[Baby Bonnie Hood]

There's a MOD file in Water Cities, and I could've sworn I've heard that music before. From another game I think, though I'm not sure if it was MZX or non-MZX. It sounds so familiar...

Do you guys know anything about it?

[Maxim]

Zog the Hunter.

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

Hmm, don't remember playing that. Or maybe it was so long ago that I just forgot. Maybe I played another game that also used it. Still, thanks.

Too bad Zog 2 got demo cursed.

[Dr Lancer-X]

No such thing as a demo curse. Most games that are started, especially stuff with production values as high as ZtH2's, are never finished. Whether a demo is released or not is immaterial- a demo just stays around as testament that the game was under development.

[Lachesis]

Lancer-X's post is 100% true. This is also something I've raised up on occasion to warn certain developers to pace themselves and don't rely on outside input more than necessary -- excessive reliance on feedback is like a drug and it wears off quick when everyone runs out of useful feedback to give and interest to display. It will murder your project 99% of the time (the other 1% is Starflight MZX). Precision jab at Insidious removed. I can only suspect the "demo curse" legend began as an excuse from frustrated developers to explain the fairly basic phenomenon Lancer-X has described in a way that takes the blame off of themselves. Your failed game is your own fault. Learn from it and pace yourself next time, and most of all, have fun!

[Baby Bonnie Hood]

I haven't yet released an unfinished game, so I must be doing something right.

[Lachesis]

Well, from what I can tell, you don't go around waving your arms every time you start a new project, either. This is a good thing. Besides demo output, another really bad thing is early journal threads. Take four examples from my own work: Legend of Xon, Shaq Hut 2, Cavern of Avians Z, and Labyrinth of Zeux.

The first had a very early journal that was very clearly for attention-seeking purposes, and the project died afterword (the journal is a pretty good read for studying how the 2004 community treated its new members at large, a factor in MZX's usage recession).

The second had over 50 screenshots linked in its thread and unsurprisingly died, leaving behind a demo.

The third had a few teaser screenshots released now and then and was in a ridiculous 2 year development cycle, and the majority of the game content had already been finished by the time I started hyping it big.

The last is an odd-case-out, where the journal thread was created to attempt to build a team project, rather than to hype it, and the relative simplicity of the project pretty much ensured success.

Early cultivation of hype fulfills attention seeking needs and then drops them on their ass when everyone gets bored of seeing your project being hyped, whereas successful game building has alternating cycles of mass content creation and small amounts of feedback gathering regarding core concepts. Confidence in your own work can spread feedback phases even wider apart, and is another very important factor. Hype building in a successful project usually needs to happen when the content is 90+% finished.

P.S. I enjoyed JGAdv episode 1 and would love to see you make more games like it :-)

[Old-Sckool]

Lachesis, on 01 February 2012 - 02:53 PM, said:

The first had a very early journal that was very clearly for attention-seeking purposes, and the project died afterword (the journal is a pretty good read for studying how the 2004 community treated its new members at large, a factor in MZX's usage recession).

Reminds me of the first time I posted anything on these boards.