Scope Creep and How to Deal With it

Gamers.

I've been working this week in designing and I've realized that the next update make take a while. More than anything due to the definition of the game's main goals and getting to know how much do I want to make out of this. So I guess is also a good chance to explain more or less how do I feel towards the project and how good I am at achieving goals and fullfiling promises. We all know examples of games that have promised too much and get involved in a maelstrom of hype and expectations that end with a dissapointing result. These cases are very scary for any solo developer so I have some takes to deal with this problem.

The first enemy of any solo developer is SCOPE CREEP, yes, in ALL CAPS, because they are our MAIN enemy. For the initiated ones, SCOPE CREEP, is basically when you don't realize how huge the game idea you are working on is and how much would it take to complete, so you take way more time than expected, producing a frustrating anxious state that ends up in most cases with the dissapointing abandonment of the project. Why is this a thing so common in game development? Many may be the causes, but in my opinion, is mainly because we learn while we try to implement and there are a lot of unexpected problems that come around when trying to implement an idea.

For example, if you have never developed a game, you see an MMO rpg, even a 2D MMO and you say "wow maybe I could do this"... MUAHAHAHAH noooo!, you will not, or at least it will not  be easy. You may think about just doing an rpg, but you don't realize at first that making 'online' is opening the Pandora Box of game dev, you will realize that very useful and popular engines like Unity, actually lack the tools to make this easy (well, at least, at the moment of writing they have abandoned their online tools. You can use them but they are not updated or maintained), so you will get into the problem of actually finding an engine that does this. Maybe you will need to do everything from scratch and learn about Networking from 0 using a framework and a low level language (which is already something you didn't know) and then OH NO!!! in order to make an MMO you need to spend a lot of money on servers, because the game needs to run in a central computer so players can connect to it and you realize is expensive and OH NO!!! you will need to be very careful where the server is because of ping and I haven't even tell you about the actual problems of  latency and KLAFJKAJSKLFJKAjs....

Ok I guess you understand. However, after you threw away your idea of making an online game, wasted 5 months of trying to make one, you get tire and finally say "this is too much for me, I'm gonna make something that is not online, because is just too much for me, something I can actually finish".  Your next idea is just a 3D FPS like CoD, because you really like it.... believe me, the story will repeat, and maybe repeat and repeat and repeat. Until maybe years pass... but the knowledge is not all of a waste, not only you care more about the process, you get more compassionated for delays in big companies, you know that games are not delayed because devs are lazy and, with a lot of addional luck, you will eventually find the glorious and heavenly point of balance between skill and scope, or how I like to call it the "Engelsauge".

Finding Engelsauge

The best advice you will listen from everybody and every horror story is just to start small. If you think you have a small idea, think again and make it smaller. Are you thinking about how good it looks? ok, now make it uglier. How long? a 6 hours game? cut that to a half, 3 hours game. Does it have a complex story? maybe a mediocre story or no story at all. Well once you had cut in a half, you are making progress! just a first step because now, think about cut it half again... and maybe once more... why? because your end product may be actually be just a fraction of all that applied...

-REALLY?

-Yes

-Is this Engelsauge????

-That's right... you are feeling it... taste it, lick it, hug it at night. You will start to have dreams about it, maybe hallucinations... just then, maybe, it will become reality.

-So is an ideal game just half of a platformer level that copies Mario Bros and has just black and white assets and the main character is a stick figure????????

-You are understading... I'm proud of you, even that make take you a month.

-I understand... Master.

Promises create hype, hype is the biggest marketing strategy, they lie because it works, we lie because it work, my game is gonna be the best game that has ever existed and it will come out soon... thats' why... stay tuned and follow me, because next update is gonna blow your asses and you will experience something that you thought I wasn't possible.

ALSO YOU CAN CHECK MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRKltK7bZyhWW3qs7o_hccg

I'm starting to upload videos there and don't forget to write a comment with your experiences on scope creep, what you think about it, tell I'm an idiot, anything, I will be glad to read.

Tschüss.