Quote from Chaos
When making the engine for my game, I've made it as modular as possible, so I can plug things in and take them out without worrying about destroying large chunks of code. everything is in its group/subgroup, and I make sure all pieces needed are in a dump-box frame for later use.
I probably would have finished the engine months ago if it weren't for taking the time to do that, but now upon making actual game content it has made things infinitely easier to work with.
I do the same, keeps everything neat and tidy and easy to take out, change or add stuff.
Some of my projects tend to be huge, I often have over 1000 events in one frame. Still when editing or taking out events, I do not run into trouble at all, since everything is arranged into groups.
I always start with the the most advanced level or frame. When that is finished I use it as an template for the rest of the levels/frames. For the less advanced frames or easier levels I just take out events that aren't needed. That way I can create a game in less far less time then doing it the other way around, starting at level 1, going to 2, then 3 and so on. That is much more work. Just start at last or most advanced level and go backwards. If the most advanced level works, the rest will also.
I think this is one of the reasons many do not finish their games. They've got an idea, start at level 1 and by the time they reach level 5 they find out it doesn't work. Someone who's creating games, needs to think backwards. Start with the toughest, finish with the easy stuff.
For example, when I create a platform game, I start at the final level. It has all the moving platforms, ladders, locked doors, jumping pads and whatever else I want in it. For the rest of the levels I just take out some of the stuff. Level one has only ladders, so moving platforms, locked doors, jumping pads and so on, are deleted. Level 2 has moving platforms and ladders, so locked doors, jumping pads and so on are removed.
If I had not followed this strategy most of my game would never have been finished.
By the way, how long it takes to create a game is very relative. If I say 2 months, but I work on it 6 hours a day and someone else says a year, but only works on it one hour a week, then the time I put into is a lot more, even though a year sounds a lot more.
I used to create a full game (including some of RTS games) in less then 4 months. But I worked on them at least 3 hours a day, I had that privilege. I've stopped doing that and now it takes me 9 months or so to finish a project.
