Hi there.

I was just wondering - I can't be the only one who has this issue.

About every 1 or 2 weeks or so, I get inspired and have a new game idea. I get all enthousiastic and start working on that new game idea.

Sometimes, and this doesn't happen that often, I get around finishing a game. Even then, I will discover it has bugs and never go back to fixing it as I'd have to dive into the code again and for some reason, that seems like a whole lot of effort. Also, my enthousiasm is often short lived, so I'd probably have to complete a game within around 3 weeks or I will abandon the project.

I know I often have a large scope set for the projects - I often have plenty of ideas for features I want to implement - but I do manage to narrow down the features and content by a degree. Being a perfectionist can be a gift. But it's also hell. A game is never finished. 

Anyway, what I want to ask is - and it's something I'm asking myself a lot as well - but how do you guys deal with this? Or am I one of the few who have this 'issue'? As soon as the programming or design work becomes repetitive, or the scope too large, I quit, and find another idea to work. Talk about the definition of insanity.

I might have just answered my question here. Decrease the scope of the game. Buy assets if needed, instead of creating them yourself.

Still, it seems like a pesky habit I can't seem to get rid of! I'd also like to know what you guys do to actually finish a project.

I find creating game concepts very fun, and I know exactly how I'd like it to look, play and sound like. But doing repetitive 'bulk' work is an issue for me.
Some people work on a project for years at end, how the heck do they do that? How do they stay motivated?

Thanks.

17 hours ago, Rudolf85 said:

Some people work on a project for years at end, how the heck do they do that? How do they stay motivated?

Design documents. They're not merely extra pre-work, they help guide the project and keep the scope from ballooning.

What I do with all my game ideas, is I put them into a doc to review later. When I'm looking for my next project, I will pick the one I feel is best at that time. Actually, my process is a bit more complicated (yet intuitive), but that's the basic idea.

Also, look at what you actually want to do (as a game developer, not necessarily what you want to work on), and try not to think so much about what you think should be the way of a game developer. Maybe what you want to do is to spend a few weeks making a small game instead of larger projects. Listening to other game devs is useful, but you should not be trying to fit yourself into a game developer mold (mostly because there isn't one).

Once you decide what you want, then you can come up with strategies to become successful at it.

I'd also like to add to what Rutin said, motivation is nice when you get it, but it's rarely ever enough on its own to complete a project.

Edit: I'd also add, that bug fixes are a must if you're going to release a game. Maybe you're happy just making it, but it will make it much more difficult to find success because audiences do not like playing a buggy game (in general, there are exceptions to everything).

I used to have the somewhat a similar problem but my problem is that I put some sort of deadline to my game that's why I end up pushing myself too hard and forcing myself to work for hours on a game per day instead of it taking my sweet time. This caused me to lose interest and abandon 90 percent of my projects.

What I'm doing right now, which is working well, is that I only work 30 minutes per day on my game. It's not a lot of time but it keeps me from completely losing interest and the good thing is, during the days you're not motivated or you're just stressed or you feel like you're doing the same thing over and over again, you'll still feel like you can still do it as it is not much effort and time.

I also do not set any deadlines anymore. Also, make sure to only take a break once every week. Don't ever take too much break. If you do, you'll end up over extending it to the point you basically completely stop working on your game due to you putting the work off to the next day over and over again.

Working on my game for almost 4 months now and I still feel motivated even though I'm doing repetitive tasks right now.

So I hope I do not get a warning again for posting outside of coding stuff. I do/did some modelling in Blender and learning on the job in my spare time. I need 6 month for each model. Geometry is okay, but animation and textures missing. Then I get maybe one comment when I post it. Others have 1000nds of followers on instagram and manage to photoshop one picture a day. Why do I even try anymore? Now I have a coding project (or two). It takes weeks (full time) to get beyond trivial stuff. Only after that I am adding value. This small project thing, I abondoned it as kid and looked for a way to build a large project bottom up with each module already of value. Like eBay+PayPal or IdTech + Doom.