How do you make your small games fun and interesting?

General
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I don’t know if this is a topic that’s been covered here, or if this type of thing is allowed on here, but I would love to see how others deal with this problem.

I know starting out you should make smaller games and I know you aren’t supposed to make your big, mechanically heavy game first, and I see the advantage of to this in a lot of ways. It lets you practice actually making something, it lets you build up a bit of a catalogue, and you learn how to problem solve. The trouble I’m constantly running into is that the idea I initially have seems cool or fun at first, but when I get to the actual execution, it ends up being less enjoyable or fun then I originally intended, or just a gimmick that doesn’t really work and without that one thing, it just ends up being a boring game, and I feel it’s not worth continuing just to make the same thing that’s been done a million times over.

So how do you guys come up with ideas to make those smaller games both fun and interesting to play, but also how do you pivot when you realize the idea might not be as good as you intended? Because at this point I’m starting to worry I’m not that creative and all my ideas are just very derivative lol.

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Just do the things you want in your real game. Lets say you want a Diablo style tetris inventory. Just make a mini game like that. You want a dialogue system with branching dialogue paths, just make a small conversation mini game with some different options and branches. I wouldnt overthink it and try to make any of these things 10/10. In the end they are just means to an end and a way to learn what you need to know for your real game.

Or just try to go with your own bigger project straight away and learn as you go. That is what i do right now and it feels kind of good to work on what i actually want to do, even though some things have turned out a bit janky and have had to be either redone from scratch or accepted as OK.

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I usually see every mechanic as challenge, and often end up asking here on forum if I’m stuck.

But mentally try break it down much as you can, if it’s some jump type try see it what conditions it needs, how you handle velocity, does it involve some delay, do i need as some extra variable, try sudo code, build it, and don’t be scared to ask here.

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About post - nah it’s ok, i’ve posted like 5 random polls to just see niche statistics so asking about tips is actually good idea

Back to the question, over last 2 years i’ve failed at making about 60 projects across 4 enviroments (2 were game engines other raw coding) and like maybe 80% of these projects were games that supposed to become big but at first were small

I’ve had the same situation as you many times, it happens because you can’t see full game, just part of it that is perfect already and when you try to make actual game it won’t be as perfect as the imagination so it turns out to be trash

Still i’ve managed to make few small games, from which none was ever expected to be released as (game) most were just for fun or for learning, and games i’ve actually finished and were somewhat fun were the games i made from my own emotions, not from the chase of fun-ness

Even now i’m making experiment on making game that is fun and i plan to finish it soon, what makes game fun? simple - polish

You shouldn’t even consider using english, polish is the answer to everything, but seriously… you just need to add ton of effects, there’s this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy0aCDmgnxg that shows how 2 devs turned ping-pong into game better than minecraft or GTA5, and the cherry on top is that it’s without any new mechanics

Really mechanics are just rules, they can be anything, people can play game about clicking banana as well as game about 10 level depth that was carefully developed over 10 years by 10 developers who had 10 years of experience each :\

Look, that’s the game i made in early july:


It’s just boring, i’ve decided to remake it someday to be better but i don’t even have to, i’ve made 3 more games for game jams and that’s the game i made after this boring rock clicker v5

Even if it’s basic it have more effects and everyone said it’s better before it was ever finished

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Just watched, quite interesting use of equations, btw it’s breakout not ping-pong

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