Fifty

By: Derek Yu

On: July 1st, 2007

Squidi has ended his “”http://www.squidi.net/three/index.php">300 game ideas in 300 days" project at 50 ideas, citing irreconcilable differences with his audience as the cause.

I feel for him, I really do, but hey, if you’re going to make something legendary, you have to be willing to put up with people. No matter what, there’re always going to be the ones who don’t like what you do or don’t think you did it right… that’s the nature of art and it will never change! You gotta have a thick skin in this business.

In the end, for every person who criticized him about the project, there were probably hundreds that really got a lot out of it and were excited to see him reach 300, myself included. It’s too bad.

EDIT: Squidi’s reply in the extended…

Hi guys. Just wanted to clear up some misunderstanding. I did not quit the three hundred ideas because of the audience. For the most part, Iâ€™ve never had a more supportive and attentive audience. I quit the three hundred because I posted a an old blog without doing a real entry (#49). At that point, I had failed the challenge by my definition of what that challenge was. So, I decided that it was now time to start working towards implementation.

However, I was planning on sharing that implementation process with people, so they could see my progress and get some insight into the development process. But I realized really quickly that I could not share that process without the process becoming affected by it. I could not even announce my intention to use Objective-C without a dozen people trying to talk me out of it. Doing something this complex is difficult enough without have to defend every decision made along the way.

Iâ€™ve decided to create in silence.

Posted in Community, Developers, Games and Art? | Tags: Squidi

PoV

A shame to see the project end, but it’s notable to see he did make 50. I *think* I read in that he’s working on a game now, so he wants to focus on that. At least that’d be good enough for me.
Eudaimon

Some game designers seem to work better with constant feedback, and some seem to work better in silence. It sounds like he’s figured out which kind he is.
King_N

I thought they where very good ideas.
Melly

Well, to be honest, he reaped what he planted. This is the internet, and often the whole world will tell you exactly what is going on in their minds about the stuff you do, no matter how insulting it can be for you. And everybody will try and influence your ideas.

That is why if you’re gonna do something in the internet you think very well about it before you do, and expect harsh and insulting comments, not just praises, especially if you don’t keep your word.

Right now I wished I had a Mac, even if a crummy one, just to see what he would come up with.
haowan

I personally told him personally in a PM that I thought it was a great idea and he shouldn’t be discouraged by what people say. He says on the update that he could easily finish the project but it wouldn’t be fulfilling enough; I think that’s true in that he’d get so bored of coming up with new ideas that the ideas themselves would suffer. But equally I completely agree with Derek: I think think that it’s a shame and that if you set out to do something monumental, you’d better have the cojones to go through with it.
Meh

Sometimes it makes way more sense to give up.

More power to him for not feeling like he “has” to do it just to kiss someone else’s ass.
whatever

I call bullsh*t on his excuse. Who cares about “differences” in opinion…it’s his blog. Comments have absolutely nothing to do with thinking up 300 game ideas. Did his ideas get vetoed? No. Did that comment on idea 34 totally blow his mind and ruin his train of thought? No. whatever…

50’s fine anyway. Here’s 51 for ya…make a website with a realistic goal then OVER achieve rather than vastly underachieve. It’ll make you appear way less self-serving and pretentious to the eyes of many.
Whatever

I call bullsh*t on his excuse. Who cares about “differences” in opinion…it’s his blog. Comments have absolutely nothing to do with thinking up 300 game ideas. Did his ideas get vetoed? No. Did that comment on idea 34 totally blow his mind and ruin his train of thought? No. whatever…

50’s fine anyway. Here’s 51 for ya…make a website with a realistic goal then OVER achieve rather than vastly underachieve. It’ll make you appear way less self-serving and pretentious to the eyes of many.

To Meh – who’s ass is he kissing? I believe it’s his own. I can hear the conversation now with his friends on the designated D&D table…

Guy 1 : Games are so…uninspiring these days. Whatever happened to…
Guy 2: Here ya go again with the complaining. You play over 50 hours of games a week…and yet you still complain.
Guy 1: well it’s true. I bet I could think up 50, no…!300! great game ideas that have never been done before.
Guy 2: Fine, then go do it and shut up. Christ! It’s your turn to roll, dude.
Guy 1: I will! I’ll show them all! Oh, and i’ll cast Thunder of God on the goblin. C’mon 20!
Whatever

Not that i disagree, games are uninspiring…but his webpage does nothing to fix it. It just serves his own.
Radix

You don’t need an “excuse” not to provide free content on your own time.

I’m disappointed, though. It’s unfortunate that he’s the sort of person that takes shitheads on the internet to heart. But kudos for what he did manage to share, and a big fuck you to all those that somehow feel they’re *owed* something by a guy they don’t know because he set out to do something ambitious.
haowan

I don’t think anyone here thinks they’re owed anything from this guy.
Meh

@ Whatever: He’s NOT kissing anyone’s ass, hence he’s awesome.

If he was to bring it back because people on this site were bitching about it, then he would be sucking up.

I think its neat he just gave up. We need more people to give up. If you recognize what you’re doing sucks, just quit while you still can.
Squidi

Hi guys. Just wanted to clear up some misunderstanding. I did not quit the three hundred ideas because of the audience. For the most part, I’ve never had a more supportive and attentive audience. I quit the three hundred because I posted a an old blog without doing a real entry (#49). At that point, I had failed the challenge by my definition of what that challenge was. So, I decided that it was now time to start working towards implementation.

However, I was planning on sharing that implementation process with people, so they could see my progress and get some insight into the development process. But I realized really quickly that I could not share that process without the process becoming affected by it. I could not even announce my intention to use Objective-C without a dozen people trying to talk me out of it. Doing something this complex is difficult enough without have to defend every decision made along the way.

I’ve decided to create in silence.
AdamAtomic

Objective C? Are you crazy? You should be using C# instead, it’s the new bla bla bla bla bla bla bla…

just kidding :P
ZombiePixel

He posted this on Independent Gaming blog:

“My point is that sharing things with people is hard. Other people can affect you. If they are nice, things get easier. If they are mean, things get harder.”

My what a delicate flower. The first time any of his games score a 2 in the GameTunnel Monthly Roundup he’d probably quit the business completely and go on a suicide watch.
haowan

Steady…

Squidi, it’s probably better this way, you know – the best games come out of the blue :) Better luck with the game than the challenge!
PHeMoX

The only problem I see with quiting is that people might say ‘ha! dude, you would never have been able to think of 300 unique game ideas anyways’.

I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to think of 300 unique game ideas or designs, eventhough there’s a ton of things I can think of right now that would be interesting. Perhaps 100 or 150, but 300? I dunno…

Anyways, I hope he revives his challenge one day. Doing 2 designs on one day would cover the #49, right? ;)

Good luck with making that game btw, hope it will rock!
negative zero

a shame you’ve discontinued the challenge. but why not consider it a project to work towards whenever a unique idea does pop up in that head of yours. who cares about thinking them up each day, i’d much rather see you finish at the 300 mark, however long it takes.

and stuff those fuckers who don’t agree with your ideas. if every idea had to be liked, then the challenge should’ve been renamed.
Nansi

As of about 4:00 last night GMT I’m working on a similar project to Squidi’s 300. The plan right now is just to post a minimum of one original game concept every week, overlapping with an additional, though much less consistent “whenever I damn well feel like it” update schedule. Site can be found at http://nansiweb.0moola.com along with the first concept post, although currently it’s still undergoing construction.
Nansi

As of about 4:00 last night GMT I’m working on a similar project to Squidi’s 300. The plan right now is just to post a minimum of one original game concept every week, overlapping with an additional, though much less consistent “whenever I damn well feel like it” update schedule. Site can be found at http://nansiweb.0moola.com along with the first concept post, although currently it’s still undergoing construction.
Jad

“My what a delicate flower. The first time any of his games score a 2 in the GameTunnel Monthly Roundup heâ€™d probably quit the business completely and go on a suicide watch.”

We’ll hope he’s got some really sweet supporters to console him them.

Hey, some people are delicate like that. I am. Heh <3

Hey Squidi, your 50 game concepts were fucking amazing! O: You should've set the goal at 50 and then you'd have had a great success right here.

Actuall, 50 is a great success in itself.

Good luck in the future :>
LMFAO

@ ZombiePixel:

You’re dumb.
eric

Squidi:

Design your game in the open just don’t open a forum for it or allow people to comment on individual blog posts. If you don’t let people contact you they can’t affect you. If they email you, delete it. Either accept it’s the internet and do it in secret or accept that everyone on the internet has an opinion. Don’t blame people for their opinions when you give them so many ways to voice it publically… In my opinion obviously!
Mike

Eric:

I would rather he do it in silence honestly. I would rather not deal with this creator drama that squidi thinks we care so much about like he did with a modest destiny and now this.