The Hero's Memory: DVN-002
Motivation
#1
Posted 16 February 2014 - 12:33 AM
I'm sure anyone who does a lot of creative work can see the problem with this immediately. You see, the original quest was made with very little outside input. It was my dream fangame, taking my absolute favorite levels from the Zelda series and putting them together in a complete fangame which used the simple Zelda 1 engine but nice looking graphics from the whole series. I made the quest because I wanted to see what it would be like, what was around the next corner, in each new cave. In short, I made the quest for ME, and anyone else enjoying it was just a bonus.
And now, I'm trying to make a new quest, based on this idea of "giving the players what they want." I created this quest project page to make the process more transparent. Why? Because I needed to make sure I was on the right track. I needed to seek approval and make sure I was really doing a good job in giving players what they wanted. In spite of not really believing in the idea of demos, I made a demo and an expo page, all because I need to know that I'm doing things "the right way." Even the dungeon choices aren't for me. Don't get me wrong, I'm still choosing my favorite dungeons from each game I feature, but since I've already used my favorites from the Zelda series, it means that all the games featured in this sequel are the ones I didn't care for as much. In the process of trying to make a quest for everyone else, I never asked what was in it for me to enjoy.
Which, of course, makes it very difficult to keep the enthusiasm up. I feel like I'm afraid of messing up, afraid of people criticising the quest when it's in such an early state. The demo and expo made me extremely anxious, and while people generally seemed to like the demo, it was an overall negative experience for me. Having my early work under a microscope, having to explain what is and isn't intentional, what will and won't be in the final quest, how much better everything will be in the end ... And if I have to hear one more person complain about my bomb walls I might just explode myself. I try to remain positive, but having my work so heavily criticized makes me question whether it's all worth it. Some people would say that I don't take constructive criticism well, but that's not it. The problem is that I truly am my own worst critic, so with VERY few exceptions, I've already anticipated the criticism I receive and so much more. I have an absolutely cruel attention to detail that just makes me beat myself up for not having time to fix everything that I already know people will point out.
Which is all just to say ... I'm going to take a short break from working on this, and when I get back to it, I'm going to try to work in the shadows a lot more. Updates here won't be as frequent, because I think it's important to focus on building a quest that I love, rather than sharing my ideas and seeking approval. The quest will be released when it's done, and I hope you all will have faith that it will be a good one. People seemed to enjoy what I produced the first time, and I am pretty sure many will enjoy this when it's finished. But ultimately, I have to make something that I love, and hope that others can enjoy it, too.
Thanks so much to followers here and others for your support. I really do appreciate it. I'm sorry I won't be keeping you updated on the progress, but I believe the quest will end up better this way.
#2
Posted 16 February 2014 - 02:25 AM
It seems like I got more and more criticism when I aimed to please the community instead of myself in the past years. I was scared to use my personal screen-design style because back in the day, you were heavily recommended to spend an hour or so on just one screen to make something that would be considered perfect. It felt like a standard back then. So the fact I did constantly got criticism after an hours worth of work was anti-motivating for me. Eventually one "epic" project after another, my attempts failed. And I bashed myself for it. Until I had enough of wanting to please the community, that is.
I decided to make screens I wanted to make. I didn't care much about filling each screen with details. I wanted my quest to look like an official gameboy Zelda. Not some screenshot of the year DoR screen. And guess what? It's gotten a lot more positive feedback than my previous works. So yes, making stuff your own way is better to an extent.
Keep going, I want to see a finished product rather than a series of weekly updates.
#3
Posted 16 February 2014 - 08:09 AM
At least, that's how I see it. I'm looking forward to see where this project goes and I wish you good luck!
#4
Posted 16 February 2014 - 08:57 AM
What I'm trying to say is, you know best. Do what you want and we'll realize what we want.
#5
Posted 16 February 2014 - 11:59 AM
The Hero's Memory doesn't need a DX version... lulz
#6
Posted 16 February 2014 - 12:07 PM
Like I said once to NJF, F*** people and just do what you want
Good luck man!
#7
Posted 16 February 2014 - 04:18 PM
Avataro: I know how it sounds, but it really isn't that I don't appreciate constructive criticism. It's just that I so often hear the same things over and over when I'm already aware of them, already fixed them, or already decided NOT to "fix" them. It's more about hearing it at the proper time than anything else, and once the quest is released I'll pay plenty of attention to criticism so I can improve it for updates.
#8
Posted 17 February 2014 - 12:48 PM
#9
Posted 12 May 2014 - 05:44 AM
NEVER GIVE UP! TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS! [/Peppy]
I've just read this thing, and oh my god you're so wrong! "(...) but having my work so heavily criticized (...) ". Aevin, your quest is one of the best rated ones in the site, and it has the best overworld ever. You can't just be so negative only because there are things that some people didn't like about your quest.
It is completely impossible to make a quest for everyone, and it also is impossible to please everyone in the same way. If you're out of inspiration and/or motivation we can't do anything about it, but the reason you're giving seems a little bit "PhilFishy".
However, I believe that the best thing for you won't be doing something you don't want to, so good luck with everything and I'll just continue hoping =)
- Aevin likes this
#10
Posted 12 May 2014 - 12:49 PM
Ultimately you're going to have to make a game that you want to play as opposed to making a game to please other people. Not only will you find the building process enjoyable, like minded individuals will also enjoy your final product. The problem with trying to please the entire playerbase is that you're going to get a lot of conflicting feedback. While I'm not saying you should ignore this, I'd advise mainly looking for trends of things people like/dislike and using those as your building blocks if you're thinking of making changes or improvements. Also sadly the silent majority will rear its ugly head. A lot of times it's going to feel like you only hear about the bad given that people tend to stay quiet when they're appeased. I wish you the best of luck on this project; I know it's not going to be easy to live up to the high expectations that Hero's Memory 1 created.
- LinktheMaster and Aevin like this
#11
Posted 12 May 2014 - 01:21 PM
Wow, this got revived out of nowhere ...
LegenDairy: I know that I've been incredibly fortunate in the amount of attention both of my quests received. I'm grateful for that, but in the end I'm just the kind of person who finds it difficult to work in the spotlight. I think the stress of releasing the expo demo and having a sudden influx of thoughts on a project at an early stage in development was more than I was expecting.
Evan: Thanks for the advice. That's basically what I've concluded for myself. It's tricky to try to take everyone's considerations in mind when it feels like you're being pulled in several different directions ...
Anyway, I've been working on this a lot more regularly lately. I think I've gotten a lot of the negativity out of my system and am making a lot of forward progress. Thanks so much for the encouragement, guys. I expect to post an update within a few days.
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