Quote:
Originally Posted by The Grindstone
Alas, poor Hardcore, I knew him, Casual: a fellow of infinite patience, of most excellent farming: he hath borne me on his back a thousand times; and now, how elusive in my imagination it is! My crank creaks at it. Here sat that nose that I have whittled I know not how oft.
Simultaneous invention's bane is waiting for help.
Posted 08-27-2009 at 04:59 PM by Alent
Simultaneous Invention is basically when two people come up with the same thing more or less around the same time.
So what do we call it when someone creates something and cannot implement it themselves, only to see it invented by someone else several years later who can? Is it still simultaneous invention? I call it an opportunity lost, and that's precisely what I'm facing.
About 9 years ago now, I came up with a game idea that was pretty simple. I wanted to take a genre I'd enjoyed growing up, and modernize it in a different way than it's descendants had modernized, in an effort to create a different, casual play version of the genre.
I lacked the skills to make it, and thought I'd pursue art and find a programmer. This was a bad idea. I avoided college thinking trade knowledge from it would be out of date by the time I graduated.
Time passed, my day job grew more and more frustrating as more responsibilities fell to me, and I felt like I'd never find a programmer. I have an RL friend who's day job is programming, but can only spare the occasional weekend to help, which I'm grateful for, but we've never made any progress. And so I looked more for something I've yet to find.
Fast forward. Seeing ideas I came up with 8 years ago in various games is angering me and enough is enough. The worst of which was seeing Ikarium take over tankspot, as that's the very genre and medium I wished to use. I will see my own ideas to fruition. To that end, I'm going back to school for a software engineering degree, and revising my ideas so that they properly stand out, instead of blending in with games that came after, but had the resources to be first.
The point of this? Don't repeat my mistake here. 9 years is going to turn into 11 before too much longer here and if I have to wait until the end of my schooling, 13 years. It's nearly impossible to keep an idea or dream viable that long, even with updating and revisions.
So what do we call it when someone creates something and cannot implement it themselves, only to see it invented by someone else several years later who can? Is it still simultaneous invention? I call it an opportunity lost, and that's precisely what I'm facing.
About 9 years ago now, I came up with a game idea that was pretty simple. I wanted to take a genre I'd enjoyed growing up, and modernize it in a different way than it's descendants had modernized, in an effort to create a different, casual play version of the genre.
I lacked the skills to make it, and thought I'd pursue art and find a programmer. This was a bad idea. I avoided college thinking trade knowledge from it would be out of date by the time I graduated.
Time passed, my day job grew more and more frustrating as more responsibilities fell to me, and I felt like I'd never find a programmer. I have an RL friend who's day job is programming, but can only spare the occasional weekend to help, which I'm grateful for, but we've never made any progress. And so I looked more for something I've yet to find.
Fast forward. Seeing ideas I came up with 8 years ago in various games is angering me and enough is enough. The worst of which was seeing Ikarium take over tankspot, as that's the very genre and medium I wished to use. I will see my own ideas to fruition. To that end, I'm going back to school for a software engineering degree, and revising my ideas so that they properly stand out, instead of blending in with games that came after, but had the resources to be first.
The point of this? Don't repeat my mistake here. 9 years is going to turn into 11 before too much longer here and if I have to wait until the end of my schooling, 13 years. It's nearly impossible to keep an idea or dream viable that long, even with updating and revisions.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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Though of course, Ikarium is an offshoot of the Planetarium idea. Which has been around about 12 years now I believe?
It's very hard being original these days.Posted 08-28-2009 at 10:43 PM by Durandro
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It's an offshoot of BBS doors games in general. BRE, Falcon's eye, BBS wars, etc.
I've wanted to bring that genre to the browser scene for quite a long while, and I saw a few games of that genre with less than 200 players that were little more than the old BBS doors games w/ php frontends. They didn't really modernize or change anything, so they didn't really stand much of a chance.
That said, Originality is a funny thing. You don't have to be completely different, merely notable. The more distinct the better, obviously, but never underestimate little changes. When you see a feature or idea in a game, think about where this feature or idea, consider where it came from, and how it changes what it's been applied to.Posted 08-29-2009 at 02:30 AM by Alent - Oh, it wasn't criticism. It's an issue I have all the time when I'm writing stories. The best I can really hope to do is to avoid massive clitches as best as possible, take the best elements from other authors I admire and mix things up a little.Posted 08-29-2009 at 07:24 AM by Durandro
- Exactly!
Posted 08-29-2009 at 01:36 PM by Alent
