I'd like to bounce this idea off you guys.

Hindsight is supposed to be clearer than foresight. Further, many things are easier the second time you do them. Therefore, I am thinking about writing a sacrificial game title to gain some hindsight in this overall process, and get some experience shipping, marketing, publishing, etc.

By "sacrificial title" I mean a game which is completed, concept to completion, in a couple of months. Nothing technically challenging about the implementation, but still a solid piece of (small) quality work.

What do the great gurus of this forum think of my idea? Thank you in advance for your input.

Well, one advice is to aim to complete it in 2 weeks. Then you may actually have a chance of finishing after 2 months :)

Hey David, maybe you want to take this to the Indiegamer.com forums....

I think there are a couple things you need to think about when doing a "sacrificial title". The first is, yes, you can get some experience, but how motivated are you really going to be to sell that game? Second, if it's not in line with what you're eventually planning to do, and the game becomes a big success, what are you going to do when players ask for more? Or when you find the money too enticing?

I think the best way to approach it is to look at what you want to be doing, and plot a path from here to there, and pick a small game that is on that path, but isn't sacrificial. Something that will fit in with your eventual plans, but is not a throw away.

With my game, Derelict, I have the problem of a sacrificial title, as I really never wanted to make pure action games. It just seemed that I could get it done faster than the title I wanted to make. Fortunately, I really like the game, but how am I going to switch to making the games I want to make if Derelict is successful? Is it going to be possible without losing all my customers?

I guess, what I'm saying is, if you want to make a small game to test the waters, make sure it's similar to what you want to be doing in the future, just smaller.

Hi,

Two months it is right time to develop an idea I think !
One should not make a game or a software simply to aguerrir but make a product which is sold and which meets desires or needs of final player/user...

@David York:
I think it is a good idea and it shows that you are, at the very least, aware that there is more to it than (simply) game design and coding.

As hinted already, the time taken to polish the game, test, set up the sales site etc. etc. is not usually taken into account by the novice indie (I being one of them!)

I do believe that it is better to take on a smaller project but polish it really well rather than a half-baked larger project.

I wish you luck with your venture!

Indeed, making a game "sellable" can take a lot of time, compared to a game that just "works"... Anyway, that's a good idea to start with a very small project IMHO.