Just a quick query regarding getting a game from idea to actually being released, apologies if there’s an existing thread regarding this but I couldn’t find one.
I’ve been reading / playing the CoG and Hosted games for a couple of years now and I love them. Kudos to any of the authors for the great work they do btw I’ve found myself in a position where I’ve got a bit more free time on my hands and really want to have a go at making my own game. Trawling forums I’ve seen literally hundreds of WiP threads many from years ago, but I know of only around 20-30 hosted games released. My question is is there something preventing these works from being hosted? Or do people struggle to complete their project? Are a lot of them refused by CoG / Hosted games and if so are there any major pitfalls people are finding that’s preventing them being hosted or finished? Or is it just that the guys are up to their necks in submissions and it’s taking time to edit / process them?
I’d just like to find out because I’d really like to have a go at writing a game but I’d hate to invest loads of time into something which is destined to never see the light of day?
Any advice / insights / experiences would be appreciated
The majority of the WIPs just don’t get finished, that’s the only reason that they’re not published.
I know Choice of Games are now being a little stricter than they were in what games they’ll accept for Hosted Games but the guidelines still aren’t that difficult to meet.
If you get a game finished then you shouldn’t have too much difficulty getting it published as a Hosted Game.
@FairyGodfeather Thanks for the info! That’s really good to know. My nightmares of some kind of uber editor who just flat out refuses most things, regardless of merit, can be forgotten now.
I think those guidelines are more than reasonable, I’m not predicting I’ll write a Tolkien-esque leviathan but 20k words minimum should be easily achievable if you want to put the right time and effort into making something worthwhile. Also beta testing just makes sense to avoid any glaring issues and to get some needed perspective and critiques.
Complete the game, that’s the hard bit. Once you’ve done that everything afterwards is easy. I’d say you should probably aim for over 20K words and be looking at something 50K minimum.
Thanks @Havenstone I’ll have a read at that thread before I start, looks really useful
Also @FairyGodfeather I thought the 20k word limit seemed really light, especially considering a play through might only encounter half of those. I’m definitely going for way more content than that. I doubt I’ll need to worry about the minimum word count, I should exceed it quite comfortably, just want to focus on the story and make sure that what I include is of a consistent quality and relevant to the story, I’d hate to be writing dull or tedious filler just to satisfy a word count.
Like you say just need to worry about actually writing it now, and balancing stats, that’s the part I’m least looking forward to.
Paradox Factor is 27K. It’s such a tightly written 27K though. I’ve counted 33K words in Choice of the Dragon although I’m wondering if I missed some since the official word count I read placed it at higher.
I don’t know about any others, but there are probably more. .
@Reaperoa I’m not sure of the accuracy. I used Notepad++ and was able to cut it down to 31K simply by removing all of the punctuation (asterisks, hashes, commas etc) so I think something’s a little wonky with the word count in Notepad++.
@FairyGodfeather, before you lost your muse how did your own WIP stack up? I remember it cheered me up and me laugh, but what was the (expected) word count?
The Path of Light is 51 k. Its sequel is 46 k. Right now, I am writing something that is planned to be somewhere in the range but I am still around 25 k, so I can’t tell for sure.
I’ve found myself in a position where I’ve got a bit more free time on my hands and really want to have a go at making my own game. Trawling forums I’ve seen literally hundreds of WiP threads many from years ago, but I know of only around 20-30 hosted games released. My question is is there something preventing these works from being hosted? Or do people struggle to complete their project? Are a lot of them refused by CoG / Hosted games and if so are there any major pitfalls people are finding that’s preventing them being hosted or finished? Or is it just that the guys are up to their necks in submissions and it’s taking time to edit / process them?