Did you finish your first game?

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Did you finish the first game you tried to make?

Yes
10
32%
No
21
68%
I came back several years later and finished it
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 31

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Luroch_Delkar
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Did you finish your first game?

Post by Luroch_Delkar »

Did you finish the first game you tried to make?

I know from my own and my friends' experiences that beginning programmers like to bite off more than they can chew. The first games that we tried to make ended up being too hard for us and we either didn't finish them or came back several years later with more experience. We did have the exception of one text-based game written in html that was so short in simple that even we beginners were able to complete it, but I would hardly call it a game. I was wondering, out of a community of programmers, how many successfully completed their first game?

For those of you who were beginning to wonder, I am doing research on the start of a videogame designer's career(including the hobbyists) hence this recent onslaught of surveys. Thank you in advance for your responses.
Last edited by Iris on February 10th, 2011, 5:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Created poll.
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ajf
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by ajf »

Luroch_Delkar wrote:We did have the exception of one text-based game written in html that was so short in simple that even we beginners were able to complete it, but I would hardly call it a game.
Mine wasn't HTML, but a simple batch-file based MS-DOS text-adventure. As far as I remember I did finish it, but I am sure you would hardly call it a game.

Cheers,
ajf
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Dunno
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Dunno »

I tried to study some programming languages, but I found them too hard, and I had not enough time to spend on learning them. So I turned to "user-friendly" game making tools, and I made quite an enjoyable, labyrinth-based 2D game. My friend saw that I lack skill in making mazes so he made a [acronym=4 A4-format sheets! All making a one enormous maze that can give you a strong headache]huge[/acronym] labyrinth himself and gave it to me. That was fun! Though I didn't return to game making after finishing that project...
Oh, I'm sorry, did I break your concentration?
Joram
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Joram »

I'll come back in a month or two and let you know the answer to this question. :wink:
The Fires of Pride 0.3, a heavily story based campaign.
On hold while I try and finish my book
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Luroch_Delkar
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Luroch_Delkar »

:lol2: I know what you mean Joram, I still have hopes of finishing my one php/html text-adventure someday. Perhaps I will get back to it after I finish Jailbreak or the Dungeonmaster Era, but I to want to achieve competence in Java before I get to college.

Oh and thanks to Shadowmaster for the poll.
"The Enforcer knows only one way to preserve peace. So mind your neighbors else it will descend upon you." Sword of the Stars Forever
HAPPINESS=Moderation, Variety, and Love
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MCP
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by MCP »

My first real attempt must have been on the TI-86 in QBASIC, but it was so slow just refreshing the screen when the guy moves that I never really made it far enough. Thinking back on it now, I kind of had a Robotron 2084 type of game in the works, but I didn't know it at the time.

So no, I never completed it because:
1. QBASIC is too slow for doing the game I was sort of thinking of.
2. Assembly language is the only way I could have done it, but that was probably too advanced for me at the time.
3. I think a Robotron 2084 game would work if I had done it in assembly.
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Sapient
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Sapient »

Here is my very first game written in BASIC. It's a simple proof of concept for interactive fiction. It's too short to be considered a finished product, though. In all, I wrote 19 games in BASIC before I had any training in computer science. Most of them were unfinished but some of them were actually pretty fun time killers. During most of that time, I did not know anything about subprocedures or arrays. I also wrote several games for the TI-82.

I had actually written some games before this and they ran on a quiz toy with a one line LCD display and it used a rather limited subset of BASIC. But I can't even remember what that quiz toy was called or what type of games I wrote on it.
ALIEN.BAS:
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ancestral
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by ancestral »

Nothing is finished!
Wesnoth BestiaryPREVIEW IT HERE )
Unit tree and stat browser
CanvasPREVIEW IT HERE )
Exp. map viewer
ajf
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by ajf »

MCP wrote:2. Assembly language is the only way I could have done it, but that was probably too advanced for me at the time.
I am not sure if assembler is correctly described as being advanced, rather the contrary :)

Cheers,
ajf
Velensk
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Velensk »

Yes, in several different ways.

I've made countless board and card games since my youth many of which got to where they were playable (and some of them even enjoyable). The first serious one I attempted to make with an indepth rule set was a Squad Leader type (designed for Sci Fi) which I was making with a friend. I designed the rules and he made the peices, the scenarios, and the stastics. He moved away and took the peices with him. I would say the system (the part I made) was definately useable but a bit more random than I liked and did not handle airpower appropriately. I have not however been able to work on it since he moved as the custom pieces were important to play.

I did finish the first computer game project I set to which some people here may know as Count Kromire.

I also did finish the first computer game I seriously set down to code which was a school project. It was a pretty basic shooter type vaugely remesant of asteroids except that you were facing one large enemy who shot back and took many hits to kill and you bounced off the walls instead of looping.
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MCP
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by MCP »

ajf wrote:
MCP wrote:2. Assembly language is the only way I could have done it, but that was probably too advanced for me at the time.
I am not sure if assembler is correctly described as being advanced, rather the contrary :)

Cheers,
ajf
I wouldn't exactly call BASIC advanced either ;p.
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Alarantalara
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Alarantalara »

The first one, yes. It wasn't until the eighth or ninth that I started not finishing them.
This seems to happen regardless of medium: I have finished my first Wesnoth campaign, Warcraft 3 map, Java program, C program, tabletop RPG campaign, Pascal program, HyperCard program, crocheted plush toy, crocheted hat, Wesnoth art (terrain and sprite), and probably a lot more things I don't remember right now. All of these also have at least one incomplete project to go along that was started afterward.
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ancestral
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by ancestral »

Is Wesnoth finished? :P
Wesnoth BestiaryPREVIEW IT HERE )
Unit tree and stat browser
CanvasPREVIEW IT HERE )
Exp. map viewer
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Sapient
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Sapient »

ancestral wrote:Is Wesnoth finished? :P
Has it achieved what Dave originally set out to do (and more)?

I would say that Wesnoth has been in the polishing stages for a long time.

Of course you weren't asking a serious question though. There will always be bugs and feature requests as long as there are new players and contributers, obviously. :roll:
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Gambit
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Re: Did you finish your first game?

Post by Gambit »

I just started it about a week ago. At this point it's not so much a game, as a learning exercise with SDL.
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