As moderator of Help Wanted (as well as just from browsing the forums as developer journals) I can tell you that in addition to all the great projects that come from the more advanced programmers and the numerous industry professionals that post here there are definitely plenty of people at a more intermediate level that get some great stuff done.
Since it sounds like you could use some specific examples I'll see if I can dig out a short list:
1. '
Stompy', who has been steadily plugging away at learning what he needed to know to create a couple of small but fun games including
Stompy's Revenge which a lot of us got some fun out of. I'm under the impression Stompy started off with little or no experience at all when he joined the forums, but he's displayed
great commitment and is constantly showing off some progress in his
developer journal.
2. David '
Pierre and The Fish for a "One Week One Button" contest that was run in the forums. From what I've read of his posts and journal I believe David has worked as a professional programmer but was starting almost from scratch in the area of game development when he first showed up here at GDNet.
3. The game
Jooleem was developed by a GDNet user, although unfortunately I can't remember his handle. IIRC Jooleem was his first game, and he also recruited the composer who provided the music through the Help Wanted forum.
...and for an example that's actively recruiting right now:
4. The guys from
Mechnet Online started off pretty much like any other MMO-noob we see posting around here, and were actually two seperate groups working on different projects. They merged into a single team, got rid of a lot of people that weren't really contributing anything and although they havn't yet completed thier game they've got to the stage where they have a working demo and are still plugging away at it.
If you want to find some more examples, take a look at some of the games that have been posted to the
Game Development Showcase, and take a look through the
Developer Journals, where the most recently updated journals will normally contain a pretty good mix of cool projects from more advanced users, the often more interesting read of progress from intermediate developers, and often one or two people just getting started.
I think it's very important that you remember that everyone has had failed projects at one stage or another, and that even the most advanced programmers here undoubtedly wrote some absolutely horrible code when they were still learning. The difference between those that give up and those that advance is often simply treating these failures as the excellent learning experience they can be rather than letting them get to you.
If you've been setting goals you havn't been able to reach, learn from that and aim for something a bit smaller. Also keep in mind that the advanced programmers only got where they are because they've written a
lot of code, and there's no way you'll progress to a more advanced stage yourself without doing the same; stick at your project, or start a new one keeping in mind what you've learned from the old one, and stick with it till you've got something you can be proud of.
There are actually quite a few professionals that frequent the forums, and some of the more skilled members are often working on things that are simply amazing -- but do you know what games I enjoy most? I
love playing the simple games some of the beginners manage to make. Often they're just basic clones of older games, but the people who made them are just
so happy that they've got something finished, and it's great to see some of the little unique touches people add to things.
