Starting small is definetely the way to go, especially when you have little experience. And that something small doesn't even have to be anything special or something that you should be proud of. Because once you finish it, you will feel awesome for just finishing it. After that you move on and maybe plan on doing something bigger, something that you feel unsure about if you can actually do, but that's good. Because the only way to improve is to challenge yourself. And you keep doing that until you make something that is awesome.
But motivation is also an important factor. By starting small it will be easier to stay motivated because you won't feel like the "end goal" is far away. And once you have more experience after finishing few small projects, you should set small goals on one bigger project. Basically instead of thinking "I will work on 1 big project" you should think "I will work on 10 small projects/goals that will make up this 1 big project". That should help you not getting overwhelmed.
You said that you have done quite some stuff, even a monster that's working, not many can do that so I would definetely like to see that! This leads to another point of staying motivated - share your stuff with others! Doesn't matter if it's good or not, just sharing it within a community like this is a good idea because you will see people actually responding to your work and commenting it. Some might hate it (don't pay attetention to those if it might happen), but most of us will give you proper thoughts and critiques (if needed) to your work. I can promise you that you will become more motivated and eager to improve if you share your work with others.
And lastly, just taking a break for a week or two from work might be just something you need to get your motivation and inspiration back. Atleast that's what has helped me sometimes.
Again, show us what you have worked on and see how it feels!
But what if you get a problem while importing it to amnesia?!
I make my models with this feeling:
Thismodel is going to be great! but now I have to hope that it does work in amnesia.
I'm never like: Omg!!! good model! i´m proud, becasue most of them doesn´t work by exporting
Always the same error :Couldn't load blabla
That's the bad point about modeling, if you don't know everything haha
(07-16-2015, 12:31 PM)Juras Wrote: You said that you have done quite some stuff, even a monster that's working, not many can do that so I would definetely like to see that!
Ok, even tho I find it a little inappropriate... But I guess this counts as motivational thing.
Here is a fully animated working and talking NPC of Kate and my monster (from my mod Regression):
Spoiler below!
(07-16-2015, 12:31 PM)Juras Wrote: just taking a break for a week or two from work might be just something you need to get your motivation and inspiration back.
Ok, however I'd be careful with that. Many projects of mine ended because of that little break. When I usually decide to take a break, It's permanent.
That brings me to another "tip": Make a playable version as early as you can. Because a large boost in motivation, at least for me, comes from finally playing the thing thinking: "Yes, the scripting was hard, modeling and even map design, but it looks awesome." moreover you can let your friends play it.
(07-17-2015, 06:54 AM)Spelos Wrote: [quote='Juras' pid='321644' dateline='1437046283']
You said that you have done quite some stuff, even a monster that's working, not many can do that so I would definetely like to see that!
Ok, even tho I find it a little inappropriate... But I guess this counts as motivational thing.
Here is a fully animated working and talking NPC of Kate and my monster (from my mod Regression):
Spoiler below!
Dude, these look really good and well made. You did them all by yourself? I also checked out your mod a bit and it looks really promising, so I hope you'll keep working on it. I'll play the demo when I have time
And as for taking a break, that might not work for everyone, I does for me however. But then again I also think that you just need to know when you're getting lazy and it's time to get back to work.
(07-17-2015, 11:20 AM)Juras Wrote: Edit: Oh nvm, I guess you removed the demo :/
Yes, the DEMO is no longer available, but I have a good news for you...
But first...
This might actually sound cheesy, but I wanted to give up on the project. I was convinced that there is nothing more I can do and that it won't be anything groundbreaking.
Every time I made a model functional I was like:
"Nice work, Peter... but other mods do it better."
So I decided to compile the work as it is and just ship it. Just throw it all out and give up.
But then I met my girlfriend (and the cheesiness comes in)
she was genuinely excited for all the work that I've done. She is helping me with the project... She is the voice of Kate (a character in Regression)...
Spoiler below!
And we're finishing the story by now... in about a week or two, it's going to be released, but I'm waiting silently for now.
And here we have yet another tip... (someone start writing these down)
While it might look possible to do a whole game by yourself... And you might think that it is not ready yet to be seen by other people... It might actually be the right motivation you need.
Guys, you are really awesome, I realized so much since starting this topic, than by 3 years of alone development.
You're an awesome community!
Oh and @Juras...
Those models are actually imported from a site and they are free to use for educational and Mod reasons. However the armature, animations and some texturework are my work. And also the import to Amnesia... and a voice acting for the monster.
(This post was last modified: 07-17-2015, 12:05 PM by Spelos.)
Ok guys... So.. I've found some very motivating videos if you're struggling with your project. All of them are from YouTube user "2kliksphillip".
First of them is about making games. This series has 5 episodes, with the last one released 3 days ago. It's about a journey of making some 2D games, failing and all that is in a very amusing way:
The second video I'd like to show you is about making a counter-strike map. I know it's not really amnesia, but a lot of principles can be applied. Now... This is I think 12 episode series and it really helps you manage your time while creating something.
Spoiler below!
Now this one is just a link, because forum doesn't allow me to post two videos at once: https://youtu.be/InmG615IgaA
So... What keeps you motivated?
---------- I am well aware that this has very little to do with Amnesia: The Dark Descent, but keep in mind the fact that it has a lot to do with Development. I think that this topic Developer Motivation can deviate a little, because it can be anything that motivates a person, be it a video, book, person or just a rest.