Blog - How to avoid things that will keep you from finishing game dev projects?

It seems like everyone I know who's a game dev has at some point shelved a project that maybe they have been working on for a long time.

However, I believe finishing a game is one of the most important things you can do and you don't get that extremely valuable experience if you can't see your projects all the way through.

I think as a game developer, the important thing is to not get caught in a perpetual state of unfinished projects .

Let's talk about key things that you can look out for that will hopefully allow you to finish more of your projects and avoid that place where you just go from unfinished project to unfinished project.

I think there's 3 big reasons that stop projects, these are 3 dangers to every project that you should be cognizant of when coming up with any game dev plan.

The 3 things that keep game devs from finishing projects are a lack of budget, a lack of experience and a lack of motivation.

Let's talk about how you might avoid them.

If you have never made a game before, you're not going to really know how to plan its development and you're not going to know how much things cost and how much experience is required and you're definitely not going to know the amount of work and fatigue that you're going to put in.

This is why it's so important to finish a game because when you do finish it, you will get perspective on these things.

Manage scope

Being able to properly manage scope is one of the most important skills for avoiding these 3 traps.

Scoping is basically deciding what it is and isn't going to be a part of your game or project, and is the most important thing in the pre-production or planning phase.

When considering scope you have to understand that everything you want in your game comes with the cost. And that cost might be actual money, it could be time, experience, talent or even your sanity.

When you over-scope a project you're choosing to add something to the game that is going to take more money, time or work than you planned for.

Sometimes in the middle of a project and you realized that you don't have the motivation to go on and I think the motivation is the sneaky one because at the beginning of the project you're going to be really amped up you're gonna feel like no matter what you're going to give this project all of you. And the game idea is so good that you feel like you'll never get tired of it. But I guarantee you will get tired of it.

I've made games in 48 hours and I've tried to make games in 48 months and I can tell you that no matter how short or long or how pumped I was about the idea I got tired of it before the end of the project.

And I don't mean that in a bad way. You just work on something for so long. You just feel ready for something new, and for me it's always like when I'm 3 quarters of the way done. And that 3 quarters is actually an important mark and I didn't pick it arbitrarily. And this is where scope comes in.

To me it feels like I hit that point where my motivation starts to run low at 3 quarters.

I think a lot of people quit their projects early because they get to that motivation loss point and they aren't even 25 percent of the way done.

They lose interest in the project and still have the majority of the game to make rather than grind it out they just move on to something new.

And that new thing is also over-scoped and they get to the point where their new project is no longer exciting and realize they still have a long way to go and shelve that project.

Maybe they learned from their lesson and they say okay this time I'm going to make a small game that I know I won't lose interest in. Then they get to the middle of the project and realize they don't know how to do something then they're caught in the lack of experience trap then they have to go and learn some tutorials and once they finish those they've lost their motivation because they've been putting a bunch of work and learning but I haven't made any progress on the actual game.

If it sounds like I'm describing your situation it's because this is my exact personal experience when I was caught in this loop of not finishing projects myself.

Over-scoping will open the door to the 3 traps.

If you don't learn how to properly scope you will get caught in a continuous loop of unfinished projects.

So you might now say to yourself okay that's easy, just don't over-scope and everything will be fine but I think it's easier said than done. Hopefully if you do over scope, you can reduce your scope mid project and still have it worked out.

Now I try to use a safeguard that I do in the planning phase so that it minimizes the risk of me over-scoping a core feature. So the safeguard I do is that I have a core scope and a bonus scope.

A core scope and a bonus scope

The core scope is the stuff that absolutely cannot be reduced without changing the game.

The bonus scope is a little bit bigger with stuff that you would like to add in the game but the trick is to not treat the bonus scope like an unlimited budget shopping list.

So in short managing scope and the idea of over scoping is worth reiterating and worth considering for your next project.

I mention that usually about 3 quarters of the way through a project I reach a dip, and next I just wanted to talk about how I'd power through that dip.

This is not exactly a full proof plan and it's going to be different for everyone but I figured it might help to know how I do it.

So currently with my current project I'm in the zone of a little past 3 quarters of the way done and I'm no longer excited about working on it now. Don't get me wrong it's not that I think it's bad and I'm not excited about the game, it's just I've been working on the same project for hundreds of hours now, and I'm already filled with excitement about my next project and I've been very tempted to just start my next project and work on it in parallel with the current project. However I think this would be a mistake.

I have learned about myself that if I want quality and consistent work that I need to work on one project at a time.

What I think would end up happening is that I would start putting more and more effort into the new project and less and less into the current project even though at the end of a project is when the most effort is needed.

So I'm doing my best to restrain myself from starting any more projects before the current one is finished.

Secondly I've given myself a deadline with all the tasks I need done.

I think I would not work very efficiently with no time pressure or something to push me and I also think it would open the door to maybe some over-scoping traps.

Because with no time pressure there's not that much incentive to keep the scope tight.

Now of course this is highly subjective. I personally work better with time pressure but that's not true for everyone.

But I think there's a lot of people who might find value in this and it might resonate with adding that little bit of time pressure and the deadline might motivate you to work a little more efficiently and consistently.

One thing I wanted to mention is that if you're the leader of a team, you need to understand that just because you're okay with adding some time pressure doesn't mean it's fair to ask others to push hard.

So it's important to consider what's really best for your team or for partners if you're working on a game with time pressure.

For some people it gives them great anxiety and actually decreases the quality of their work and consistency of their work.

Shelve a project

I wanted to make the last point about how sometimes it's okay and maybe a good idea to shelve a project.

The worst thing I think you can do is to continue working on something that you know is doomed to never release.

So I don't want you to take the motivation and discipline thing and turn into stubbornness.

Like if you fell into one of the 3 traps on a core feature. Sometimes it's best just to shelve it and start with something new.

Better yet figure out if there's anything that can be reused for a new project.

Don't subject yourself to getting stuck in development hell, a place where you're too stubborn to quit a project you tell yourself you've put too much time, energy or money into to quit now.

This is a sunk cost fallacy and 90 percent of the time it's not worth it.

There are those projects that survive development hell and work out but oftentimes they require significant changes and reworks, not to mention all the extra time, stress and money.

Recap

Remember that actually finishing projects is the most important thing you can do for improving as a game dev.

Being in a perpetual state of not finishing things is a common problem, so don't feel bad about getting stuck in that zone.

It's a place I personally have been, but we talked about some ways today to avoid that zone.

Specifically, we talked about the 3 traps: lack of budgets, lack of experience, and lack of motivation.

These 3 traps can be managed by properly scoping a project in the planning phase.

Being frugal with both your core scope and your bonus scope is a good way to mitigate running into a trap on a core feature of your game.

You can cut things from your bonus scope but if your core scope is the problem for one of those traps it's probably going to end your project.

Sometimes even with good scope management you'll likely have a dip in motivation.

For me it's usually about 3 quarters of the way through the project, and for that last 25 percent you're gonna have to have discipline to finish.

For me it helps personally to not start new projects during that time and to have a deadline to introduce a little bit of time pressure and lastly we talked about how sometimes it's the right decision to shelve the project.

Do your best not to get caught up in development hell.