Thinking about IGF Student Showcase

[NothingLikeit]

I'm giving some thought to entering my game into the student showcase. I've had a lot more progress than in years past with the gameplay programming. On paper the gameplay seems simple but since this is my first REAL project I'm taking my time with certain features. My question though is: How far were you along in your game's development when you decided to enter your game into the IGF competition?

When do you have to decide to cut features?

At what stage in development should you be a month before the competition?

[gec]

Nothing--
I have never really entered a game competition, although I do have a friend who entered a game in this years IGF competition that he originally wrote on my Linux PS2. And I have worked in the game industry eleven years, mostly as a producer. So with those caveats, this is what I would guess:

A month before a competion you should probably be play balancing a little and testing for compatibillity with unusual hardware. If you want a polished game you really need a few months with everything working well to collect feedback and adjust your game accordingly.

The key to a really good game is balance, level design, and polish. That is the part that usually takes longer than most people expect and is the part that gets neglected because of deadlines, budgets, and tired teams.

Given that, I think you should plan to enter next year and take advantage of the extra time you have to make your game great.

[gec]

"When do I cut features?"

As soon as you can. It is a much better development strategy to add features to a simple game that is working, then to fill a game that is not working with features, or never finish a game because it has too many features. The beauty of online games is that you can always release another revision.

Good luck!

[NothingLikeit]

Thanks for the Insight GEC...


What do you think about the general advice of "always having something to show" (as in a 'shippable" product)?

[gec]

I don't really understand that advice, except perhaps that if you are looking for a job in game development, showing work you have done can demonstrate your passion and abillity.

I don't think anything teaches you more about making games then finishing a game, even an inadequate one.

It seems like a lot of people get an idea for a game, start a web page, do some art and make part of the game like getting the engine running or creating an editor and then abandon the project. I don't mean to put those people down, a lot of times what they acomplish is really impressive. But consistently they start something very hard and then never finish.