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[knight]

For me competitions with deadlines make me finish my games. GammaIV helped me create a game I was proud of even though I was too scared to release it publicly.

[Ozoh]

I have this problem. Just when I've got the systems working, all my motivation goes down.
I really need someone to kick my ass all the time so I would actually work on my project.

[pixhead]

"Wow I really like what I'm doing. I wonder what would happen if I did this. Wow that is awesome. Hmm but it doesn't suit this game... Ill just start a new game"

- me over and over and over...

[thatshelby]

yep -- and don't worry about finishing games if you're just starting out. i didn't technically "finish" a game until about 10 years after i started making games as a hobby. it's more important to get good skills than to finish games if you are just starting out. in the learning stages (say, the first 5 years of making games) it's better to have 100 interesting unfinished games than 1 finished one

That actually sounds like it would be very wise to do in my situation. Learning is all I'm really trying to do at the moment. Today I purchased a used Psychology textbook so I can better understand the human mind, and hopefully, how that relates to games.

[ChevyRay]

I hate releasing games. It's my least favorite part about game development, and I don't really care what people think when it is released and don't want to know and just want to be rid of it. I dunno why. I just like working on them, that's my favorite process.

So just don't finish games, just keep making them forever and not finish anything, it's more fun and more rewarding and you learn a lot and have a great low-stress time. Mwahaha.

Chances are, you'll accidentally finish a game here or there anyways like I do, and you'll end up doing it without even realizing it after awhile anyways.

(by the end of this year, I will have released 6 games)

Just saying this because all of the "how to pull-through and finish games" advice never worked for me at all, even remotely. So my advice is just forget about it, enjoy the creative process and make awesome shit until it's coming out your years, and you'll be finishing games and releasing them before you know it.



TL;DR - I have no idea what I'm talking about, so ignore me.





EDIT: also, holy shit first post on these forums in ages, hey folks <3

EDIT2: oh, and just a note, this isn't like, a "fuck you" to the advice people are posting. It's good advice, but I thought I'd just toss mine in for the minority who it doesn't work for who might feel left out. That's all

[PsySal]

There is this saying:

Poems are never finished, only abandoned.

[Matt Thorson]

Sort of as a foil perspective to Chevy: I love releasing games! For me, the thought of people playing my games, thinking about my games and talking about my games is a really exciting thought (whether or not it actually happens), so I love getting them out to the public. I love most of the creative process, but for me sharing is a natural part of that process. Even when I was 14 and I knew my games were total shit, I still released them when I was done working on them.

So I dunno - it seems like there might be two separate problems here:
A) How do I buckle down and just finish a game?
B) How do I get excited about the idea of releasing a game?

For me, A is always the more difficult question - but if you can't answer B, it seems to me like it'll be even harder to answer A for yourself. If you never actually want to release your game, it's probably not going to get finished (unless you tap into whatever motivates Chevy to finish his games!)

One easy way to get excited about releasing games is to make games your only source of income. That way you'll be excited to release it so you can eat.

[ChevyRay]

(unless you tap into whatever motivates Chevy to finish his games!)

You can buy a bottle pretty cheap $10 at your local liquor outlet.

In all seriousness though, I think this is a totally awesome point that probably can apply to a lot of folks:

One easy way to get excited about releasing games is to make games your only source of income. That way you'll be excited to release it so you can eat.

[Matt Thorson]

In all seriousness though, I think this is a totally awesome point that probably can apply to a lot of folks:

One easy way to get excited about releasing games is to make games your only source of income. That way you'll be excited to release it so you can eat.

If you really truly want to do something, the best way to motivate yourself is to set it up so that if you don't do it, you'll lose everything.

There was a RadioLab episode about that I think, where a woman set it up so that if she smoked another cigarette, she had to donate $5k to the KKK haha

[ChevyRay]

Then, when you've lost everything, you can at least say you tried! [/optimist]  heheh

[Dangerous_Dave]

When I start a project, I don't really have too much of an idea of where it's going.

I guess that's why the generally end up going nowhere.

[Sakar]

When I start a project, I don't really have too much of an idea of where it's going.

I guess that's why the generally end up going nowhere.

This. 100% this.

[PsySal]

Yeah I think there are two separate things, finishing and releasing. For myself, I find that I can finish games but often don't release them.

Maybe it would be good practice to release things that aren't finished? That might make it easier to release things that ARE finished.

This thread made me realize I have a problem with releasing stuff myself, even if I don't seem to have too much trouble finishing I often don't push them out the door. Either I'm not happy with them or... who knows? I guess that's it! Hoom, food for thought.

[ChevyRay]

Really? Man you release tons of games 0_o

[PsySal]

@Chevy: Er, it doesn't seem that way to me. But... thank yous! =) It does make me feel a bit better.

Actually what I realized from reading this is that everybody should have an "Abandoned" page that they can put their abandoned projects on, for closure. Abandoning a project can be really important, too; imagine if every artist had to finish each sketch into a full painting? I think that matches with what Chevy is saying, basically just create and create and don't worry overmuch about finishing. Dunno if that is always going to be helpful, but there is definitely a lot of truth to it.