ing ever. The trick is to persist.