What kind of game could you guarantee finishing in 10 minutes? Seriously, I’d be thrilled to see. Here’s mine. I think this is an interesting question because it’s at the heart of what it means to finish games. The decision process involved in finishing a 10-minute game is a condensed version of the process to finish any game. 10 minutes isn’t enough time to meticulously draw art, plan a story, or regret your life choices. It’s just enough time to make a game, and one of the easiest ways to do it is by making a text-based game. They don’t require art, physics, or collisions. They also set a different expectation and because of that, text-based games can solve one of the indie community’s biggest problems: project over-scope.
What if everyone is working on games which are too big? I’ve seen so many unfinished indie games and I believe that 99% of the time, over-scoping is the culprit. The internet community has normalized working on games for weeks, months, and even years. That kind of time frame is ripe for over-scoping and a whole host of other game-killing phantoms. Even in game jams, most are at least a day. Where are all the games made in 2 hours? Here’s mine.
Making text games is a great entryway into making any kind of video game. It puts focus on the story and the concepts directly apply to making games with graphics. Some caveats: not every game is going to work well in text format. Text Pac-Man would be kinda weird, although not impossible. The point is to practice finishing.
I hope this was helpful and here’s to more finished games!
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