6 replies to this topic

[notmichaeljfox]

Is it better to play a wide range of quests before you start making your own? I've played some but have spent much more time interested in building my own.
 

I sometimes worry that I rely too much on my own experiences to determine what makes a good game, rather than listen to the collective knowledge of others. What does everyone else do?

[TheRock]

Just enjoy the ride of making the game, because the game is yours, so make it yours.

[Aslion]

Yeah just do what you want. Playing quests can be a good way to see things that are possible and get ideas but it's not something you have to do. Make your game for yourself

[Haylee]

For me, I do like to play other quests to look for inspiration in what I'd want to do in my own work (Such as maybe seeing a gameplay concept in a quest that I feel more could be done with or something like that.). With that said though, everyone's kind of got their own design philosophies, and it's pretty much all mostly valid. As other people have mentioned, just do what works for you. If that's not working, try shaking things up and see if you find something that works better.

[Moosh]

I played and watched other people play a good handful of quests before I started work on Link's Quest for the Hookshot. It made my quests a bit more derivative as a result, but I'd also see that as a positive thing. For all the design mistakes I made, I no doubt would have fallen into many more had I not gotten a feel for the editor outside of the design space first. It also gave me plenty of ideas for how to get more out of ZQuest's capabilities through various tricks I learned about through the community. Of course everybody operates differently, and sometimes there's a time and place to throw aside the collective wisdom. Playing other quests is a very valuable resource, but don't feel the need to compromise your own ideas for it. I think it's possible to take game design a bit too seriously, and that's a trap I've fallen into as well.

[notmichaeljfox]

Thanks for the advice everyone. You've made me feel less guilty about forging my own path.

You've also given me the courage to create a quest project for what I have been working on - a dungeon romper with a world-building element. I shouldn't sit alone in the corner completely.

Moosh, I also want to thank you for creating your NPC scripts - they are amazing and I don't think I could build this game without them.

[Timelord]

Do whatever brings you the most joy.