I can never finish a video game.

News & General Discussion
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I am a high-schooler who has been creating many many different things in his extensive free time and I am always trying something new. I always have great ideas, an extensive arena-based top down space shooter,a tactical demolition game, and even now with a turn-based RPG.

And I get pretty far with some of these projects on both the graphical and programming side of things, and I am really invested into this. But just as I seem to get the momentum to create a working piece of art, I shut down.

My work ethic slows, I procrastinate, I seem to intentionally distract myself from actually getting something I have dedicated myself to and love to throw away at going through the internet looking for cat pictures, including this one:

I just don’t understand why I keep on doing this though, I just seem to trail off of a well made path for myself, and now as of this point I am left with a couple dozen of half beaten projects that I may never even look back upon.

Has anyone else had this issue? How did you resolve it? Should I lock myself in a closet until I get something done?

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hi,

check out these videos for immediate help:)

(the point being, do extra small games at start…that you can finish)

And this:
The answer to every ‘Can it be done?’ and ‘I’ve lost my way’ post.

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For me, I’ve never truly finished any project that I’ve worked on. It’s never entirely “done” in my mind. It’s simply “good enough for now.” This applies to just about every project I’ve ever worked on, not just games.

I revised my surround-sound system in my house about a year ago. I installed a few panels and ran some wires up through the wall, so that most of the wiring for the system was concealed behind sheet-rock. When I decided that it was done, I did so knowing full well that I would probably revisit it some day. It wasn’t truly finished, but it was good enough for now.

I’m currently working on revising a previous software project. It may be the seventh or eighth time I’ve revisited the same project. The last time I managed to get it to a working state, and put it up on the shelf because it was good enough for now. But sooner or later I came back to it, picked it up, dusted it off, and started again.

Figure out the goals you want to meet, and keep them realistic. Don’t try to truly “finish” anything, just focus on getting it “good enough for now.” It’s okay to reach a specific goal, and then take a break, knowing that your project is not truly finished. Learn to walk away, at least for a time.

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Build until you run out of motivation. Then release.

If you work with the agile type mentality, that the product must be shippable at any point in the development process, then you will find this works well. The threat of imminent release will also keep your scopes smaller and on track.

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Keep a todo list, that can help you choose a task and when you’re done, just move on to the next

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Personal issues in your life/psyche may need to be addressed if they are blocking you.

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Projects are always most exciting when they’re new and their potential has yet to be realized. That last 10% is where all the hard work is that you put off previously, and it’s the grind to get things to where you want them. The things you could glaze over before (“Ah, I know the menu system sucks, but I’ll nail that down later”) has now been on your dry erase board for so long the letters are mostly rubbed off.

Whatever I start next, I’m doing what @Kiwasi said and using an agile plan. Maybe I’ll actually have something with my name on it someday. :slight_smile:

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Three things come to mind. First, seperate yourself from the source of your distractions. The Internet is both a boon and a curse. If you need reference material for coding, Unity has it under Unity\Editor\Data\Documentation.

Second, try to space the aspects of development that are giving you the most trouble throughout your project so that you always have some of the more enjoyable aspects to look forward to.

Lastly, you may want to consider reducing the size of your projects as much as possible. At least until you’ve successfully completed one. Even if it is no more complex than Flappy Bird.

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Making a game can take a lot of time, and a lot can happen in that time.

Only you know exactly why you lose interest in your game before you finish it… maybe you want to move on and keep learning instead; or the project became messy and hard to maintain; or you simply stop working on it for too long and it’s hard to get back to work.

Sooner or later, those obstacles will mean nothing to you… you’ll feel finishing a full product is more important than constantly learning other things; you’ll know how to keep a tidier project so you’re able to maintain it; you’ll get rock solid morale, you’ll realize you’re not defeated if you haven’t given up. Etc, etc.

Keep your current course! Except your cat picture staring tendencies, that must stop! :-0

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I think it is quite normal really. When I was a teen I used to build numerous game engines on my C64 reproducing the first levels of various commercial and arcade games. Over time, my brother and a couple close friends who saw these works were blown away because my arcade conversions were better than the official c64 releases in many cases.

I was far more interested in improving my software engineering ability, graphics, sounds and music than I was in actually completing a game. Once I reached the point where it was very obvious I could do it I lost interest and went on to the next challenge. There was always something else to figure out. I probably came up with a half dozen different compression algorithms. One of the last things I figured out was a way to increase the number of colors on screen. The C64 had a fixed palette of 16 colors and one day it hit me that I could generate new colors by rapidly swapping between two character (tile) sets adding additional shades of blues, grays, greens and so forth. So I created a tile graphics editor that worked to automatically create the multiple tile images as I chose colors from my extended palette. This was the stuff that I got the most satisfaction from. Always figuring something out and pushing the limits of the machine. And just becoming a better software engineer in general.

It could be you are in the same kind of stage where you just want to test your ideas, figure things out and learn. It is very valuable and I’d recommend not trying to force yourself to “finish” a game yet. Continue challenging yourself to tackle bigger hurdles. And once you have implemented enough to prove you have mastered it go on to another. In total I probably had a thousand of such projects. But I did stop occasionally to complete a game. However the ratio was probably 50 to 100 experiments per completed game or utility.

Basically… you’re learning and improving your skills. Keep it up. When you get bored and need a break go ahead and design a simple game and complete it.

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How did I resolve it? First, kudos to you for taking the initiative to work so deliberately to improve your skills. If you continue, good things may come. For now, a story.

One day, I was working on a prototype, when my wife said to me, “You’ve been messing around with that thing for too long.” To which I responded, “Are you crazy?” I showed her my awesome features and explained how far I’d come. She just looked at me and smiled, “Build something in 6 weeks. Anything at all, so long as you finish it.” And after she threw down the gauntlet, she said, in a softer voice, “You need this.” Of course, six weeks was impossible, so I countered, “Gimme 8 weeks!” And, in the end, it took me 9.

I finished my first product, shipped it to Apple, and sent it out into the world! It was crappy, and yet, there it was, in the real world, for all to see. It flipped a switch in my head that changed my outlook. And now, four years later, I have released 9 products, reached 200,000+ users, and earned a non-trivial income. All of this, in my spare time. Most importantly, through all this deliberate practice, I’ve improved my skills in ways I never imagined. I’m a better speaker, coder, and game designer. And it all started with the boost from proving that I could actually release a real product. As she loves to hear me say, ‘My wife was right.’

Pick projects you can finish in 12 weeks, or 9 weeks, or even 2 (see my sig)! To do that, pick TRIVIAL ideas. Then, try; FINISH; and improve. Repeat. Simple.

Gigi

PS - What’s a guy to do when people ask the same question, nearly every day? Apologies to those who have heard this story already.

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Despite hearing this story on multiple occasions I still like to hear it. Just don’t tell it to my wife, she might actually make me finish something. :wink:

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I’m definitely a starter-non-finisher, too. So proud when I released my first asset store item, but now I’m feeling like that’s a cop out from doing a full game. Every time I read Gigi’s story I get inspired, though.

Now if I could just get my wife to nag me to work on a game, instead of doing my household chores…

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I’m the opposite. I need a wife who can remind me to eat instead of work. My day usually goes like this: “I can wait to have coffee until I finish up what I was doing last night. Man, why am I so hungry? Wait! When did it get dark outside?”

Even working constantly its easy to fall into the trap of things taking a long time to finish because, as @Schneider21 said, the end is always the annoying stuff. I keep a todo list of everything that needs to be done. I feel productive when I am knocking stuff off of that list, so I tend to start with the easiest stuff. It’s a really bad habit, and I know it’s a bad habit, but yet at the end of every project I just want it to be over already and there’s all the annoying bits staring back at me from the todo list. This is how I earn my living, so I don’t have the option of not finishing. But boy does it go from ‘fun’ to ‘work’ real quick there at the end. It also doesn’t help that I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but have nearly zero patience. Those two things just don’t work well together when you are putting the finishing touches on a project that you just want to be over and done with.

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lay off the weed man. jk, i think about my son and how a successful game could make his life better. but your young so, maby think about how much cool stuff you could buy if your successful?

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same here man, i burn through composition notebooks with to-do lists and ideas.

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I have an opposite problem I always (99.9%) finish what I start. Sound like a good thing but is a bit of a burden like if I read a book that I do not like.

I have started a few game projects and finished them all. However two I decided not to publish due to “why should anyone search for and play this game”! By finish in this context I mean they are playable with lousy dev based graphics. However this mean that I always thinks a lot before deciding for a project.

IRL I do stop things for good reasons but for projects like development I normally finish.

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@OP - When you are young, knowledge acquisition is a key motivator. It’s more fun to learn new things than it is to sit working on the same thing week in week out, which let’s be honest can be incredibly mundane. That’s no bad thing. It just means you might not be ready - yet.

Perhaps you just need an alternate life motivator/situation such as bills to pay, a family to feed, or a dead end job to escape. Dreams are easier to surrender, so are less motivational imho. Such a motivator might not be present given your current stage of life, but can provide the motivation during the low points to plough on with the mundane and see it through.

Once you find a motivator, that’s when you’ll unlock your potential. Commitment to finish is one of the life skills you’ll need to be successful in any discipline.

Once you’ve been through your first lull and successfully pushed through, you’ll know there is something better that follows, and it becomes easier to motivate yourself when you encounter future lulls.

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