the hard work of making games

For the majority of my young life i have been dead set on becoming a game designer. i mean it just makes sense. i easily spend a good 10 hours a week  at least( when i'm not busy) playing them. i would argue 80 % of my online activity revolves around observing gaming forums, viewing gaming media sites , or discussing this weeks assignments with other game- programming majors at my school. 

so as i was working today and thinking about the current game i am developing ( and oh so exited about ) i kind of chuckled ot myself when i realized just how much thought and energy goes into developing something meant for fun and relaxation purposes.  I mean our job is to provide peopl with osmething ntertaining that they will want to spend a certain amount of time on. regardless of if you're game is a small online social networking application such as farmville or the next RPG epic such as mass effect at the end of te day our purpose is the same. make a game that not only attracts gamers but gets them to keep playing , spread th word to others, and hopefully create  something truly appreciated by our audience and in some cases the people even outside of our audience..

it's even funnier seeing and almost feeling the change as my mind shifts from that of a gamer to that of a developer  and balancing the two at all times. as i make the twentieth run through of my level checking collisions , the speed of animations and whether or not i should add more detail to my backgrounds i also have to think like a person playing their first time. if i wasn't the creator of this content would i know to jump from platform to platform ?  would i be able to recognize the bosses pattern ? would i be upset if there was a hint system ? if i implemnt a hint system should i make it difficult to trigger so that hints aren't provided accidentally?

 It just makes me remember my favorite games from when i was younger. The zombies ate my neghbors, sonic the hedgehogs and mario bros of my youth that i would play for hours and hours due to their simplicity and now  I realize just how complex those games actually were and how complex our modern games are now.  i mean how many times has some poor lighting engineer had to sit and re-watch the same cutscene 15 times just to make sure the lighting within the area emphasizes the drama of the situation ?  i mean i rememebr the first game i developed for class took 2 weeks ( *Ahem* with 90 % of the work being done by myself :) )  to develop and 4 weeks from the very first  concept to the finishing touches.  the game is only about 3 levels and to be honest you can probably beat it in its entirety in about 5 minutes if you know what you're doing. it just amazes me how much effort we put into something os eaisly consumable

now don't get the wrong impression by my posts i really love my career choice and i think the evidence of that is in the fact i spent two weks making a game lasting 5 minutes or the fact i have put over 6 hours into my current game. clearly it's a labor of love. i just found it funny how much work goes into making something purely out of fun. with that said thoug hi fully understand now why many peopl involved in lengthy projects never get to enjoy the final product for themselves. it's a labor of love but my God if it doesn't feel amazing when it's finished.