[Long one, don't skip any parts! This message is meant to be inspiration for new people and perhaps a message to others who lost their spark.]

What actually is our common or different enemy in what can hinder us from making our game?

Some feel demands on quality. Others are perfectionists that want quality wether people beg for it or if they don't care. The rest actually doesn't care and would rather have the developers think about gameplay instead.

My own hinder in making a game is the immense bundle of graphics I have to do. I can code without a problem, I can compose music with no trouble at all, sound effects are fixed easily and great fun for me. However, making tiles, character sprites and animations can be tricky.

How did I solve this..? I look for inspiration, mostly found in sprite archives. I look, rip a little, edit, modify, make my own and learn from it all. That way I can now do everything I need in a game - all I need is time and most importantly the dedication and love for the game I am creating.

If you want to find people for your team or if you ever have any questions regarding game creation, we must take help from eachother. That is how we form a community, that is how we create games. Some want to do it without help, others ask for help. If we all can support Verge and keep active, we can surely revive a little of the old Verge spirit.

What ever happened to those small little funny demos people made? Suddenly we all want to make Final Fantasy 23. If you're going to make your own RPG, a hint is - learn how to crawl before you attempt to run.

Have questions about VC? Graphics? Music? Verge overall? Post it! Have friends or feel like giving the Verge community some boosting, link some Verge pages from your own sites.

May the power of VC, be with thee my friend.

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zaril@hellven.org - ICQ 7698022

Well said. I have the same problem. Yeah, it *was* going to be a Dragon Warrior clone. Now it's FFXXVII.

I think the trick--the thing that "pro" developers do differently from us--is twofold. First, *let* your idea skyrocket into something obscenely complex and amazingly cool, to the point that you can't stop thinking about it, even in your sleep.

Then, when the concept is there, you mold and shape it into whatever you can realistically put into a game. You find plausible ways to impose the limits necessary to keep the player within the bounds of the game. You adjust the storytelling so that you really don't have to explain *everything* in scientific detail. You find clever ways to make your game cinematic and exciting in a flat 2D engine, sacrificing those cool 3D effects, dynamic lighting, and movie-style camerawork to the greater good of Gameplay.

The one thing, then, that separates us hobbyists from the pros in the industry is this: You've got to have the guts to cut your best ideas to ribbons before you accomplish anything.

It's the same in every entertainment media industry, IMHO. Movies, for example (and you've probably heard this before) often require a director to cut out a favorite scene in order to better preserve the flow of the story. Sure, that scene was "Darn Cool" but it really wasn't necessary for the overall impact of the show.

Similarly, a whiz-bang 3D engine, cinematic camerawork, elaborate CG movies, and hundreds of hours of multi-scenario gameplay are fluff, at best, and hardly necessary for a fun game.

And besides, we're all in this community together, so *someone* at least will want to play your game if you have any ability to craft a fun one, flashiness be damned!

That is all.

--invicticide

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Blargh.

"Focused, hard work is the real key to success. Keep your eyes on the goal, and just keep taking the next step towards completing it. If you aren't sure which way to do something, do it both ways and see which works better." -- John Carmack

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"Ignorance is its own reward" -- Proverb