Game Development: The massive task with little time Thread

Hey guys
Today I want to talk about how large a task game development is, the problems associated, the skills needed and to see how many other people are encountering the same things. I'm going to use the game which I am developing as an example.

LP is a TBS game which I am making at the moment, its core mechanic being a procedurally generated terrain which units can fight across in a bid to secure vital resources. I've spent moths programming this in C# along with a UI that allows for movement over a series of tiles as below:

All of this works well enough but the main problem is time. Trying to fit 4 or 5 hours of coding in on a weekend between school is difficult and the results of a few hours of monumental achievement in your code aren't always transferred back into visual progress.

So now its onto visuals, more time maybe five or six hours for a piece of concept art below, to get a sense of future potential visuals (This was done in photoshop quite a few months ago) :

This one here is of a dropped which got shot down and landed behind an enemies energy shield. However all these might as well be fantasy unless they are then transferred into 3d - The challenge. So next I started coming up with variations of the drop ship which change quite dramatically over the next 15 - 20 hours or so:

Which then turns into the 3d model below, bearing in mind having to go and teach myself concept art + blender as well so everything is still a learning curve.

© Hugo Dolan 2015

My point and question being does anyone have any experience with small slots of time which can be allocated to the development process, is there anyways to make your game smaller and better or has anyone found the same problems as myself when trying to go at this with limited levels of expertise and a constant learning curve.

Any comments ?
Hugo1005

Try some speed drawing and modeling. Draw a concept in 30-60mins. Make a model in 2 hours.

I usually skip concept drawing and visualize it in my mind, get ideas from objects I find at home, when I go out, or some random word pops in my mind. Speed modeling can also work for concepts, and serve as a base model for the final model.

I know how you feel. I try to spend only a few nights a week on side projects so that I feel like really focusing on them when the time comes. When I tried to do a little every day each week, I stopped being as motivated.

If you're working on the project by yourself (it sounds like you are), trim the game back to its more basic roots. Take out all the fluff that you feel would make the game So Amazingly Awesome and focus on making the game. It sounds like you're in it for the experience and learning, so focus on that. This video does a really good job talking about approaches for making first games. Maybe it'll help.

If you do want to do everything, pick what you want to focus on and do that for a while. What to do next depends where you want to put your focus. Of course, you want to finish your game, but is it more important for you right now to release a finished game or sharpen your Blender skills or learn some new programming technique? Don't try to do it all. From your post, it sounds like you have the general game in place, but very little of the art. Perhaps for this version of what you're working, go for a minimal art style: boxes fighting on hexagons may not be as pretty as camouflaged battle robots, but it might be as fun. Or focus on making some really cool looking troops for something so you can integrate into a game later. Or perfect your procedural generation engine. Or spec out some great abilities for your characters. Or, or, or.

You should also really look at your overall design and cut everything you can cut. Maybe forget the procedural generation and just design one level that really gets the game going. Or simplify the battle mechanics so there's less to worry about with interaction or game balance. There's always something you can cut, even if you don't want to. Learning to target those things and finding the strength to cut them is another important skill to learn.

Thanks guys,
Twin beasts, I was a little skeptical of your speed modelling approach when I first read it but it might actually be the best way to improve - trying to make a factory or weapon might just be easier when i dont have to follow a concept. Chaos, that video pretty much described my situation I probably need to simplify things way down, Mercifully the procedural part is almost fully operational (no pun intended) , at the moment I'm just finishing off that basic UI on screen. I think for this game i'll take your advice and simplify the art as for me I'm still more of a programmer than an artist so both sides will probsbly have some really low poly models with vertex painted textures and perhaps some glowy bits on machinery to draw attention away from the bad models . I wanted to have a building system for command buildings factories etc but that might get the chop depending on how long they will take to code and implement so still some thinking to go their on simplifying game mechanics.

Your comments have been extreely helpful its great to be able to bounce ideas off against other people who undestand the process:)