[DISC] Motivation

[chuckury]

I'm really curious to know if I'm the only one that hardly ever finishes any of the projects I start. I find that Right near the end when theres about half an hours work where I know everything I'm doing it slowly fades away into the far reaches of my hard drive. I probly have about a good 13 or 14 games parked away yet to be finished. I find I lose motivation when all the things I didn't know how to do before the game are done and working then I'm left with stuff like making extra levels, art, and little text stuff and sound.

Am I the only one? Because even if I wanted to now I would open up a flash or other programming language game I've not completed yet, I'll look at it for two seconds then close it and have another idea.

[SaphuA]

Nope I've got the same problems... I think it'll heal at times...

It'll proberbly help to post an engine or an almost finisched game up here. Good replies on your work are always perfect to get motivation from.

[Santuria]

me too.
i hate that, ill make one level and be like 'this is so cool' or ill find some physics thing and be all over it, then just give up, because i find another idea.

i hate it.

[chuckury]

Thank god I thought I had a disorder or something lol, and ya I find getting good feedback does help motivate although still usually not enough because peoples excitement wears out real quick

[alillm]

What you described is exactly what happens to me! Ive been working with flash for 2 years, and the only games ive ever finished were for the 48hr comps. Somtimes im in a real arty mood, i draw practicly all the art for a game, spend hours on it, then i cant be bothered to code it, other times its the other way round. But most of the time i just lose interest just before its finished like you said. I know i will finish somthing some day though...


Ali

[chuckury]

What you described is exactly what happens to me! Ive been working with flash for 2 years, and the only games ive ever finished were for the 48hr comps. Somtimes im in a real arty mood, i draw practicly all the art for a game, spend hours on it, then i cant be bothered to code it, other times its the other way round. But most of the time i just lose interest just before its finished like you said. I know i will finish somthing some day though...


Ali

Exactly actually I only finish something when it's for school or a job or just flat out needs to be done. Thats weird you'd think that the personal projects would be the ones done without hesitation and the forced ones with hesitation.

[UnknownGuy]

Thats weird you'd think that the personal projects would be the ones done without hesitation and the forced ones with hesitation.

That's the thing though, when it's forced you have no time for hesitation, but when its not, you got time .

[jesserules]

i finish most of my projects, but if i finish them, and someone tells me i have to change it, i dont want to change it.

[kendude]

Motivation is one thing. Time and energy are two other factors that can cramp motivation for real. At my last job I had plenty of downtime to work on my own games and I wrote a lot of material and finished 90% of what I started.

I was in the middle of a fighting engine when I switched jobs back in April and I haven't touched it since. The engine is 90% complete. I also have finished a tile based game and the level editor for it but have been dicking around with saving the levels to a .txt with php (I had to learn php too) and bring it back into flash, etc... That is 99% complete but my job takes so much out of me that quite often I do not even want to turn the computer on. So my games are backburner at the moment.

Between work, getting married in August, the gym, the pool, and biking. Little time left for other activities like computing. Especially in the summer.

[Phlook]

Motivation is no fun. I can never seem to stay in the state of mind that "i want this to be finished" for long enough to actually finish a game. The only games i've finished are either a) really small or b) done for someone else, on a deadline. So i guess, i need a timeline to adhere to to finish a game, or other project for that matter.

[lowestformofwit]

yep. it's a very common problem.

deadlines are good.

[tonypa]

Even if the game is not completely done, for example it could use some more levels or you could improve physics, it is still good idea to make it available for playing. Players asking for improvements can be much needed push to continue working with the game.

Or you can leave it for some time and after couple of months return to it, if it is any good then you want to improve it, if its actually not that great then you are glad you didnt waste more time on it. Of course there is danger to keep rewriting the engine every time, maybe because you have learned how to make it better, and never actually get into content. So some thinking is needed, what parts have most impact on the game, if player doesnt even notice your new super-precise collision engine then leave it, adding 50 new extra hard levels when you have not fixed that bug in level 49 which makes it imporssible to continue is also waste of time.

I have some 3-4 years old games that I know for sure I could write much better code for, but they work and I have new ideas and it would still play exactly same so why bother. Then again I rewrote some parts in my space shooter (must be the game I have spent most time on) which I think made it much better, improved speed and look. But it took nearly 6 months before I was ready to go back and fix it.

[DominumBelli]

How many of you, when starting to make a new game, actually sit down and draw out all the tasks required to complete it? I always get things completed much faster when I've written out all the goals needed to complete the task, broken those goals down into small "subgoals" and have everything planned out. Having a written list of things to do always helps your chances to complete "any task"

[tonypa]

How many of you, when starting to make a new game, actually sit down and draw out all the tasks required to complete it?

I never do that because its not fun.

[DominumBelli]

Yeah, it's not fun......it's the part of everything I hate the most.
However, as I've discovered time after time after time.....<obvious quote> If you fail to plan, you plan to fail </>
As much of a **** as it is to do, if you're serious in getting something finished, get it all planned out first!!! We'd all be getting much more great ideas completed if we all did, and as an "industry" (is calling all us indie flash developers an Industry too egotistic?) we'd progress much faster

[hooligan2001]

I normally stay on one project until its done. I just jot down other ideas i get during the process of making one. The current project i have been working on has taken me over a year atleast. Doesn't look like it will be too long till its done. Thank gawd. But it was on and off even though i stay focussed to one project their will be times when i cant work on it for a while, because of work or i need to learn something new to progress. The later of the two being a major problem

[nGFX]

speaking of motivation ... a funny thing is that for me every second project (not-paid) is finished in time.

i'm still working on Westbank now and then (mostly delayed because my character artists delivered good previews and then ... nada (hopefully the current one hits the style and the time))

... and while i waited for the characters to be drawn, i started and finished (and sold) dynaminer (soon to be featured on the sN site)

then i started crystalis ... which is still unfinished (levels and mostly important, some missing background art (or better: the missing ideas for them))

... and while thinking about the bg art for crystalis i started an finished "serpents 2134 ad" in no time ...

though i made myself a promise that i never dump a 3/4 finished game ... it's just taking way longer than expected.

(although i have dropped some "proof of concept" game engines)

mhm, back to work then ... <olli/>

[thehumanchimp]

The problem with me is art. I am absolutely useless. To the extreme. I can't draw to save my life. So I can get a good engine going, its just that I never really build on it, because I can't make it look nice, and i don't think people would appreciate a green box as their character.

With my newest venture, I have attempted to draw the charcters. One of which can be seen as my little avator thingy next to my name. Because I tried to get the graphics done near the beginning of the game, I don't think i'll have much reason to not finish it. Which is good. The only problem at the moment is the lack of time (stupid exams). So I've put it on hold for a month or so, but after that I hope to have it finished within a few months. I've finished most of the network coding so now its just refining the physics, and creating a few more weapons/textures.

Assuming all goes well, this'll be the first game that I've actually finished properly.

[yellowman]

though i made myself a promise that i never dump a 3/4 finished game ... it's just taking way longer than expected.

It´s like they say, to do the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the total time.

[random10122]

I keep trying to finish but SOMETHING always crops up. For example, i started a new project with ripX about two months back... We even met in person to discuss it, but now... he's disapeared - completly! No email, no phone.. madness.

There's always something.