Dungeon Master Devlog - Am I doing this right?

Week 6

Next week will mark 1 year since I started work on Dungeon Master. What started as a simple card game with too many moving parts evolved into an ever expanding digital prototype. This morning I watched a video by Jonas Tyroller, and it got me thinking about my development process, and whether this project is going in the right direction.

Up front, I know all too well that there’s a stage in any creative project, usually right near the finish line, where you start to despise your work and question its validity. I’m certain I’m experiencing that right now. I’m also probably experiencing some amount of burnout from working close to 50 hours a week. That doesn’t help.

As the video makes an analogy of search algorithms finding a point of maximum fun, I can’t help but look back at my experience with the project in the past year, where instead I’ve found myself searching for a point of minimum boredom. While the two metrics would seem to correlate with one another, it’s led to a process with an inherently negative outlook on my own product. I’ve trained myself to catch flaws and mistakes and hone in on them.

I assume this is some sort of useful skill to have as a designer. There are systems and mechanics which were holding my game back, and I owe it to my scrutiny that they’ve been changed. Still, I can be a harsh critic, and putting my energy into finding flaws after completing a new milestone makes the experience less rewarding, and motivating yourself as an independent developer is challenging enough as is.

I also think this process is inefficient. I spend more time removing and adjusting the negative aspects of my game, and less time highlighting and improving the positive.

In my prototyping phase I feel I was better at this. I had a weird, experimental idea for a game, and I wanted to figure out how to make it work. It came more naturally to pick out the positives and run with them. Once I felt the idea was worth something and I made the switch to developing it in engine, I took what I had for granted and stopped iterating on those positive aspects, instead putting my head down and working on code and art.

At some point my outlook flipped, as reflected in two of my past devlogs, where I discuss changes made to negative aspects of the game. I seemingly lost track of what made my game fun to begin with, and at the same time lost the ability to iterate on those fun ideas quickly and frequently.

At this point in the post I would talk about what my plan is going forward, and outline my goals for the next week. The simplest answer this week is “I don’t know”. I might keep working on what I’ve been doing, I might look for something to reshape my outlook, I might even take a bit of time away from the project. I know I’m close to completion, so I know whatever I do, it’ll be to move towards that goal.