Do you enjoy the games you have made?

[BazookaTime]

I wonder about this. Do developers that make amazing games enjoy playing their games or are they so burnt out on the project upon completion that it is just not possible?

I make games as a hobby and try to make games that I want to play. However by the time I have finished a project, I have no desire to play it again. However, I can't answer my own question because i have yet to make a great game. When I start a project I think I have a great idea but it has been a learning experience seeing the idea through to completion and then feeling differently about the project.

My goal when I started developing games was to make one game that I would want to play on a regular basis. I wonder if this is possible.

I am just curious if any developers play their own games on a regular basis. We all play our games to test ect. I am talking about playing your game because you enjoy it.

[Black Ops]

I think it depends on the amount of time the game has been awaiting development. If you have had a game fully designed for a few years and finally get it developed, at the end of development I believe you would have less desire to play. Conversely, if a game design's origin is relatively fresh and development happens quickly, then I think the desire to play it is much higher.

While I believe game designers have longer attention spans than typical gamers (because they have to, as opposed to want to), I dont think that their addiction to playing a game lasts any longer than a typical gamer. In fact, one of the inherent reasons for becoming a game designer is the inner need to add fresh content and create new things to play. I also believe that game designers always see ways to improve or enhance every game they play which ends up spinning them off into a new design as opposed to being content playing a completed game.

So while I certainly believe that the quality of the game you design would have some influence over your desire to play it post production, I think being a game designer might make you more likely to play more games for less time each, as opposed to getting completely immersed into one or a few titles.

Just my thoughts. I stand ready to be told what an idiot I am by a 10 yr old who plays CoD 12 hours a day.

[BrokenKings]

Yes, I actually still play 3 of the games I have made so far. Interestingly enough, the one I play most was most successful, second most second most successful...the third one was a flop but I still love it. But maybe there is a pattern in that.

[BazookaTime]

Originally Posted by BrokenKings

Yes, I actually still play 3 of the games I have made so far. Interestingly enough, the one I play most was most successful, second most second most successful...the third one was a flop but I still love it. But maybe there is a pattern in that.

Was your development time the same on all three? That is great that you enjoy your games.

[schplurg]

Well I played the heck out of Daredevil Dave as I designed it. I mean not just testing, I'd crash him over and over and get carried away. My neighbor heard me laughing once and finally asked me what I do for a living lol.

Didn't play it much upon release - sometimes though. It's still fun just to crash him and see how many bones I can break. I played an Injury Mode tour recently. It's so old though and really shows its age.

[BrokenKings]

Originally Posted by BazookaTime

Was your development time the same on all three? That is great that you enjoy your games.

Favorite one was three months ... the other two I mentioned were 6 days and 3 days respectively

[nvx]

Originally Posted by BrokenKings

Yes, I actually still play 3 of the games I have made so far. Interestingly enough, the one I play most was most successful, second most second most successful...the third one was a flop but I still love it. But maybe there is a pattern in that.

That's the way it usually goes, but not always

Each dev has their own take on it, but from personal experience, although I would prefer to only make the games I intend to play (a lot), in practice we only go ahead with games that show potential as profitable 'business projects'

Ofcourse the games we make almost always turn out completely different from what we imagined


To answer the OP:
right now? No

but I hope that will change with our next couple of game projects

[MHille]

The simplest way to answer this is that I played JiggleSaw for about 10 minutes within the last half hour, just for fun.

Did I enjoy every minute of testing, well no. Having to play your game for hours everyday, while debugging, testing and polishing is just a chore. You have to remember that and not be too worried that your enjoyment starts to waiver.

It's nice to know that a break from playing my game for a few weeks has made it possible for me to have fun with my creation again.

Matthew

[emdash]

I've been working on my indie side-project iOS game MageMaze for 2 and a half years now and yes, I still enjoy playing it! Well, at least in general... Lately we've gone back to retool all of the levels starting from the first on up, so I can at the moment only play the basic levels, 1-9. Those I'm getting tired of and am looking forward to opening up another dozen or two levels. But I'm in it for the long haul with this game (obviously!) and I don't think I could have stuck it out this long if I didn't believe in it and enjoy it 100%.

[jeremy.provost]

Something else that may factor into how much you continue to enjoy your game is how much it evolves over time. With Cricket Words we continued to modify and tweak game play until it was perfect. In that way it became more and more fun as development progressed. After launch we've continued to add features like 1 player mode and Extreme mode. Every feature like that definitely renews your own interest. I continue to play it often, as does the other developer.
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