I have seen so many interesting projects in the WIP section. The developers start of excitedly and share screenshots and videos. I follow them with interest and give my input. But after a while they just go silent and I never hear from them. There have been instances when I lost inspiration and abandoned my project. I'd put it in cold storage for several months at a time. But eventually I get my energy back and reopen my project and continue work. Just stay focused people. Find your inspirations and finish what you started!
Game dev is a test of mental fortitude. As the project grows in complexity, the load times increase, and so does the tedium of playing the same game over and over 100s of times, and fixing bugs and glitches 100s of times. Most normal people dont have what it takes.
that's true. There are those who announce a grand idea for a game project (like an epic RPG with elaborate storylines and characters) and then quietly abandon it because they realized it was simply too huge. But Im talking about projects that were presented in the WIP section as working demos, with good graphics and gameplay... and the developer just disappears and we hear nothing more about the game. That's kind of sad IMO.
Its the same idea really. You'd be surprised how much complexity goes into even medium size or smaller sized games.
Sometimes a game progresses at a decent pace, then suddenly the devs hear about a new game engine they want to use, so they stop production to learn that engine. Or they come up with a new idea and spend time working on that idea. Or they nearly complete the game, pass it out to some testers, then get unsavory feedback which compels them to scrap much of the project and start over. Or hardware/software changes put a damper on things. And sometimes they really should postpone production until they work some major kinks out of their code. Sooooo many things could change or go wrong during development that would cause delays or outright cancellations of projects. Just look at all the unreleased NES games, or the history of id Software.
I personally find it harder to spend the time my games/apps deserve to finish them properly. Unfortunately, life gets in the way. I just add a feature or script here and there to see if "I can do it." Then tuck it away for later use.
I won't make my project be unfinished in any time. Just i'm waiting to exit university and start to work, during school and university you need to even make school/university things at home, i think this doesn't happen when you're working... so i have more free times.
You live in a dream world if you think you have more spare time than during school once you start working.
You also live in a dream world if you think someone with multiple half-baked projects, all of which are on life support or waiting in the morgue, will magically make all of them come back to life. Completing a project take undivided effort, and most or all of the rest will have to give in order for one or two decent projects to finish. It's not all worth saving, so urging us to finish all of them just looks and sounds naive.
Oh, sorry, i forgot to say you even had to do things related to work at home, what i said isn't actually true! (facepalm)
My problem is i just lack that feedback every thing i do, i need an assistant that nods and pretends to know what im saying as i tell what my code does, why i need 80 scripts just so when i press X the player jumps
I've got a graveyard of nearly complete games, because I can't work on games too long any more since I've made games for other companies for the past few years. Also, I have projects where the artists just got bored and moved on. Even paid artists.Other times a smaller publisher literally just disappears and I feel that cans a project. No need to finish a project when a publisher removes their twitter, website and email address. The feedback for my own games tends to have weak reaction. I see the difference on Twitter between tweets on project A that get 10 retweets and 25 likes vs project B with 50 retweets and 200 - 500 likes. I feel like people are driven to play project B and I need to put focus into that and I've finally found a project worth finishing. Especially when larger publishers take notice. Making games is fun, but it's so much more fun when more people care and want to play it. If anything, the graveyard makes me look good to paying companies that want me on their team.
Finishing a project certainly takes alot of effort and focus. I know that for one. Its also a question about how much important that project is into your life. If its a part time thing, hobby (like my case) it takes forever I swear. Am not given up though personally.
And don't have too many projects at once. You might have hundreds of ideas, but you've gotta narrow it down to one or two and work on those instead, or you're gonna lose interest and start on something else.
Each one of my unfinished projects has been a strategic step towards the next one. They don't need to be resurrected or exhumed from the graveyard.
Haven't worked on a game in months...Afraid to go back...because it feels like I lost all the programming knowledge I gained. Has this ever happened to anyone else here?
If you have a decent doable project which I think was the OP's point, I think the best thing to do is keeping yourself in hat head space even if you don't have a lot of time find something you can get done everyday. Even if you just researching some code, or polishing something you already did get something done. Not everyday needs to the integration of a new feature or 10 new levels. Make working toward your goal a habit and you can't go wrong. Just for example, last night I got home much later than usual; so, I mostly spent time polishing how my enemy AI handles collisions. I didn't get it like I wanted last night, but I went to sleep with that in my head and woke up with the answer of how to make it flow silky smooth.
Good post. I have been feeling fatigued doing code and graphics of late. So I'm taking a break from those things and have been doing other things for my project, such as: - arranging assets and folders - deleting old objects and sprites - sketching background art - making lists of things - writing notes for things I may use later That way, I'm still working on my project even though I'm not actually working on it.
