Introduction
As I struggle as an indie game developer to balance having fun making games and my high school education. I wonder "why am I putting my game out here?" I am putting my effort out there, my design, when I could be playing football or doing advanced placement schoolwork to get into Harvard, instead I am putting out a game that could be overlooked sneered at, when with almost anything and everything that has been made into a game and I will eventually strike fool's gold and be using the same concepts that someone else is when all I do is go on Wikipedia and find out that what I thought was so original turns out to be already done by another developer, with more money, more attention, more people, more followers and more time. So then I realize I should hold on to my idea and find some original perk about it, some tiny magenta speck on gray flower that looks like all of the little gray flowers, but is it worth it? is the tiny thread I am hanging onto, the little tiny speck I keep my eyes on all that worth it? When I do more digging around in Wikipedia and I find the exact, same, thing that has already been again. So I hold onto the idea more and more. I want my game to be great, I want to sell it in the millions, and I will put my time that I can into.

Graphics
But I haven't even mentioned the graphics as I struggle to match killer graphics of a game and I almost succeed then the next-gen consoles come out and it's the same thing, and I can even compete with that, but then it's not all the graphics, it's the gameplay and story

Back to Square One
So then I am back on square one, is my game original, has it been done before? Sure ideas are easy to find, but truly original ideas? A needle in a hay stack my friend. But not all games are completely original, but even then, they have to have a shred of originality. I could a game that's unique, and so bizarre at the same time that it scares away any people playing my games for ten years. So you have to balance the functional and unique and then you get an original idea. It's like when you are writing what seems like this huge paper in notepad, then you copy and paste into Word and it's just a few sentences and there are thousands of spelling error mistakes, so you take your what-seemed-like-something-but was really nothing idea and you fix the errors and bloat it so big that the heart of it is still as small as those few sentences.

Key Points

Here are some ideas for making your idea more unique:

• Don’t try to make the best breakout or pong clone, making a pong game is good for starters but you must move on past the baby food.

• Don’t worry about the graphics, work on the gameplay and everything else under the hood, fine tune the graphics late, car factories don’t paint the car until it runs and is ready to go.

• Development, many good ideas seem like nothing at first, that’s why they must evolve. And ideas best evolve when you have a number of people brainstorm

• Don’t do any idea because it’s new or hasn’t been done before, do something that progresses what’s out there.

Conclusion
But I think original ideas, even with everything and anything out there and best graphics, is still like the new world, unexplored. Pray to God and he will you strength and give you your original idea.

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I don't have much time to focus and write an educated response right now, but I just wanted to say that you aren't the only one who feels this way. Your advice is really spot-on.

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globalrant http://globalrant.wastextgames.com
globalrant forums
http://crazyishone.proboards85.com/index.cgi

I love ot create stuff, in my head, or on my computer (im better in my head, lol) THATS why i program.

... and im not the best at physical exersice (i hate running >=p!)

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yeah, im a little crazy

Blessed are those who suffer for doing what is right.
The kingdom of heaven belongs to them.-Matthew 5:10

PM ME YOUR DESCRIPTION OF ME! ILL PUT IT HERE!

Here's all the comments!

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~Current Project~
Kings Of Ethristah-
~.5% - 1% Complete

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" I hat typos..." - gamer4christ

quote:

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Originally posted by questleader:
Yeah, I don't want to become to famous, I just want to be able to get my company known enough out there in the world so that I get a reasonably regular stream of income from it. But right now, I just want to make games to get the word of God out there to non-Christians and do my part in leading people to Christ.

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That's why I'm glad Bible Dave is on sf.net

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base

``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

quote:

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Originally posted by gamer4christ:
You know what is great about the game industry? Very few people get famous in it. Only the most extraordinary Project Leaders, Developer Teams, and Publishers get famous. But for the actual makers of the games, you rarely hear anything about them, can anyone name three famous prgrammers off of the top of their head? How about graphics designers? It is the perfect career to get into if you do not want to get famous, lol.

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Well even though you may not get a general publicity, you still will be famous in the gaming world. If you make a killer game just think how many more companies will support you compared to when you were just a lowly indie developer

quote:

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Originally posted by Realm Master:
I do it not for future fame, glory (psshh! like THAT'll ever happen... to me) followers, etc. I do it becuase I LOVE TO PROGRAM!!! putting time and effort into something totally cool, something thought of and made by you! Game programmign has absolutly NO limits (well, graphically yes, but otherwise, no) you can totally spread out your imagination, a world dosn't have to have gravity, or even recongnizable shapes with making your own game.

I love ot create stuff, in my head, or on my computer (im better in my head, lol) THATS why i program.

... and im not the best at physical exersice (i hate running >=p!)

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Ahh, but what will get your program off the ground? What will make your application or game stand out rather than just fall into the collection of programs on Tucows and Zdnet? You can make the carriage but you need a horse to pull it.

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[This message has been edited by lava (edited January 26, 2006).]

quote:

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Originally posted by gamer4christ:
You know what is great about the game industry? Very few people get famous in it. Only the most extraordinary Project Leaders, Developer Teams, and Publishers get famous. But for the actual makers of the games, you rarely hear anything about them, can anyone name three famous prgrammers off of the top of their head? How about graphics designers? It is the perfect career to get into if you do not want to get famous, lol.

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Actually I strongly disagree, you can be very famous amongst other developers... just think how famous I am here on CCN x3... jk. I'm just well known like you.

But seriously... if you make a nice app, you will be known for it, maybe not on cnn or bbc but amonsgt the humble developers who makes things work.

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base

``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

[This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited January 26, 2006).]

[This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited January 26, 2006).]

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

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quote:

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Originally posted by lava:
Work for Microsoft, they're a well oiled machine....

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Or OSTG or Apple, 'cause they nicely oiled too.

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base

``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

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[This message has been edited by lava (edited January 26, 2006).]

quote:

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Originally posted by lava:
You should design and program some programs then post them. I think it would be interesting to see

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Yes i agree!
If I can run them, I'll use them!

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base

``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

And like you recommended, it's good to focus on the game mechanics instead of the game.

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Mat 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

[VoHW] (Help needed) [Blog] - Truedisciple (mp3)

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

What is your name?

What is your name? crazyishone

i would hit enter after. just make it store the value in a value, and keep repeating until they hit an "escape key". At the beginning of the program, tell them that they can stop entering ingredients by pressing "n" or something.

so...

please enter an ingredient: n .... Thank you for using CookBook!

so make it so that if they enter the value "n" then it thanks them and closes. hope that helps. (btw, this is a noob way of doing something most likely very simple, but I am a noob. so its ok. )

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globalrant http://globalrant.wastextgames.com
globalrant forums
http://crazyishone.proboards85.com/index.cgi

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

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globalrant http://globalrant.wastextgames.com
globalrant forums
http://crazyishone.proboards85.com/index.cgi

I'm almost on the same level as NES!

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"Be nice to the nerds because later on, you'll be working for them" - Bill Gates

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globalrant http://globalrant.wastextgames.com
globalrant forums
http://crazyishone.proboards85.com/index.cgi

Look at any of the genres of games and you'll find that several years back there were one or two ground breaking innovative games which defined the genre and every game since has just been re-inventnig those original games with updated features and graphics.

Now those next gen. games are popular and sell well because people always like new features and better graphics and the new content makes the game seem fresh for a while. In order to really be successful with one of these type of games you have to put in the frontline graphics etc etc.

There is always room, however, for really innovative games. That doesn't mean you have to invent your own new genre of game, but if you find a way to significantly change the model of a current game genre that makes the game better, then you really have something.

some times you don't even have to come up with the idea, you just have to figure a way to make it work.. My primary interest in games is mmorpg's, and dev. forums of mmorpg's are always teeming with ideas that people want to see implemented but major game companies won't do it because they fear that trying a new maybe risky idea could hurt their market.. and they could lose large amounts of money. The point being, sometimes the new ideas are already out there its just that someone hasn't figured out how to make them work yet.

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-- All that is gold does not glitter,
Deep roots are not touched by the frost,
The old that is strong does not wither,
Not all those who wander are lost.

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proverbs 17:28
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise: and he that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding.

proverbs 25:7
open rebuke is better than secret love.

www.gfa.org - Gospel for Asia

www.persecution.com - Voice of the Martyrs

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

P.S. crazy, don't say, "i thot you were gonna set it up the way i told you" yet because i didn't put that in yet... i wanted to get the barebones of my project up first, then work on the more desired details...

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

[This message has been edited by buddboy (edited January 28, 2006).]

[This message has been edited by buddboy (edited January 28, 2006).]

EDIT> Can I have the source to that? I'd like to see how you made that.

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base

``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

[This message has been edited by CPUFreak91 (edited January 28, 2006).]

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!

quote:

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Originally posted by buddboy:
yah soon... not right now... once i refine it i'll take out the recipe part and make it more generic... then i'll put it in the code database...

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Ok. Thanks. I'm very interested in seeing your code!

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All Your Base Are Belong To Us!!! chown -r us ./base

``After three days without programming, life becomes meaningless.'' -- Tao of Programming Book 2

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In the stock market, you must buy high and sell low...Wait! That's not right!
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Yes, I can be intelligent at times!!