41 replies to this topic

[xot]

It's so bad that I have lying around 99% finished projects that only take a little bit of work to actually finish, however for some reason I go do other things instead.

If you are like me, that last 1% is always much more work than it seems. A GUI system I've been building has sidelined one of my feature-complete projects for months.

[icuurd12b42]

It's so bad that I have lying around 99% finished projects that only take a little bit of work to actually finish, however for some reason I go do other things instead.

If you are like me, that last 1% is always much more work than it seems. A GUI system I've been building has sidelined one of my feature-complete projects for months.

Everyone is like that. That's why professors have undergrads... You just need someone to volunteer to finish them for you.

I figured out why this also happens to me. When it gets completed enough to know it will work you stop caring about it and get distracted more easily by other things

[giga970]

When it gets completed enough to know it will work you stop caring about it and get distracted more easily by other things

People are more likely to complete a project if they are working on a team than if they are doing it alone. Whether an individual project is stalled by disinterest or distraction, it's up to you and you alone to complete it. I don't think I've ever completed a project. I always found new things to add, or a new project to start. Had I been working with someone else I might have actually finished something. I suppose I can't speak for everyone, but I'm glad to know I'm not the only game maker around that has folders upon folders upon folders of unfinished *.gmk files.

[ZombieWolfPath]

I'm motivated to make my game. I love both RTS's and SIMS type of games plays. The RTS part because something is going on and the SIMS type of play because it never ends. I have been trying to make my game for awhile (6+ months) and all i have to show is the soldiers moving and the 'enemy' barely moving. I have great ideas but lack the knowledge to program it.

I'm seriously close to giving up... Can anyone give any advice?

[Yal]

If you are like me, that last 1% is always much more work than it seems.

This. It's a wonderful, all-encompassing quote about why so many projects get abandoned.


There's, in my experience, two reasons the last 1% of the game content takes 10% of the game making work:
1) You often procrastinate, saving the most boring and most difficult bits 'til later, only working with them when you've got nothing else to do, or when completing them is a requirement to work with some more fun bit. But when the game is almost done, there's nothing more, nothing else, nothing other to do than the boring bits you've saved for later because all the other stuff is complete.
2) When you have lots of work to do, you often try to do it quickly to make progress. As you've got less work left to complete on the game, one starts to work more carefully and wanting to make it perfect. (This is the reason you should never make the intro or the tutorial first and then make the levels in chronological order, by the way). If not careful, one'll set up impossibly ambitious goals for the last part of the game, which makes that last 1% of content really tedious to complete.

[xot]

Yeah, I've definitely fallen into the trap of seeking perfection many times. It might be re-polishing something that is already good enough, or re-engineering a system that works but seems inelegant. And those are both cases where the player would never know the difference unless I told them.

Feature creep is even worse because it can take you into unexpected directions or severely imbalance of your game. Both will gobble up insane amounts of time. Each meaningful element added to a game increases its complexity exponentially. If can get out of hand quickly. Keeping a design simple is possibly the thing I struggle with the most.

[PoniesForPeace]

Lolz, you forgot the #1 reason, lag.

Edited by PoniesForPeace, 21 June 2012 - 08:42 PM.

[TheUltimate]

Here's another one to add to the poll: because your team kinda dissolved.
Anyone remember Sophia's Spirits from Jam 4? Yeah, IMP and I were going to turn it into a full game, but we both had other commitments so it wasn't feasible. It's currently somewhere between "in hiatus" and "gone."

I have great ideas but lack the knowledge to program it.

We're in the same boat, buddy. That's the same thing that nearly wrecked my most recent game.
Anyway, don't give up on your project. Make (and finish) another, simpler game first, instead of going for something as complicated as an RTS with AI and stuff right away. That way, you get a bit more programming experience, as well as that sense of progression that you need to stay motivated. And ask here for help if you need it. Then you can go back to your other game when you're ready.

[Weegeesquare]

The only reson I failed at Nintendo Universe (YES, THAT REALLY AWESOME GAME THAT EVERYONE LOVED.) Was because I just wanted to work on somthing original

[MissingNo.]

ya I have games that I know will be cool if I finish but I dont want to and I get mad at my self because
of this, but I dont give up, if I feel like that I just take a break for a while and move on to something else
until I feel better. but lack of resources is basically never a problem for me, cause I have a folder stuffed
with game maker stuff. ya and sometimes I dont want to take the time to make a certain feature.

Edited by Sly1400, 01 July 2012 - 12:56 AM.

[Overloaded]

I was making a Bowser game. But I stopped it due to copyright issues with Nintendo. I will start another game soon.

[Qon]

I have realised that I do not fail. Stopping before the game is complete is not a failure, because I am not a game maker. I like to program the core engine, things that are challenging and experiment with an idea for a game. Making textures, story, menus, tutorials, levels, sound effects, music, intro scenes, characters and so on.... that's boring and most of it isn't even programming. When I start a project I think of a cool game and make the engine for it and then stop, or think of something that would be hard to code.

[Exkakx]

Usually mine fail because:

- I realize the game I'm making sucks, isn't fun to play at all, and I should just give up trying.

- I have another, better idea so I abandon the current one.

[Exkakx]

Usually mine fail because:

- I realize the game I'm making sucks, isn't fun to play at all, and I should just give up trying.

- I have another, better idea so I abandon the current one.

[Exkakx]

Usually mine fail because:

- I realize the game I'm making sucks, isn't fun to play at all, and I should just give up trying.

- I have another, better idea so I abandon the current one.

[Exkakx]

Usually mine fail because:

- I realize the game I'm making sucks, isn't fun to play at all, and I should just give up trying.

- I have another, better idea so I abandon the current one.

[newkill]

Motivation don't stay, that's the main problem for me. I have the abilities to create a full commercial game if I want, but it would require me to be very organized, have the time and motivation to go through, which I don't have sadly...

[Pixel8ed72]

Motivation don't stay, that's the main problem for me. I have the abilities to create a full commercial game if I want, but it would require me to be very organized, have the time and motivation to go through, which I don't have sadly...

Exactly the same for me.

I start something, it goes great, I'm like "I'm gonna finish this! :D"
...
About half-way through it, I either go; Nah this is just dumb, I'm bored of it, or, I want to make something different.

It's terrible, but it happens.

[Exkakx]

^^wow, for me it's entirely different...

I have a LOT of motivation, and will do whatever it takes to finish a game, but my programming sucks. XD

[GloopMaster]

Epic quadpost by Exkakx.

And I like how "Lack of Motivation" is the winning poll.