on which games will be completed and which wonāt
You know Iāve been thinking about this for a while now considering how many games on HAMSās list havenāt updated in over 6 months, been put on indefinite hiatus, have really spaced out updates, or keep saying theyāre about to drop a demo but havenāt yet, but Iām starting to be able to tell which games will be completed based on their devblog alone.
Hereās some things I look out for. Ā Note: please understand this does NOT mean that any game with a few of these traits wonāt be finished. The more traits a game has though, the less likely it will be finished.
first time game developers starting a devblog too early in the gameās development cycleĀ
release date estimations from new developers who donāt know how long completing a game will actually take
getting constantly delayed by school or other obligations. Ā this isnāt something the developer can control
a need for perfection/perfectionism, where the developer keeps redoing parts of the game over and over again to meet their standards
in that same vein, good art or being more of an artist than a developer - it takes a while to make good art, so the more time you take on the graphics, the more time itās going to take to complete the game. Ā again, not a definite thing, but I have seen it often enough that itās on this list.
constant changes in plot, programming, game mechanics, art styles, etc.
focusing less on the game itself and more of the lore & art of the game. this tends it tends to signal that the game would be better off as a comic or a novel than a game. Ā Not a bad thing, just somethign
focusing less on the game itself and more joking around with their characters or fufiling drawing request - this has your brain already satisfied with the work you produce, making you feel like you already accomplishing what you set out to do without doing it. Ā Nothing wrong with it, but it can also be distracting if youāre getting a lot of them.
starting with a lot of content then gradually having longer and longer periods of silence in between updates
the developer(s) not being confident in what theyāre doing
going on hiatus for more than a month - the longer you are away from a game, the less interested you are in finishing it due to coming up with more ideas
announcing theyāre making a demo and then not having one out for over a year
having a team with more than 3 people on it - itās not like games like this arenāt completed, it just means itās more likely that game development will stop if someone drops out of the game.
Not all games that arenāt complete have these signs though. Ā Some just drop off the map completely without warning.
romaincrisis
snowghoul
2087
stormborns
ellievsbear
discoholicmusic
kianamaiart
