I believe that most game developers can testify to working on a project and having all of this passion stored up to make it. I believe that most of those people can also testify to losing passion very quickly and getting the desire to move on to something else. Believe me, you are not alone.

I believe that there are a lot of people out there that are aspiring to become good developers. You try to learn a new programming concept, but it just never gets stuck in your head. You feel hopeless and that you can never learn this stuff. Believe me, you are not alone.

I have a simple solution that will work for aspiring developers and could also work to give you passion and fuel other ideas while you still work on a project.

This solution is called a "Stupid Game". It is a concept which I unknowingly created myself when I first began to develop, and it has been proven to work in helping other people as well.

The Origin of the Stupid Game

When I first decided to begin learning DM, I turned to Zilal's beginner tutorial for RPGs. I went through the tutorial and finished it, but I wanted more. I wanted to expand these skills that I had learned in order to do all sorts of things.
Due to this, I created a new environment and called it "Stupid Game". This stupid game was basically my creativity plus my minor DM knowledge into one environment. It wasn't meant to be a "project". It was meant for me to take what I had learned and use it to do different things until I had that piece of DM coding in my head for good. This is why the concept is good for aspiring DM programmers.

Stupid Games for newbies

You have no idea how many people I get coming to me that talk about how much they want to learn DM and become great developers. The problem is that they always give up. They are certain that they can never learn what they are trying to learn.
I urge these types of people to make a stupid game. Use the skills that you have to create anything in your imagination. Not only will these skills develop and grow, but they'll stay in your mind. Yes, you will have a place to go back to in order to review the code if you forgot something, but you will have less of a chance of forgetting something as well.

Let's say you just read over Zilal's beginner tutorial. You learned a lot of new things. You can attack things, you can make words appear on the output, and you can pick up things like money. Now you can try to expand these skills in a stupid game. Try making different weapons to do more damage. Make different things to pick up. Make NPCs that talk by using your knowledge of adding words to the output. If you are completely sumped, use the developer forums! Don't be afraid to ask questions, it's how you learn. Use your imagination.

Stupid Games for developers losing their passion

If you are one of those developers which just can't find a way to stick to a project because your mind keeps wandering off or just losing interest, this could be a solution for you as well.
Let's say that right now you're working on an RPG. You're making all of these weapons and an expansive world. You're even done with the first quest and whatnot! One problem, though... You're losing passion, and fast. Now you want to make a shooter. You want to run around and shoot bad guys with your array of guns. Which would be smarter to do? You haven't said anything about making a shooter, and people are waiting for your RPG. Why not make it into a stupid game?
Instead of putting all of your energy into trying to make a shooter "project", just take that portion of stress away and use your creative mind to make a shooter in a Stupid Game environment. You can work on that in order to get out that urge to use your creativity and make a shooter, and then you can work on what really matters, your big project.


I really do think that the "Stupid Game" is a great method to solve either of these problems. I also think that it's an idea that a lot of people should adopt, especially aspiring developers.

That's all I have on my "Stupid Game" concept. Please comment on the matter.