I've recently taken to cruising the showcase forums though I usually don't..and I've noticed some things. And now I feel I must speak up...
AI, you're doing it again. Don't do it. You say you're going to post two more screenshots. Why are you doing this? To make us happy? That is your mistake (and the mistake that others on this forum frequently make). You're showing screenshots, but before you're even ready. To me it seems you're taking screenshots for the specific purpose of showing them off. If Kola does go on to be a big project and everything and you stick with it, then keep it quiet. Show your screenshots when you've made enough progress to the point where it simply speaks for itself. It seems to me that you're showing screenshots after playing around and making a few levels and then you decide to make a game out of it (that's just my interpretation though and I may well be completely wrong).
You don't see the professional developers showing screenshots of the stuff they make the first day, they're not making screenshots just to show them off, or else rushing the creation of stuff just to show it to people. My advice is to get out of that trend and don't show anything at all until you have something to show, and that goes to not just you but everyone. I'm working on a game and it's dead serious, but you won't see a single screenshot of it until it is nearly done. Which will likely be in at least a year. The big games, BotB worthy, or commercial release worthy take that long to make. There's a reason the first year or so of a commercial game in developement often goes in secret
Remember Theodore Roosevelt? And the big stick doctrine? ("Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.")
It basically means don't go and tell everyone you're going build a huge fleet, instead just keep quiet and do it. Then, when you have it, let everyone see it. Talk is cheap, but people are remembered by what they actually accomplish. It's gotten me this far anyways and (except for a few rare occasions) I never show anything until it's done. The results speak for themselves.
One thing that bothers me about the showcase forum is this. A lot of people talk about making a demo, and some even go ahead and make the box art. Guys, that's the very last thing you do. You don't go out of your way to make a demo, you take what you've done so far and turn it into a demo. You don't set a demo as your goal, you set the game as your goal and then make a demo if time allows it. You first make your game and then you worry about that stuff, you make the demo when you're about 80-90% done, not after throwing together a few levels or whatever. When you write an essay or something, you don't worry about making the title first. Instead you write the essay and then afterwards worry about getting a title (I'm not talking about the titles of the games you make, that's fine). But basically by doing all that other stuff first, you're getting way ahead of yourself.
Anyways, that's what I have to say on the topic. I'm not trying to come off as mean or anything like that...so I wish you luck on your project AI and I hope what I've said has been helpful, to you and anyone else whom it may help.
-- H.K. --
http://x10.themodelcreators.co.uk/
