Classical list of helpful tips and warnings

[Dorth]

As per rogerborg's suggestion, here's a new topic to guide newcomers in the industry:

1-KEEP A JOURNAL: Every step you take toward (or backward) you project, write it down. You've found tutorials on a site? Write it down. People were very/not at all helpful on a forum? Write it down. You changed engine for some reason? Write it down. And why. It took you twice as long to do this than you expected, you had to redesign something because you designed it badly, you changed your plans for X and Y. Write it down. Everything. You will be thanking yourself later. Trust me on that.

2-An online game for 2 persons is a different concept than for 3-8 than for 9-64 than for 100s than for 1000s than for 1 000 000. Each needs a completely different design. Plan your thing well and do know that you can't "just adapt it later."

3-If you are not a pro, USE LIBRARIES! Lots of them. Don't think it will make it magically easy. But it just might give you a shot in the long run, save you plenty of time and those, at least, can usually be replaced down the line if the code using them is well encapsulated.

4-Start small. No. That's it. Right there. Small. Everything you plan on doing, cut it in half. Then again. The big studios do it. The small ones too. The indie too. It's easy to have ideas and concepts. It's easy to start a project. It's even easy, to a point, to have a bare prototype. But to complete it, you will need sacrifices. And again. And then some. If you aren't ready to part with more than half of your concepts at least partially, YOU WILL !NOT! COMPLETE YOUR PROJECT!

5-Make a Game Design document before coding a single line. Know everything that will go in your world, everywhere. List all required technologies. Make schemas of the layout of your code. Simplify all that can be, because it will complexify again before you know it. If the name of that NPC in the corner isn't in your Game Design doc, you are not ready. You can use that time to read a c++ book, btw.

6-Order and prioritorize your ideas. If something must go, what will it be. If 2 things are in conflict, how do you resolve it. This list has only one place where you are allowed equal value items, it's the Must Have part which defines your game. Which you should limit to 5 items or less. And no, everything isn't acceptable.

[Jallenbah]

There's nothing really there which i haven't thought about or heard before, but i would agree with that in general. More than anything, it's persuaded me to actually do some designs.

[wyrmmage]

I vote this gets stickied
-wyrmmage

[Dorth]

Gamer's Bill of Rights, thanks to stardock

Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.
Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.
Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.
Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.
Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.
Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.
Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

[Dorth]

A useful list of Articles on game design found on Gamasutra. The source of the links, however, was http://www.gamedev.net/reference/list.asp?categoryid=23 .

I am going through them one at a time and will only add here those I find worthy of a read.

A Letter from the dungeon:
Excellent critic of annoying level design flaws in RPG settings.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/desig ... 000126.htm

Bad Game Designer, No Twinkies! (I, II and III):
A game designer from EA gripes about mistakes in game design that were understandable in games of old but no longer.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/desig ... 980313.htm
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/desig ... /index.htm
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20020208/adams_01.htm

Behavioral Game Design:
A good comparison between behavior noted in players and laboratory experimentation and the added conclusions taken from it.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010 ... son_01.htm

Breaking the rules (Ernest goes to the movies):
An analysis from a game designer about which rules are ok to bend or break and which aren't in a video game.
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000706/adams_01.htm

<To be extended, hopefully>