I recently watched Jonathan Blow's lecture from Free Play 2007, and one of the big issues he talks about is the fact that most game designers ask themselves how they're going to make their game rather than the more important question of why they're making their game.  I thought that would be an interesting question to address here, since I think it's a good point to make.

In my case, I've started making games for most of the same reasons that I create other forms of art, like music and stories.  The main reason is to attempt to communicate with people.  I have ideas that I would like to share, and I'm interested in sharing other peoples' ideas as well, and I consider works of art to be probably the best way to facilitate that sort of dialogue.  And video games, because of their interactivity, may perhaps be the best way to facilitate an exchange of ideas when other forms of art tend to be much more didactic.  To me, the best novels aren't necessarily the ones that tell you something, but the ones which show you something.  It's one of the reasons I love Dostoevski so much: rather than simply saying "Nihilism is destructive", he wrote a novel (Devils) to demonstrate what sort of behaviours and emotional responses nihilism engenders.  It's much more evocative.  And because of player input, I think games have the capability to show an argument rather than simply make it in a way that surpasses any other art form.

So that's my main motivation, though the individual project I'm working on right now has its own unique set of motivations that work within that broader framework.  What's your motivation?  Why do you make games?  Why are you making the game that you're making and not a different one?  What message do you want players to get out of playing your game (since all games give players messages, whether they intend to or not)?

I consider it an amazing gift to be given the opportunity to communicate with others. I believe that every single person has something important to say, but so few of us are given the opportunity to speak through a medium with a potentially large audience. It's a lofty ideal, but I don't attach any special significance to my expressions. I don't believe people NEED to hear what I have to say, I simply enjoy having the opportunity to express myself, and more often than not though I have a message, the translation is not important to me - the satisfaction comes from engaging people and (hopefully) motivating them to consume and interpret their own meaning. This isn't an artistic point of view; "My meaning is not important, your interpretation is". I feel it's important to make that distinction, because personally, I'm not a fan of the highbrow perception of art as art for the sake of art.

That said, my goals are far more lowbrow. I don't read a lot of philosophy, and Dostoevsky and his ilk aren't my cup of buiscits so to speak. Nietsze... URGH. I enjoy (and lament the loss of) idealism and simplicity. My postgrad thesis explored shamanism and storytelling, and the traditional concepts of storytelling as the tribal equivalent of Aesop's fables - simple moral/ethical discussion through narrative. Much of my focus was on the nostalgic appeal of the family fantasy films of the 1980's - Neverending Story, The Dark Crystal, Flight of the Navigator, The Last Starfighter - as well as the formulaic Disney devices. I adore the simplicity in this style of storytelling, and the dichotomy of good and bad, black and white. I've worked in storytelling mediums for a while now - first television, then film, and now games. And my goals in learning to program my own games is simple: I wish to tell those kinds of stories in this medium.

Is there a market for them? I would hope so. Games like Ico and Shadow of the Colossus captured that sense of childish simplicity so beautifully, and while not hugely financially successful they enjoy a special place in gaming history. I would like to capture that same innocent, all ages appeal, and create a game with a story that engages in the same way.

In addition, I disagree on the point:

What message do you want players to get out of playing your game (since all games give players messages, whether they intend to or not)?

Many games are designed purely to challenge and engage, particularly the puzzle genre. I don't think this is bad - in fact, I think trying to force a message out of every falling brick and bursting bubble is pointless. I've seen too many games/films that feel as though the author raided Wikipedia for interesting (or annoyingly complicated and obscure) themes and then mashed them together into this horribly mess of pocket philosophy in the belief that this gives their experience value. Games, like any medium, should only have a message when the goal is to communicate. Tetris, I would argue, is purely designed to waste my time. And it does so wonderfully :)

It is perfectly okay to entertain mindlessly, if your 'message' is something as simple as: Explosions look awesome.

Wow, you guys sure wrote a lot. Makes me feel so backwards giving the answer I think sums it up for me. Why do I make games? Because it's fun. I don't have any plan, goals or purposes, I just enjoy doing it. No message to deliver, no art bursting inside that I want to share. I just have fun making games.

I feel so simplistic now. Maybe I am just  a backwards country bumpkin after all :)

George Clingerman:

Wow, you guys sure wrote a lot. Makes me feel so backwards giving the answer I think sums it up for me. Why do I make games? Because it's fun. I don't have any plan, goals or purposes, I just enjoy doing it. No message to deliver, no art bursting inside that I want to share. I just have fun making games.

+1

George Clingerman:

I feel so simplistic now. Maybe I am just  a backwards country bumpkin after all :)

-1 :D

It's just something I enjoy doing.

I create games to express my concepts and build a portfolio. Going at them for money isn't very practical.

My primary reason is definitely because it is fun.  The reason for each project differs.  While I like some games because they are just fun others are interesting because the message they deliver and the possible conection one can have with the player.

I have 2 reasons.

1. ) problem solving.
   I have friends who like doing sudoku, I liked it the first couple of times whilst I worked out the rules, but now I understood the rules, the only appeal is writing a program to automate it.
  

2. ) Creating something.
  I really like having an initial vision, and then seeing it gradually materialise (and change during this process).


I also quite enjoy the commitment to a project (I will merrily work on my projects for months on end, and then put it down once I have gotten to a point I am happy with).

I am really making it for my own kicks (all though now I am also looking forward to putting it into the Community Games)

J.

ps.. Obviously I fantasise about selling 10's of thousands of copies of my game, but I will be fine if I only sell 20 copies.

pps.. I love the game Blow. that is a game that has it's own feel and pace.
   (a very different pace to my usual FPS/Racing type game)

Daaark:

It's just something I enjoy doing.

++ :D If I make a few $$$ at the same time all the better.

In addition, I disagree on the point:

What message do you want players to get out of playing your game (since all games give players messages, whether they intend to or not)?

Many games are designed purely to challenge and engage, particularly the puzzle genre. I don't think this is bad - in fact, I think trying to force a message out of every falling brick and bursting bubble is pointless. I've seen too many games/films that feel as though the author raided Wikipedia for interesting (or annoyingly complicated and obscure) themes and then mashed them together into this horribly mess of pocket philosophy in the belief that this gives their experience value. Games, like any medium, should only have a message when the goal is to communicate. Tetris, I would argue, is purely designed to waste my time. And it does so wonderfully :)

I think games virtually always have a message, even when they don't intend to.  For example, most shooters teach the player "shoot everything that moves from as far away as possible".  A lot of puzzle games involve pieces which fall into place in ways that the player can't predict, and so the message is often "your actions are not relevant to the result of the game".  Just because we don't intend for a message to be there doesn't mean it isn't there.  All games tell things to players, and all games teach things to players, and I think it would make our games more fulfilling if we were mindful of what those things are.

Adam Bishop:

I think games virtually always have a message, even when they don't intend to.

I think some people look too deeply into things. Isn't there a word for that? Navel gazing? My game certainly doesn't send any kind of message, unless you want to count "this functionality is not available in trial mode..."

Not everything in life has some kind of hidden deeper meaning, and if your actions don't effect the result of a puzzle game, that game is broken. ;0) This is no different than other forms of art. Some bands will go on and on about the messages in their songs, and others will simply say their songs are strictly entertainment.

If you make a game about helping war victims in Darfur, you are perhaps sending a message (if not exploiting a bad situation for profit). If you make a game about shooting green aliens on a grid to rack up points, there doesn't need to be a message.

Something inside of me just screams that I should be making games. I absolutely love doing it. I literally sit at my desk for 4-5 hours straight many nights working on my game and the time flies by. When I was young, I used to spend hours each day drawing my video games on paper (I think my parents got kinda mad because they'd buy me paper for school and I would fill it up with video game drawings). It's a big reason why i went into computers and eventually got myself a Computer Science degree (saddly there were few video game programming programs offered at the time I went to school).

Right now, I'd love it if my game did well enough that i could do game development fulltime, but for now it has to be just a hobby. I guess that would be my ultimate goal, if I could parlay my love for creating games into my day job. XNA would be preferable but I think I'm going to look into doing some iPhone stuff too.

I started with my first game using Qbasic when I was in High School.  Later I converted to allegro/c++ and then to XNA.  Game making to me is about the chance to tell a story that others get to see and be a part of.  Just hearing one person say they enjoyed playing a game of mine really gets me excited.

I think that making games is just so exciting, it's like an adventure, each time you make a step forward, it makes you feel better. Your only limit is your own imagination. Besides, programming games is very instructive...
On top of that, I like playing mysef, so, the possibility to make games myself (thanks to xna) is quite appealing.

As many creators have mentioned before, Gaming has become the biggest new medium on the market, and is an incredible way to reach an extremely diverse audience. I make games for a multitude of reasons. I might be sitting on the train watching all the telephone poles go by and attempt to stomp my foot down right as each pole flys by. Simple yet it entertains me for most of my daily commute. Other times I write out a story and slowly the game develops from the ideas that spin out of my brain. As a design student I usually have a message that I am trying to communicate wither it be through art used in a game, the music that is heard, or the dialogue spoken by the characters, each area has its own profound impact on what I'm trying to communicate. To put it simply, same games have messages (deep or on the surface) while others are just going for entertainment. The best of games do both, maybe by drawing you in with a compelling story, and then keeping you entertained with the livelihood of the game mechanics. Every single person will walk away from your game with a different experince, and in some cases some one might play your game twice and see something that they didn't notice the first time. Like when you watch a movie again and your look "O wow, I can't believe I didn't catch that the first time through".
Hope that gives you a little more insight.

Adam Bishop:

Why do you make games?  Why are you making the game that you're making and not a different one?

Two good questions.

1) because I enjoy it and it's a creative release of sorts. (and I'm a masochist, I think.)

2) Well since I'm making a RPG, I guess it has to do with the fact that I enjoy the genre, and enjoy tabletop gaming (and I'm usually the DM/GM/ref/storyteller/etc) and this seems like a natural creative outlet. This game SPECIFICALLY though is one of those stories that I have to tell. In some ways, it's kind of like writing a book. "They" will tell you not to write a book for the money, write it because you have a story to tell that will just kill you if you don't get it out. That's pretty close to how I feel about my game.

+1 to "it's fun" and another +1 to Jim's "if I can make money, that's even better".

As for messages in games, my games don't have messages. They just don't. If you make one up for it, that's great, but believe me when I say that there is no hidden life message in Bloc, Juggler, or Flip 3. They're all just games meant to entertain people. Maybe someday I'll have something to say and will decide to make it into a game, but until then people should try and not worry too much about enriching their lives in any deep way with my games. :)

I was dropped on my head as a baby, and somehow that shook up my brain to make me enjoy programming and developing software.

I love video games too.

When you put the two together it is like a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

...and I too dream of selling tens of millions of billions.

As for me the reasons arent as profound as the 2 first poster.

I want to make game since I can make a ton of $$$...

No seriously, I have been playing video games since my early age in the begining of the '80 when my dad first brought a C=64 into the house.  I got very interested in learning how to program so I can make something move on the screen and hear some sound out of the TV speaker.  I first learned basic, but I find quickly that this was limited in what I wanted to achieve.  I then learn 6502/6510 assembly and start to do my first intros/demos in 1988-1989 then join up the demo scene.

Ive also been a long time  RPG player and was alway interested in creating my own story (I always prefer to be a Dungeon Master than a player) and let my creativity/imagination run wild.  Even created my own small monster books and created large maps with those small square sheet (I took the family dinner table often to do those thing as it was big enough to lay out my maps ;-)).

For me making game is about creativity/imagination, I like to create thing, since the day I start to be able to hold a pen and start drawing (went up to building thing with LEGO to eventually type in some code ;-)).  But for some reasons it related with pixel moving on the screen ;-).  Much to my wife regret, as I dont have the same feeling when doing renovation around the house ahahaha (which still involve building thing).

I think what attract me in making games is that it is creativity + imagination + story telling.  My dream would be able to do RPG/adventure game as this will combine all what I enjoy together.  But I still have a long way to go, as this one of the genre that take long time.

Fred

I make games because i enjoy doing it. Having an idea in your head and seeing it develop into a game is really satisfying. Also have you ever said to yourself wouldnt this game be really good i wonder why nobody has made it? well why dont you be that somebody

Because It's more interesting to try to earn money by developing videogames than developing a bussiness system or implementing an ERP like SAP.

Gosh, all you guys are lucky. I make games because I have a 5' black toy koala standing on my shoulder with a 20 mm gun to my head saying if I don't, it will shoot me, my pet dog, and make me watch "7th Heaven" for 3 days straight with no commercial or bathroom breaks or food. I guess life isn't Burger King, we all can't have it our way.

*Tear*

Fun and Profit, in that order and hopefully at the same time.

I think for me I've always had the urge to do something creative. But I've always sucked at or just not enjoyed traditional creative skills. Can't draw, not a great writer, never played an instrument (unless you count guitar hero). The one thing I am good at is maths. Games give me the chance to use my skills to create something people can enjoy. I'm not much of an idea man. I find it difficult to come up with a great idea for a game. But I can take someone elses idea, point out the things that won't work, expand on the things that will and figure out how to make it a reality. So for me I get the satisfaction from bringing other people's ideas to life, rather than working on my own.

The freedom to design and code a piece of software the way I want to.  To get to be a gamemaster again, with gamers as my players.

I would note that a lot of us do this for intellectual and/or artistic freedom, so please keep that in mind when making design suggestions and keep them just that design suggestions and not mandates.  I am not talking about bugs here but choices that a designer makes.

Thanks for this great question.