AT WHAT POINT DO YOU DECLARE YOUR PROJECT "FINISHED"?

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Coming from someone who keeps obsessing about tweaking and polishing every little thing before letting go and stepping down, at what point do you take that step? Do you obsess over your project even after finishing it? Do you keep thinking of things to add? Does it ever become almost an unhealthy obsession? Lol, it’s hard to move on from a project but I feel like I’m almost at that point.

My wife and I are expecting a new baby girl this fall and I’m just ready to put all my projects aside for a while and sit back. I think I can finally relax for a bit on my latest project, Above Hell.

Just curious what triggers everyone to say, “ok, I am done with this project and ready to put it aside...”
Aha. Ha ha. There's no end date to a true passion project. I "finished" Bloodstained Hands in 2012, and have not been able to put it down. The game now isn't even close to what it was with the initial release, Even now, I'm still coming up with new ideas and systems to implement. The better I get at scripting, the more possibilities that open up to me, and things that I felt were previously impossible are now simply challenging. As many times as I've said "this is the definitive edition," I've never truly been able to put it to rest. Heck, I just revamped the party selection method yesterday.

On the other hand, my other released game is definitely finished. One Hour was short enough that it didn't need any more fleshing out, and it accomplished the goal I had set out to do. I never had a definitive goal with BSH, other than "make the best game I possible could," and with such a fluid goal, one that keeps evolving as my capacity increases, there couldn't possibly be an end date.

I think that it ultimately comes down to deciding whether or not you've met your goal, if you want to apply these new ideas you have to a new project or continue to work on your current love. And as you mentioned, life gets in the way. Marriage happens. Babies happen. Career changes happen. I think if you've finished the project to the point where it could be considered complete from an outside perspective, you can mark it as "complete," but that doesn't mean it's the end of the project. Lots of major studio productions release updates and DLC for their games long after they've been completed. The definitive edition is what you decide it to be. In my opinion, a "complete" project is simply one that has a beginning, middle, and end, and does its best to tie off any loose ends. The overall quality of everything else is absolutely open to adjustment and enhancement.
author=Strak
Aha. Ha ha. There's no end date to a true passion project. I "finished" Bloodstained Hands in 2012, and have not been able to put it down. The game now isn't even close to what it was with the initial release, Even now, I'm still coming up with new ideas and systems to implement. The better I get at scripting, the more possibilities that open up to me, and things that I felt were previously impossible are now simply challenging. As many times as I've said "this is the definitive edition," I've never truly been able to put it to rest. Heck, I just revamped the party selection method yesterday.

On the other hand, my other released game is definitely finished. One Hour was short enough that it didn't need any more fleshing out, and it accomplished the goal I had set out to do. I never had a definitive goal with BSH, other than "make the best game I possible could," and with such a fluid goal, one that keeps evolving as my capacity increases, there couldn't possibly be an end date.

I think that it ultimately comes down to deciding whether or not you've met your goal, if you want to apply these new ideas you have to a new project or continue to work on your current love. And as you mentioned, life gets in the way. Marriage happens. Babies happen. Career changes happen. I think if you've finished the project to the point where it could be considered complete from an outside perspective, you can mark it as "complete," but that doesn't mean it's the end of the project. Lots of major studio productions release updates and DLC for their games long after they've been completed. The definitive edition is what you decide it to be. In my opinion, a "complete" project is simply one that has a beginning, middle, and end, and does its best to tie off any loose ends. The overall quality of everything else is absolutely open to adjustment and enhancement.


Fantastic response. Great perspective.
author=moam
tweaking and polishing every little thing before letting go and stepping down


A good strategy to help mitigate this is to do as little of it as possible until much later in development, especially for art and graphical assets that need to be updated. Leave as much of this as you can until near the end, and that way you can go back and update everything in one fell swoop. Ideally, try not to do this more than once or twice. Art evolution and code evolution will happen, especially if a game is in development for 2 years: you just need to anticipate and plan around it.

This is something that's helped me finish more recent projects: Organize the exact order you want to do things. Do system-level changes early, do everything else later.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I don't have the patience to peruse perfection, so my standards for what a "complete" project is might be lower than others. I usually either have a story I was looking to tell, or a mechanic I want to try out. If the mechanic is explored enough, or if the story story I was looking to tell can be told within the context of the game? It's done.

I've maybe two or three "remake" projects under my belt. So, it's not like I don't take old games/ideas, and instill them with new/better knowledge. I just don't revisit the original project to instill that knowledge. I make a new project that happens to share a few ideas/concepts that the original had, and do whatever tweaks to that project to hopefully make the new iteration of that concept/story/mechanic better.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
There are no finished games, only abandoned games.
Preemptive congrats on the new addition to the family.

I know this is a month old post but w/e. I'm also seeking an answer to this question. I find myself some days obsessing over the most minute of details and wonder when enough will be enough. Will it ever? lol

I hope you're able to release the shackles of game making successfully when the time comes, and good luck with fatherhood!
author=Prinnyhero
Preemptive congrats on the new addition to the family.

I know this is a month old post but w/e. I'm also seeking an answer to this question. I find myself some days obsessing over the most minute of details and wonder when enough will be enough. Will it ever? lol

I hope you're able to release the shackles of game making successfully when the time comes, and good luck with fatherhood!


Thanks a bunch for your kind words! :) And yeah, I'm SUPER excited. I know everyone complains about lack of sleep and what not, but I like to focus on the positives, as they greatly outweigh that negative aspect. Also, you can get enough sleep with strategy.

Yep, I am still tweaking my current project almost every day. Still not 100% satisfied, and I feel like I won't OFFICIALLY be declaring it "done" until the baby comes into the world and my current lifestyle does a 180, lol. So, probably very soon.
There will be time, not to worry, and the trade off is a feeling like no other. The time when they are little, and the stages they go through go by so quickly. Enjoy them.

Game making will always be here waiting for you.
For me, a game is completed when it has become 100% the game I wanted it to be. During the process, I try as best I can to avoid overthinking it, and instead focus on what I had in mind when I started it.

Creating many small games that are all part of the universe I've created allows me to not get into situations where I take on too much, or even get lost in concepts that were planned too big from the start.
author=Tw0Face
For me, a game is completed when it has become 100% the game I wanted it to be. During the process, I try as best I can to avoid overthinking it, and instead focus on what I had in mind when I started it.

Creating many small games that are all part of the universe I've created allows me to not get into situations where I take on too much, or even get lost in concepts that were planned too big from the start.


That's a good way to think. I've known far too many people who come up with these MASSIVE game ideas and try to bite off more than they can chew, then end up just getting burnt out and not finishing it.

Just focus on your end goal and like you said, don't overthink it. Then, when you finally reach the ending to your game, you can go back and start adding all the fun little bells and whistles that actually make it 100% what you want it to be.
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