A thread to discuss My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the tie-in media.
All of the usual forum rules
apply. In addition, please remember that the thread is discussing a kids' show, and it's primarily focused on the work itself, not the fanfic — in particular, we don't want to see lewdness creeping in.
Edited by Mrph1 on Aug 26th 2024 at 10:24:26 AM
This sums up most of my attitude on the subject as well. Although for what it's worth, I'm not sure I'd really like to be a part of a big project like that either because you'd have the amateur equivalent of Executive Meddling. Unless the writer is heading the project, they're basically going to be at the whims of the people doing the other stuff.
As far as writing in video games goes, I think that the Portal games a good example of things where writing is instrumental in hitting the tone. If G La DOS hadn't been written as well as she had been, she could've easily been incredibly annoying rather than hilarious.
As for writing in general, the thing is that the learning curve is not smooth. Writing passably is easy. Going from "passable" to "good" is an enormous leap.
I probably could learn how to make music fairly easily, but I just don't have the time. It's not something you do on a whim. I'd rather hone the thing I have a natural skill for than try to pick up some other skill to have an off chance at being able to use it for something.
@Gwen: I'm on a work retreat at the beach, actually. It's still too cool to do any swimming or anything, but the hotel is really nice.
Reaction Image RepositorySee the thing is that everyone has tons of ideas.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayYeah, it's actually making them into something good that's the hard part.
Coming up with an interesting premise is easy. Making a good story out of it is not.
Reaction Image Repository@Four Not yet. I'll tell you guys when I finish the whole dang game.
https://youtu.be/_1F5HhUvFbM?si=csgwerqELcG6615qI have dozens of ideas. The trouble is paring them down to the point where you can work on them. At the moment I only have like three that I'm actively planning to pursue, and one of them is on the back burner anyway.
Reaction Image RepositoryThe problem is that I used to be an ameteur game designer, so I'm already jaded about it.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayOr maybe the game is just lulling you into a false sense of security so that End Of The World can completely crush you. DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN
@ Storyyeller: And that attitude right there is exactly why I haven't been able to pursue any of them. Everyone has ideas. Not everyone is able to pick the good ideas out from the bad, develop them past the idea stage, iron out the wrinkles, step far enough back to be able to take advice and input, and turn those ideas into something that appeals to more than just the person who thought it up. I have dozens of ideas every day. Hundreds of snippets of things in a month. Those are just the ones that I think I could turn into something good if given a chance.
But it's not about the specific ideas for me. I just want a chance to flex my creative muscles in a way I've never done before. I don't care about Executive Meddling so long as the people doing it aren't complete idiots. I want to work within the framework of a group and tailor my product to their expectations because it's a different kind of creativity that I find both appealing and challenging.
In other news, I've discovered that season 2 of Veronica Mars is much worse than sesaon 1. Good thing I decided to skip most of it.
Why not try Construct or Game Maker? There have been good games made in Game Maker.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayI've been trying to make my own game for ages (basically my entire life—minus those years where I was too young to read or write legibly) and I pretty much stuck myself in development hell. I've been through so many iterations of the rules and scripts that I've lost track of what version number I'd be on. I do know that I've thrown out and completely rewritten 95% of the stuff several times (hell, I even scrapped a somewhat working homebrew event and graphics engine). And the biggest lesson I've taken away from all that? Making a good SRPG is a stupidly colossal project.
I'm quite unsure if I'll ever finish it in the end and after my experience with creative works here in the fandom, I've come to the conclusion that even if I did, it's quite likely that no one would ever give it the time of day, anyway.
FE: New Mystery Only Feet 7PM PT Sun, Mon, Fri; Umamusume Haru Arima 7PM PT Wed, Thurs: http://www.twitch.tv/kuroitsubasatenshiIf you say coming up with an interesting idea is easy, I beg to differ. Yes, making the concept into a good story is harder, but good ideas are hard to come by.
http://h0useb0und.tumblr.com/@ Storyyeller: I've tried Game Maker, and gave up when I realized that it lied when it said you didn't need to know how to code in order to use it, and the example code given in the tutorials didn't work in the program.
Making a game on my own is cool, but I run into all the same limitations of not being able to code, do art, or make music, and it's not really the point. It's the group project part that I'm really interested in. I want to see if I can use my talents to help create something that is beyond what I can do on my own.
@ Kuroi: I can imagine. I once made a strategy board game while I was in tenth grade, and even that was stupidly hard. Adding RPG elements and all the stuff that comes with making a computer game would only act as multipliers. It's really cool that you've been working on it though, even if it's never finished.
No, the real lesson is that you need to prototype.
Well if you can't make anything on your own, that's a given. If you want to make games, I'd recommend at least trying to learn the basics.
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayJust look them up.
The pros of Construct is that it is free and open source and it uses Python, which is awesome in every way. The con is that I don't know of anyone who has used it.
Game Maker is a shareware product using a custom scripting language. The cons are that it is proprietary and the free version is intentionally limited to get you to pay. Plus it doesn't use Python. The pro is that I know of several good games made in it (Iji and Hyodrah)
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayDo you have any idea how offensive that is? I can make stuff on my own, and I've proven it. I've made good stuff on my own, stuff that you've had the chance to see and stuff that you haven't. I have skills that are actually useful for the things I want to be involved in.
And don't go accusing me of not trying to learn the basics until you've overcome your writing issues and actually produced a story. I've already told you that I'm in the middle of learning how to draw.
edited 28th Mar '14 5:01:39 PM by CDRW
I thought you were talking specifically about videogames? Obviously you have done a lot of non vg stuff. Anyway, sorry, I didn't mean to be offensive.
Also, I did write half a story, I just haven't managed to finish it yet. And I've done art too, even if it wasn't very good art and it took me forever.
edited 28th Mar '14 5:06:28 PM by storyyeller
Blind Final Fantasy 6 Let's PlayWe were talking about video games specifically. My point is that most of them are projects that are too big for one person. They require such a wide variety of skills that it's ridiculous to insist that everybody know how to do everything. You don't expect the artist to know how to code, though it's obviously useful if they can. The same with the musician. Writing and editing are no different. They are specialized skills that I have and that teams need, and I am better at them than the people who are insisting that they can do it all themselves.

Keep in mind, Pen started the original draft of Past sins, which is about as cliche a ponyfic as you can get. So everyone's gotta start somewhere.