Hey, there. I've been making games for years, and years, and years, but I've never been good at actually following through and finishing games. It's similarly hard for me to finish a song, but I can do it when I buckle down and put my mind to it. I've postponed / abandoned some great games over the years. So, I'm wondering. How do you stay focused?

• Do you have multiple projects?
• Do you force yourself to finish what you start?
• Do you try to keep interested by building fun, new ideas into your current game?
• Do you lock the size of the game down to help give you a "canvas" to paint in?
• Do you just work until you get bored, and then release what you have?
• Do you eat a lot?
• Do you have a pet, perhaps a hamster named Nibbles, create your game for you? (Note that the hamster could also have another name.)

I've historically had a similar problem. I could never finish a game, not because I kept on having new game ideas, but because I always wanted to go back and redo something about the code. It boils down to the same thing, though. It got so bad that I gave up on making games for a couple years, and I've just come back to it this year. Finishing games is a skill, and you hone that skill by practice.

Something's that helped me a lot are external anchors. Make a game for a jam! Jams have deadlines, and when you have deadlines you have to finish things. Also, work with other people! When you work with other people you have to finish things. You can't just jump to another game and leave the other person hanging.

Alternatively, make a really small game. Make a game that's so small that there's no way you couldn't finish it. Then, once you've done that, make a slightly bigger one. It's all about practicing a skill.

My recommendation is to make a game for One Game a Month, and maybe even collab with someone! Having external motivators to hold you to finish a game is extremely helpful. Or at least, it was in my case. But I think it'll be helpful to you, too.

i have hundreds of unfinished games, because i usually cut my losses early on, and i'm okay with that.

first stage, the idea, it's usually spontaneous. i work it out in my head til it sounds presentable, and if not i just give up on it.

second stage, i pitch it out the other people near me to see if there's a spark of hype, if not, then i stop there. however if i feel strongly enough about it, i try to prove the concept with a physical prototype.

third stage, if the prototype doesn't prove to be fun after a ton of iterations, i scrap it, and if it does, then i start brain storming for bigger development, getting an idea of how much work is required and if it's compatible with my current resources, such as time, patience, skills, tools, experience. i give up if it's just too ambitious.

fourth stage, i feel good about it, i begin the digital prototyping, flesh out some concepts. this stage usually lasts about a week or so before i can come to the conclusion if i really want to commit. i never force myself to commit to something i don't believe in anymore, it feels like wasting precious time. i pay my respects to that, the experience has made me better, then let it die.

fifth stage, currently at that with my current project which i've been working several months on, i can't sleep without thinking about it, i can't stop not wanting to work on it. i am obsessed with it. and i'm actually passionate about it. this is my goal and where i want to be.

so essentially, if my brain doesn't want to focus, i quit. because i trust my brain. i have no idea if that method is practical, seeing that i never finished game. but i'm okay with that.

I had this problem all the time (at one point I was considering "never finishes anything" my trademark) until I finally finished something (this year). I'd left it abandonned for about 3 years but I still thought about it a lot, and realised I was making myself depressed by just leaving it there, since it seemed like something I should've finished ages ago, and felt like a game that described me really well. If I didn't finish it, all the work I'd done and all the words I'd written would go to waste and essentially it'd just be a series in-jokes that only I knew.

So I realised I was procrastinating, and I'd just come out of an unsuccessful college course and had lost all direction and was unemployed. I was spending days just staring into space. I decided to pick it up, not think about how much was left to do, and just work on it until I lost interest again. It took a lot of pushing myself, but once I was in full swing, it became a lot easier. (I also took way too few breaks for fear of losing momentum.) Two years later it was finished.

I think it was a combination of several things- my frustration at myself, and the fact I had nothing else going for me. I'd wake up and think "why isn't this game finished yet?" every morning, and worked on it because I couldn't focus on anything else.

...I wouldn't recommend this exact method to you. It was really stressful, and I barely socialised. I didn't take many breaks. I also exacerbated my OCD a lot. It's better to balance socialising, working on the game, and playing other games/relaxing. Towards the end of development I managed to do this, and was also working on a few side projects in case I felt like a change of scenery. The side projects AND the main project both benefitted from balancing what I worked on.

i work almost exclusively on multiple projects, honestly. it actually helps me keep focused and lets me improve my skills as a designer and creator at the same time.

for example, while working on Joylancer, my roommate and i will occasionally take a few days to work on other stuff instead. this keeps us really active and energetic, without us getting bored with the project. a big problem that i personally have is that if i focus too much on a singular project, i start to dislike it and even run into pretty major design humps. by allowing myself to take a break and experiment with other things, i learn more knowledge that i can then apply to another project, such as the "primary" project i'm working on at the time.

to me, it feels like both the most organic and beneficial way to make games... but i also have like, three other jobs outside game development, so maybe i'm just a worker by nature!

I finished my first game out of a personal mission to prove that I could actually achieve that goal. I learned a lot about myself in the process as a creator and as a person. For instance, I decided that I really don't like making games alone; I enjoy sharing the process of creation as much as I enjoy sharing the final project.

All that to say, I think what you desire to accomplish in game development might be something to consider for your approach to project management.

I've forgotten what it's like to jump from project to project :(

It's quite stressful to work on a single game for extended periods of time. I'm able to do it because my game is in Early Access and I have no choice but to update every 2-3 weeks otherwise it will affect the interest in my games and thus sales.

Small, small, small games. Once you've finished enough of those you'll have the motivation for a big, big, BIG game. Or at least a moderately sized one. You should never force yourself to finish something you're not enjoying. I have dozens of prototypes sitting in a big Dropbox folder, a few of which nearly became games. Sometimes though, you just lose interest and that's ok. I often work on multiple projects but rarely does more than one become something, sometimes none at all.

One thing that helps me a lot is to not plan and just work from your head as much as you can. Also try and do menus and background systems and all of the boring stuff ASAP because I'll often have a nearly finished game stuck without a main menu for weeks because I hate making menus so much.

Hey, I read each of your responses, and thanks for the info. Seeing the different approaches to this common problem is very helpful. Also hearing that it's OK to lose interest is good, too. I actually started something else and now also want to go back to working on the original game as well, which is great to see. I guess avoiding burnout is the primary thing, and is important to do, regardless of how you do it (if the game won't get done unless you take a week off every week, then do it if you want to finish it).

Anyway, thanks, again!

I use to have the habit of jumping from one project to another, which in turn had me have barely any work done. Don't get me wrong, I do envy those who manage to multitask and be able to get work done that way. I am currently working on two projects, but one is more of a secondary job since my graphic work on it won't be very animated (card game), but main one is more of a one-man job.

I found a method that helped me stay focused with my main project (visual novel SRPG), I'm not sure if it works mainly because of the nature of my game but it is working the way I want it to. My method involves my game being free of charge, that reduces the stress of having a commitment and be working at my own pace, but also being very transparent with where the game is going.

My game is unfinished but is available to download, I just update it in very small increments. I have roughly around 3-4 updates per week with irregular breaks in between, these updates would range from fixing a grammatical error, a typo to including a sprite in the game and having it appear where it needs to be. In all that procedure I keep it documented online for everyone to see, having it be out there gives me the illusion that people are invested into whatever I'm working, that gives me some incentive to keep me going. I'm not spammy about it, I post information on the update on my subreddit and itch.io devlog just to list the changes and keep track.

It's a basic work format but it seemed to work for me.

Most of the previous posts cover most of my personal strategies. I have a few unfinished games which I stopped working on because the concept wasn't as good as I thought once I got going. I usually mull over game concepts for a while before I start anything. Overall my strategy for finishing games is to keep in fun , take small breaks of a few days (play other games etc) so that you don't feel your game is like a job. Keep your game small at first and work specifically on each area until you feel you have a good foundation . I usually work on game mechanics before story (an example). I never bog myself down (since I do my own art) with one task so it never seems to get boring. I use a lot of randomness in my games as well. I also try to keep my game mechanics as simple as possible I don't try to build too much complexity as that is a project killer. And of course the last thought is once you have finished a game that game becomes a resource for your next project.

The bottom line is to work on something as long as you're getting something out of it. Whether that is money, knowledge, 'cred', or *gasp* personal enjoyment that's all that matters. However you rank things like money, fun, and knowledge is how you should rank your projects.

I will say this though: Games are like children. They start as infants, so adorable and you have such high hopes for them. It's brain chemistry and instincts. Your first rigged character, the networking finally working correctly good enough... every day you're blown away by how much it's improved so fast. Then they get older... they start to become stubborn, they learn use the word 'no'. They become obnoxious and they no longer fit in your free bitbucket repo, they suck up your money and your time, and their code looks like ground zero of an explosion. You can't wait for them to move the fuck out and get their own job and start supporting you. Aaaaanyway, I'm sorry if that went a little too deep and off topic.

<edit: returning-to-topic>

I'm almost always working on at least two projects at once. One is usually to keep food on the table and one is because I genuinely want to see it made. (or I want to figure something out) Many times it's 3 and occasionally 4+. (not recommended)