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[Blodyavenger]

That's not bad idea at all Paul to have such a detailed list seperated by categories which have even more details. I should try that out...I always make rough list of stuff to-do.

[thatshelby]

workflowy is good for that.

[_Tommo_]

The separate TODO is good advice, I do something similar... I have one or two "active quests" which get divided in subtasks & actually done, and the subdividing is needed to plan beforehand which one is currently most urgent. IE: "one" is an exam, it gets more and more time as it approaches. Those two tasks are two things I want to finish near-term, they already received a lot of planning and are as well-defined as possible.
Then, there's the "if I could" list, that's a general pool of "stored ideas" from which I get what I want to do next. It isn't an actual list, it is more of a bunch of concepts and notes on Google Docs.

I found out that when you have that "omg that is too cool I need to start this" idea out of the blue, it has two ugly setbacks:
it breaks your focus on whatever you're doing AND you are HUGELY likely to overestimate your capability/possibility of actually finishing it, wasting any time you devote to it.
So the best thing to do is to allow you some time to thorougly design it conceptually, and maybe explore the main "what ifs" of the idea, so to get a better metric of the resources required and of its actual quality.
Usually a good google search + a planning of core aspects + some days of not touching it (ah, the perspective) abort most of those "genius sparks" and let you regain your focus, burning up much less time and selecting those ideas really worth something, sometime.

Caveat on all the above - to be able to really do that you need to be decently good at extimating how much something will take, and that is HARD and comes after a lot of experience.
I would say that most of the projects started and left unfinished aren't so because of poor will, but because eventually realism kicks in...

[anonymous]

my expectations are too high [within my limited time frame] - that's my #1 project killer

[J-Snake]

A rushed game will always stay bad. A good game will always be good.

That is my mentality in making games because I take them seriously.

But mainly I have wasted much time because I have problems to decide how to go multiplat.
But I put an end to it and decided to finish the game for one platform first.

[Paul Eres]

[Gimym TILBERT]

The image is not working paul, it was there 35 mn ago but I wasn't

[Paul Eres]

i changed the url

also: the best way to finish games is seriously to keep a devlog and update it regularly (preferably every day)

[cynicalsandel]

I can't finish games because I can't even start them. I can't get motivated to attempt to learn how to program. How do I fix this?

I feel like I'm so used to school and procrastinating until the last minute that I can't do anything unless I feel that pressure that there isn't any time left.

[Gimym TILBERT]

right now perfectionism is what prevent me to progress, but since it is about the core control i can't do anything until it is perfect (ie do not change direction in mid air unexpectedly)

[SolarLune]

@Gimmy - Yeah, I was (and still am) like that. I think something that helped me was picking a project that I can just barrel through - once something works, there's not really any need to tweak it, unless you know how it should look. It's okay to tweak one or two times, but after you've spent a week or two without making progress, maybe it's best to just continue with the game and fix any issues when you get a chance.

@cynicalsandel - Just start learning. Just look for a tutorial and start off with it. Programming and game design are usually separate tutorials, though FlashPunk's tutorial's pretty simple. If you don't want to learn about programming, Blender (3D), Game Maker (2D) and Stencylworks (2D) have visual programming languages. Stencylworks' is pretty much the most advanced visual programming language between the three, having worked with Game Maker for years.

I would recommend looking around at different engines and seeing what you like - what feels comfortable. From there, start something small to keep you occupied, like a hobby project. In a few weeks, you'll be comfortable with the engine and the editor (if it has one) and be able to go from there.

[J-Snake]

right now perfectionism is what prevent me to progress, but since it is about the core control i can't do anything until it is perfect (ie do not change direction in mid air unexpectedly)

If you would take perfectionism seriously then you would not use the unity-engine:P
Game-Perfectionism implies knowing your mechanics down to the lowest level.

[Paul Eres]

there's different kinds of perfectionism. the kind of perfectionists who want to control every little bit of code tend to be lax when it comes to being perfectionists with their programmer art

[MattG]

perfection is irrelevant because its a subjective thing IMO

[Ben_Hurr]

I don't know about you, but what's holding me back is never being satisfied with the game's plotline.  Relevantness depends on what you're making.