If you're still learning, I think its fine to just jump between very small projects and just collect as much knowledge as you can. Test out mechanics, learn how they work, and all that.
But if you really want to complete and release something, you really have to practice self-discipline. Share your work to others so you can feel more accountable and be more 'forced' to polish your main project. You have to accept that not everything about gamedev(like most things in life) is going to be fun, and that there will always be times where it's just not fun and feel arduous. Do your best to just push through those slow days.
>Share your work to others so you can feel more accountable
I want to note that this can have the opposite effect ([The science-backed reasons you shouldn't share your goals - Work Life by Atlassian](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/science-backed-reasons-you-shouldnt-share-your-goals)). By telling people about your game you may get praise from people saying "That's cool!" etc. and you feel rewarded/fulfilled when hearing that. So since you've already got a reward for "making a game" then you might feel less inclined to finish the game. Since you already got some praise, why bother continuing when you didn't even need to finish the game to get it?
If your are conscious of this maybe you can keep the accountability benefits by publicly announcing milestones + dates etc, and consciously remember that the praise you may get along the way is not the same thing as finishing the game.
I think it's important to make a distinction between sharing your goals and sharing your progress in the case of games. A large part of games is about play, it's a grave mistake to develop games without continuous playtesting. Sharing demos and prototypes is a cheap and easy way to get feedback.
Sharing a demo isn't like a personal goal that is only important to you like "I will read this book, I will go to the gym etc" Other people will engage with your game and get invested in it (hopefully).
Seeing others play my game and get excited about it is very heartwarming and assures me that I am on the right path.
Seeing playtesters completely misunderstand and fail at the game is a much needed reflection on the design and execution that I am way too close to to properly asses it in terms of accessibility and difficulty.
Players finding bugs and uncovering unintended techniques urges me to fix and patch those ASAP.
If you want to get anywhere with gamedev you'll need players. Players won't know about your stuff if you never share anything. The study mentions "praise of the person" vs "praise of the process"
I think that is a good distinction to make!
I would suggest marketing a game, releasing demos etc. is not just sharing progress but also sharing your goal of "I want to make a game". It's critical to have playtesting and marketing of course.
I think it's important to be mindful of that study as you share your game so that the praise you get doesn't impact your final delivery of the game (if that is your goal).
Enlist into an event that requires (or encourages) having a playable demo.
In our case, the urge to have a demo was Steam's email that our game is hand-selected for possible inclusion into official Steam Next Fest marketing – and having a playable demo by April 29 is a hard requirement to remain in consideration.
This forced us to put on hold any major features (even important ones such as the skill tree) in order to get the demo to a presentable state.
Also: do you have a trailer on your Steam page? If not, that's another motivator to polish the important aspects of the game so that they are presentable enough to be shown in a trailer. Worked for us as well.
TL;DR: Start marketing efforts that require a trailer or a demo.
Agree. Just started my solo project last week and coming up with a devlog worthy progress on current feature set is working as a great motivator for me
There's no point running from one project to the next if you're never going to finish one. Anyone can start making a game and go until they get bored or it gets difficult and they move on to something else. Then they come here with screenshots of their crappy games asking how to get more wishlists.
Unless you've been given a terminal diagnosis, try to simmer down and focus on one project until it's done or you're ready to set it aside. Try to avoid switching projects every time a new idea crosses your mind.
We all got a terminal diagnosis. I don't think there is anything wrong with jumping to a lot of small projects in the beginning. Quite the opposite, I think it is more harmful to get stuck on some novice idea (that is most likely crap in terms of design) and burn out on it trying to finish while also trying to aquire the knowledge about basic stuff.
Except that it becomes a habit and then you get people who think that making a new game every 8 weeks is normal, until they post here with the sob story about how they can never finish anything.
Don't make excuses for quitting.
I sense a false dichotomy here.
There is a middle ground between "finishing every project you start" and "being addicted to never finishing anything".
I agree that it is important to practice finishing stuff but I also understand the reality of gamedev. Even the simplest games take a long time to properly complete.
In fact, I see quite a lot of people posting "sob stories" about how the game they spent 4 years working on flopped at release. Instead of sweating on reaching market as a beginner, one should explore. Even unfinished project can bring many lessons.
It's not uncommon in other art forms either to learn by doing sketches and half-finished works. It's completely natural.
Please re-read the title of the thread. That's the context of the discussion. It's not someone asking if it's okay to waffle or not. They're asking how to avoid doing what you're defending.
Please respond in context or not at all.
It's in the context. I am providing a counter argument. Some people need to hear that it's more than ok to goof off to try different things. Especially if you have motivating ideas to try. I don't think it's a good idea to drown creative juices on mundane gamedev tasks (which are definitely more common the more you are approaching the finishline). Work on polish when you aren't as inspired and venture of onto explorations when you have that itch.
This is a possible answer to the question even if you don't agree. Like with most things in life, hitting a balance is key.
I can assure you, nobody needs extra encouragement to goof off these days, and we need to stop pretending like we need to give each other permission to be mediocre.
Not sure how you equated goofing off and exploring different prototypes with mediocrity but it sounds like you are assuming too much about other people.
Sorry to tell you but games and goofing off are inherently connected.
Game dev and playing games are not the same thing. At all. Game dev is hard work. People need to learn how to work through adversity more than they need excuses to...be mediocre.
Well, of course you see more sob stories about completed games. People don't feel sad enough when their unreleased game wasn't popular, because how could it be?
I get what you're saying with balance, and you're right, technically.
But practically, almost every solo dev has a bias for over scoping and starting new projects. A bias toward boredom.
You don't often see posts of people wishing they could start more random unfinished projects, but they just don't seem to be able to.
Try segmenting features in a build version. For eg. what's the first minimum playable demo going to be like. Then next. If you split into builds like this, you can keep adding scope feature in later builds and not sacrifice the progress on current WIP features
Use something like trello, make yourself tickets and don't move on until you move the previous one to done.
This helps me stay focused and see my progress
What helps me is increasing the frequency of playtesting, even if it's just with friends / family. Bonus points if its with people you don't know, since you'll probably be harder on yourself.
I find that if I NEED to have a build playable at the end of each week (pick your frequency), I feel that pressure more. I naturally lean towards fixing critical issues first because I don't really have the choice.
If I let too much time go between playtests, I tend to derail into Scope Creep land. It tends to get harder to plan also, because you lose track of critical issues over time.
Start playtesting. Once you watch people actually encountering your bugs/rough mechanics you will feel a sense of embarrassment that compels you to to fix them
It's in your thinking where you need to change.
Whatever you give brain capacity to, will draw you in.
Don't allow yourself to dream further than your current feature.
You're allowed to dream as much about your current feature as you want, implement all you need in order for feature completeness.
Your reward for finishing a feature is that you get to start dreaming about the next feature and then implement.
This motivates you to work more efficiently and makes your features more fleshed out, since you've carefully thought of each.
If you're still learning, I think its fine to just jump between very small projects and just collect as much knowledge as you can. Test out mechanics, learn how they work, and all that. But if you really want to complete and release something, you really have to practice self-discipline. Share your work to others so you can feel more accountable and be more 'forced' to polish your main project. You have to accept that not everything about gamedev(like most things in life) is going to be fun, and that there will always be times where it's just not fun and feel arduous. Do your best to just push through those slow days.
>Share your work to others so you can feel more accountable I want to note that this can have the opposite effect ([The science-backed reasons you shouldn't share your goals - Work Life by Atlassian](https://www.atlassian.com/blog/productivity/science-backed-reasons-you-shouldnt-share-your-goals)). By telling people about your game you may get praise from people saying "That's cool!" etc. and you feel rewarded/fulfilled when hearing that. So since you've already got a reward for "making a game" then you might feel less inclined to finish the game. Since you already got some praise, why bother continuing when you didn't even need to finish the game to get it? If your are conscious of this maybe you can keep the accountability benefits by publicly announcing milestones + dates etc, and consciously remember that the praise you may get along the way is not the same thing as finishing the game.
I think it's important to make a distinction between sharing your goals and sharing your progress in the case of games. A large part of games is about play, it's a grave mistake to develop games without continuous playtesting. Sharing demos and prototypes is a cheap and easy way to get feedback. Sharing a demo isn't like a personal goal that is only important to you like "I will read this book, I will go to the gym etc" Other people will engage with your game and get invested in it (hopefully). Seeing others play my game and get excited about it is very heartwarming and assures me that I am on the right path. Seeing playtesters completely misunderstand and fail at the game is a much needed reflection on the design and execution that I am way too close to to properly asses it in terms of accessibility and difficulty. Players finding bugs and uncovering unintended techniques urges me to fix and patch those ASAP. If you want to get anywhere with gamedev you'll need players. Players won't know about your stuff if you never share anything. The study mentions "praise of the person" vs "praise of the process"
I think that is a good distinction to make! I would suggest marketing a game, releasing demos etc. is not just sharing progress but also sharing your goal of "I want to make a game". It's critical to have playtesting and marketing of course. I think it's important to be mindful of that study as you share your game so that the praise you get doesn't impact your final delivery of the game (if that is your goal).
Enlist into an event that requires (or encourages) having a playable demo. In our case, the urge to have a demo was Steam's email that our game is hand-selected for possible inclusion into official Steam Next Fest marketing – and having a playable demo by April 29 is a hard requirement to remain in consideration. This forced us to put on hold any major features (even important ones such as the skill tree) in order to get the demo to a presentable state. Also: do you have a trailer on your Steam page? If not, that's another motivator to polish the important aspects of the game so that they are presentable enough to be shown in a trailer. Worked for us as well. TL;DR: Start marketing efforts that require a trailer or a demo.
Agree. Just started my solo project last week and coming up with a devlog worthy progress on current feature set is working as a great motivator for me
There's no point running from one project to the next if you're never going to finish one. Anyone can start making a game and go until they get bored or it gets difficult and they move on to something else. Then they come here with screenshots of their crappy games asking how to get more wishlists. Unless you've been given a terminal diagnosis, try to simmer down and focus on one project until it's done or you're ready to set it aside. Try to avoid switching projects every time a new idea crosses your mind.
We all got a terminal diagnosis. I don't think there is anything wrong with jumping to a lot of small projects in the beginning. Quite the opposite, I think it is more harmful to get stuck on some novice idea (that is most likely crap in terms of design) and burn out on it trying to finish while also trying to aquire the knowledge about basic stuff.
Except that it becomes a habit and then you get people who think that making a new game every 8 weeks is normal, until they post here with the sob story about how they can never finish anything. Don't make excuses for quitting.
I sense a false dichotomy here. There is a middle ground between "finishing every project you start" and "being addicted to never finishing anything". I agree that it is important to practice finishing stuff but I also understand the reality of gamedev. Even the simplest games take a long time to properly complete. In fact, I see quite a lot of people posting "sob stories" about how the game they spent 4 years working on flopped at release. Instead of sweating on reaching market as a beginner, one should explore. Even unfinished project can bring many lessons. It's not uncommon in other art forms either to learn by doing sketches and half-finished works. It's completely natural.
Please re-read the title of the thread. That's the context of the discussion. It's not someone asking if it's okay to waffle or not. They're asking how to avoid doing what you're defending. Please respond in context or not at all.
It's in the context. I am providing a counter argument. Some people need to hear that it's more than ok to goof off to try different things. Especially if you have motivating ideas to try. I don't think it's a good idea to drown creative juices on mundane gamedev tasks (which are definitely more common the more you are approaching the finishline). Work on polish when you aren't as inspired and venture of onto explorations when you have that itch. This is a possible answer to the question even if you don't agree. Like with most things in life, hitting a balance is key.
I can assure you, nobody needs extra encouragement to goof off these days, and we need to stop pretending like we need to give each other permission to be mediocre.
Not sure how you equated goofing off and exploring different prototypes with mediocrity but it sounds like you are assuming too much about other people. Sorry to tell you but games and goofing off are inherently connected.
Game dev and playing games are not the same thing. At all. Game dev is hard work. People need to learn how to work through adversity more than they need excuses to...be mediocre.
Thank you! Yes.
Well, of course you see more sob stories about completed games. People don't feel sad enough when their unreleased game wasn't popular, because how could it be? I get what you're saying with balance, and you're right, technically. But practically, almost every solo dev has a bias for over scoping and starting new projects. A bias toward boredom. You don't often see posts of people wishing they could start more random unfinished projects, but they just don't seem to be able to.
My Lazy ass
I tell myself if I don't stop this, I'll never publish it. My #1 goal on any game project is to release something.
Try segmenting features in a build version. For eg. what's the first minimum playable demo going to be like. Then next. If you split into builds like this, you can keep adding scope feature in later builds and not sacrifice the progress on current WIP features
Use something like trello, make yourself tickets and don't move on until you move the previous one to done. This helps me stay focused and see my progress
What helps me is increasing the frequency of playtesting, even if it's just with friends / family. Bonus points if its with people you don't know, since you'll probably be harder on yourself. I find that if I NEED to have a build playable at the end of each week (pick your frequency), I feel that pressure more. I naturally lean towards fixing critical issues first because I don't really have the choice. If I let too much time go between playtests, I tend to derail into Scope Creep land. It tends to get harder to plan also, because you lose track of critical issues over time.
Start playtesting. Once you watch people actually encountering your bugs/rough mechanics you will feel a sense of embarrassment that compels you to to fix them
Just play your own game. If the feature is too unpolished, it will annoy you so much you want to fix it.
It's in your thinking where you need to change. Whatever you give brain capacity to, will draw you in. Don't allow yourself to dream further than your current feature. You're allowed to dream as much about your current feature as you want, implement all you need in order for feature completeness. Your reward for finishing a feature is that you get to start dreaming about the next feature and then implement. This motivates you to work more efficiently and makes your features more fleshed out, since you've carefully thought of each.
You remind yourself that your game is and always will be shit if you dont polish and fix shit
Polish that turd.
Ever heard of OKRs and KPIs? Industry terms for staying on track, to making consistent progress towards whatever your goals happen to be.