ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

[simple man]

Ok.. when you start a game... where to start! theres so many things to do! tell me how you guys started your games out

[Lausen]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

I start with the main character(s) and an opening place. Then I create as I go. I find it easiest to go place by place, story event by story event.

[Stormy]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

I start with the main character(s) and an opening place. Then I create as I go. I find it easiest to go place by place, story event by story event.

Agreed. Figure out who will be in the party, then where it will begin. After that just create as you go. Some preliminary planning will prevent serious aggravation as well.

[simple man]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

is it ok to use pre made classes but you change them a bit?

[Stormy]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

Depends on how much you change them and how often you do it.

[simple man]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

Ive used Lizardman and Treant

[162]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

Hmm...personally, I see no shame in using preexisting classes (such a task can be tedious).

Lesse, when beginning a game, I usually try to figure out the story first. That way, I have a direction to go to, rather than just wandering around aimlessly. (Speaking of which, you wanted me to check your game story, but I don't knoe where to find it.)

Now, for motivation. *Ahem*.....

YAAAY simple man!
He's our guy!
Make that game that will make us cry-
"Go simple man, yeah simple man!"

Make! That! Game! Whooo!

[Perversion]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

Usually, I begin with a main character or two, make a town, make some NPCs and events in the town, preliminary quests or puzzles and whatnot...oh, before I do all that, though, I usually make an intro screen, with opening credits and opening storyteller if the game warrants it. And if I'm really ambitious, I'll sit down on the first day and write a ton of dialogue, and then put the game down for a month or more, and come back and playtest it to get my bearings, and then be completely at a loss as to how to continue writing believable dialogue, and give up the game in disappointment.

Barring that, though, I usually hold off for as long as I can on the field map(s), because I REALLY REALLY suck at making them. And personally, I have no desire to resort to the presets.

[Seraph]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

Basically I start the same way as everyone else. The hardest thing to do I find, is making all the casual dialogue for the townspeople etc. I usually start off with a basic concept, heroes, protagonists, quests what have you, then I have a tendency to get lost somewhere in the middle. Start by making your games "shell" first. Create some items, some monsters, then start making some characters and some quests. That will give you a bit of a base to work from and then you can start building your game proper. When you start to feel un-motivated or overwhelmed, take a break and work on making a few more monsters or whatever.

I find I tend to get myself way ahead of myself when making a game, and I get excited about a boss idea I have or the discovery of a powerful item or a cool character that joins up in the future. When I get un-motivated to continue with what I'm doing, I will work on "later" things in my game like that cool boss idea I had. It offers a nice break from the tedium, and fuels my desire to continue so I can implement that idea later. The easiest part of making a game (and the most fun) is imagining the interesting characters, powerful items and badass bosses you want in your game. The hardest part is getting from point A to point B in a way that makes sense (not just like: "Let's go to town B!", "Why!?", "I dunno! Thats just what it says we're supposed to do!"), and adding all the filler in between isn't always as easy as it seems either.

[Xyster]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

I usually start with one map, one town, and the main characters. The main hero/heroine of the story is the biggest priority for me, cause if you don't like them it makes it really hard to concetrate on the game or feel sorry for them if they die. I usually wind up sticking everyone in the group for the time being until I find where they are going to start...which is kinda stupid really.

Probably the biggest thing for me is getting the dialog right. I lot of my stuff comes off as preachy and stiff for some reason, like talking to a really, really obssesed and single minded person. That or it just comes across in an entirely awkward fashion that makes me want to kill whoever was talking so that I wouldn't have to hear their lines again.

A good portion of my time is spent revamping everything I've already done because I don't like it anymore or I want it to feel more "natural". Maps especialy are difficult for me. I'm still working with getting the Vmode to cooperate with me (so far I'm kinda just wanting to strangle it most of the time. :P)

So basically it looks like I start the same way as most other people, with just a little more time given to the specifics that I've mentioned above.

[Zeroth]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

For me, I'm trying to get the setting down (the overview of the world) and after that I plan on creating the scenario and (some of) the characters simultaneously. I haven't made much of a game-plan after that.

Btw, DO NOT GIVE UP ON THIS GAME! I MEAN IT! DO NOT! DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT! AT ALL!

[MagusMartovich]

Re: ingredients i need: 2 spoons of where do i start and a cup of motovation!

Although I might be a bit late on the reply end of things, I tend to not follow the crowd on this one.

While 99% of the people here have stated that the characters are their prime directive, I tend to focus on the story first. If I get a decent idea, I try to write it down and the build off of it until I can make a full fledged story that can stand on its own. Once I got that straightened out characters/events/etc should moostly be taken care off and all that's left is making maps (ugh.) and programing in the dialouge and storytellers.