A friend of mine has persuaded me to expand my breadth of experience. I was wondering how others approach this. I am sure everyone faces these issues, but everyone handles it differently.
So, by your own measuring stick: [by day, by week, by ratio, or by other]
1. How much time do you allocate for new game exposure?
2. Do you play any games for fun, while contemporaneously working on projects?
3. Does playing games cut into your editing time? -and how do you handle this
I play a lot of games, for fun and also for inspiration. Sometimes it takes too much time away from mapping, so on rare occasions I force myself to do some mapping, but not too much. If I can do 1-2 hours of mapping in a single day I consider it a success. There may be times when I do nothing, but then I have my 8-10 hours mapping days, so it's all working out.
Depending on the phase of the map my motivation may vary. It's usually very low in the beginning when I'm just staring at an empty map with only a few ideas and not much to hold on to. With each feature I add I can motivate myself more. The best thing is when I have a fully playable alpha-version of a map (just gameplay, no cinematics or terraining). So I aim to get my maps playable as fast as possible and then finetune them for maximum fun. After that it's all about iterating continuously. Motivation usually gets lower towards the end, because I don't really add anything new but spend most of the time bugfixing, finetuning small things and replaying the map over and over again.
When a map is finished I take a break from mapping and play games. Currently I'm playing most of the time,but from time to time I work on an update for a WC3 project. Working on updates to existing projects is a lot less stressful. Everything important is already finished, it's just about improving what's there. These updates have become really big lately, but iterating takes less effort then a 1.0 release.
I don't allocate time, per se, but I do take breaks to play games, usually when I'm feeling an ebb in my productivity on our campaign. I generally focus on one thing at a time, so if I've got a game, I play it to completion and then go back to working on the campaign. This can be a day—I played through Firewatch on Thursday—or it can be a couple weeks for big games like the Witcher 3. Then I go back to mapping, hopefully recharged, and usually with some new ideas. I can say for certain that games I've played over the last year have had a lot of influence on Thoughts in Chaos, especially narratively.
So, by your own measuring stick: [by day, by week, by ratio, or by other]
1. How much time do you allocate for new game exposure?
I'd say around a quarter, though it differs a bit; I've had periods where all I did is play one or two multiplayer games with friends, and periods where I went through a couple of new games in 2-3 weeks. In general I make sure to keep trying new things that people I trust are saying is good, or that simply looks interesting to me personally. Having played Bastion, I recently jumped into Transistor, for example. Only ended up playing one session, still currently looking for the time to finish it. I think, for anybody with some kind of real vested interest in games (such as editors), trying new games constantly is incredibly important to broaden one's vision of what is out there and what can be done. I also try games I feel may be shit, from time to time - as long as I can obtain them without paying (Evolve being an example here, having recently turned free2play).
2. Do you play any games for fun, while contemporaneously working on projects?
3. Does playing games cut into your editing time? -and how do you handle this
These two are a bit complicated for me. I don't really 'edit' as such anymore, but I'm currently finishing up my master thesis in Game Studies. Ideally I'd maybe want to become some sort of developer (or level designer), but it's not a goal I'm currently doing anything for to concretely work towards. On the flipside, I also count playing games to get the experience as something that helps a great deal in improving my knowledge of how they work.
Imo you don't need to invest the time it takes to play a game to be inspired by its mechanics or design... if I want to learn about a new game I just read about it or watch a play through, you get the same information but faster. That is, unless we're talking about a game like Shadow of the Collosus or Journey where the atmosphere is the game
When a new game comes out that I like I buy it. On the other hand I know what games are coming up that I would like. When I get a new game I play it until it is no longer fun (6-72 months) and then I mix in old games or new ones.
I only play games for fun. Also define a project since an occupation is a job you like.
Editing time?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
Thank you for the replies everyone; its very helpful to compare your own approach with the methodology of others. Also, it satisfies a lot of curiosity.
Project, in this sense, is just a planned and designed piece of work that takes considerable time. It's not enterprise related, if you were wondering. I am in the process of re-balancing time for mapmaking (editing), game exploring and immersing.
I agree, you can see the basic mechanics and design of a game. It's efficient and it's helpful to use as a first impression before deciding to explore the atmosphere and micro-mechanics.
A friend of mine has persuaded me to expand my breadth of experience. I was wondering how others approach this. I am sure everyone faces these issues, but everyone handles it differently.
So, by your own measuring stick: [by day, by week, by ratio, or by other]
1. How much time do you allocate for new game exposure?
2. Do you play any games for fun, while contemporaneously working on projects?
3. Does playing games cut into your editing time? -and how do you handle this
I play a lot of games, for fun and also for inspiration. Sometimes it takes too much time away from mapping, so on rare occasions I force myself to do some mapping, but not too much. If I can do 1-2 hours of mapping in a single day I consider it a success. There may be times when I do nothing, but then I have my 8-10 hours mapping days, so it's all working out.
Depending on the phase of the map my motivation may vary. It's usually very low in the beginning when I'm just staring at an empty map with only a few ideas and not much to hold on to. With each feature I add I can motivate myself more. The best thing is when I have a fully playable alpha-version of a map (just gameplay, no cinematics or terraining). So I aim to get my maps playable as fast as possible and then finetune them for maximum fun. After that it's all about iterating continuously. Motivation usually gets lower towards the end, because I don't really add anything new but spend most of the time bugfixing, finetuning small things and replaying the map over and over again.
When a map is finished I take a break from mapping and play games. Currently I'm playing most of the time,but from time to time I work on an update for a WC3 project. Working on updates to existing projects is a lot less stressful. Everything important is already finished, it's just about improving what's there. These updates have become really big lately, but iterating takes less effort then a 1.0 release.
@TerraAzure: Go
I don't allocate time, per se, but I do take breaks to play games, usually when I'm feeling an ebb in my productivity on our campaign. I generally focus on one thing at a time, so if I've got a game, I play it to completion and then go back to working on the campaign. This can be a day—I played through Firewatch on Thursday—or it can be a couple weeks for big games like the Witcher 3. Then I go back to mapping, hopefully recharged, and usually with some new ideas. I can say for certain that games I've played over the last year have had a lot of influence on Thoughts in Chaos, especially narratively.
I'd say around a quarter, though it differs a bit; I've had periods where all I did is play one or two multiplayer games with friends, and periods where I went through a couple of new games in 2-3 weeks. In general I make sure to keep trying new things that people I trust are saying is good, or that simply looks interesting to me personally. Having played Bastion, I recently jumped into Transistor, for example. Only ended up playing one session, still currently looking for the time to finish it. I think, for anybody with some kind of real vested interest in games (such as editors), trying new games constantly is incredibly important to broaden one's vision of what is out there and what can be done. I also try games I feel may be shit, from time to time - as long as I can obtain them without paying (Evolve being an example here, having recently turned free2play).
These two are a bit complicated for me. I don't really 'edit' as such anymore, but I'm currently finishing up my master thesis in Game Studies. Ideally I'd maybe want to become some sort of developer (or level designer), but it's not a goal I'm currently doing anything for to concretely work towards. On the flipside, I also count playing games to get the experience as something that helps a great deal in improving my knowledge of how they work.
@TerraAzure: Go
Imo you don't need to invest the time it takes to play a game to be inspired by its mechanics or design... if I want to learn about a new game I just read about it or watch a play through, you get the same information but faster. That is, unless we're talking about a game like Shadow of the Collosus or Journey where the atmosphere is the game
<Click Here> To See My Epic Single Player Campaign (LifeForceCampaign.com)
@TerraAzure: Go
When a new game comes out that I like I buy it. On the other hand I know what games are coming up that I would like. When I get a new game I play it until it is no longer fun (6-72 months) and then I mix in old games or new ones.
I only play games for fun. Also define a project since an occupation is a job you like.
Editing time?
Contribute to the wiki (Wiki button at top of page) Considered easy altering of the unit textures?
https://www.sc2mapster.com/forums/resources/tutorials/179654-data-actor-events-message-texture-select-by-id
https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/187/40/Screenshot2011-04-17_09_16_21.jpg
Thank you for the replies everyone; its very helpful to compare your own approach with the methodology of others. Also, it satisfies a lot of curiosity.
@DrSuperEvil: Go
Project, in this sense, is just a planned and designed piece of work that takes considerable time. It's not enterprise related, if you were wondering. I am in the process of re-balancing time for mapmaking (editing), game exploring and immersing.
@Bilxor: Go
I agree, you can see the basic mechanics and design of a game. It's efficient and it's helpful to use as a first impression before deciding to explore the atmosphere and micro-mechanics.
@DrSuperEvil: Go @Mozared: Go @LucidIguana: Go @OutsiderXE: Go
A strong thanks for the quantifiable and personal responses; they were helpful and appreciated!
To anyone else reading, please feel free to add your own methodology; I am sure that I am not the only person who is interested in this.