Is this really worth it?

surDen8 · 2013-10-12T23:11:27

Hello everyone. Lately I'm constantly thinking about invest forces to make a game, not an unrealistic one with super-mega graphics that can fight against big companies neither another that obviously would need a big team and big investments to be even started. My idea is something more related to a board game with relatively decent graphics based on medieval ages whose central point would be the interaction in singleplayer and multiplayer modes. I won't say much here about it, but I feel the game, despite everything, will be very appealing and funny due to its numerous possibilities. The idea is an MMORPG but that can also be played offline. A relatively similar example could be the games of Paradox Enterteinment, like Hearts of Iron or Crusader Kings. Programming C++/OpengGl isn't a problem for me, I'm experienced by older projects, but I'm not a designer or game artist; I guess I cannot even model a proper house in Blender. However, once the game by its very nature does not require a lot of objects, terrains, textures, characters etc., being just a board game with things like map, castles, houses, trees, it will be perfectly fine to me to learn a little about game designing and make it myself - I already make some progress and it is pretty decently. The bulk of the game will be its programming side and about this I can handle perfectly, what I like to do, although very laborious. However, here comes the problem... When I get motivated to do something, I work really hard to make this thing, but, if at some time of my progress I get the "suspicious" that what I'm doing is totally useless, my original energies are entirely drained and I cannot help myself but to give up before die of frustration; unfortunately, I'm not the kind of guy that can work in something based only in the "faith" that my hardship will be a success - I need at least some probability. This happened to me once, when I got seriously involved in the creation of a website based on social networking, like Facebook. Even my parents started to be concerned about me because I worked very hardly day after day, completely workaholic. I worked alone and after some months I managed to program about 85% of the website compressed in thousands and thousands of PHP, MySQL, CSS, Python, C/C++ and HTML lines. I have to admit that my original goal was money and, after a miserable day, when I realized that to build a proper company like Facebook is something that goes far beyond to just "build a website" and involves investors, infrastructure, money, singular opportunities, team, a lot of luck and a lot of other variables that are even more difficult to be found in third world countries like mine (Brazil), I was deluded of my dream and gave up everything, with no regrets; I still have the lines of codes in which I worked in, but now this brings me only frustration. Therefore, this is exactly what I don't want to live again and this makes me reluctant about starting any new project, even this one. There is a lot of variables against new games. After read about it, it makes me feel this is a market already very saturated and that is living "leveling", a scenario very different of that one of some decades ago. I'm 22 and remember those times when to make a game sounded like something very "rare", but now there are maybe 1001 of them casted every day. Even if a game is very very good, there is no way to say its developers will be rewarded and, in truth, that the game will be even known. So, that's why I'm thinking about it. I really like games and also to program them, but I don't want to waste time in something where my loss is already decreed; it's the same to love, for instance, to study the sidereal space - you can love it, but you cannot construct a spaceship to get there unless you are a crazy billionaire, to think otherwise is to be just a dreamer. However, at the other side, there are examples of very successful people who fought against the system and won, like Notch. So, is this game, once finished, something that will be more like this? - "Who the hell will play this **** when you can play games like CoD, Crysis, GTA V, Far Cry etc.?" I know I may be generalizing the market, once there will be always people who want to play games out of the mainstream, like me, but the omen of "failure decreed" is just so strong... Thanks for your time.