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Finishing a Game

72 points by Sodaware 15y ago

benologist 15y ago
Oldie but a great read for anyone who's working for themselves, doesn't have to be specifically with games it's the same for weekend projects & anything else too.
- angrycoder 15y ago
  Oldie? Its from friggin September.
  - benologist 15y ago
    That's almost a year ago now, and I know it's been here before!
kylemaxwell 15y ago
It’s easy to confuse “preparing to start the damn game” with “starting the damn game”. This is true for many, many endeavors.
- icefox 15y ago
  On the flip side I am often glad that I only prepare and don't jump into coding/doing. It would take me a lot longer to figure out that it was a bad idea if I am coding and not sketching out the full thing. I have a whole blog of http://ideasfrommydreams.blogspot.com/ http://ideasfrommydreams.blogspot.com/ such ideas that upon reflection are usually not that great.
  - benologist 15y ago
    Problem with that approach is a small idea that isn't that great can evolve into something a lot better while you're working on it (esp. with casual games) - an idea that only exists on paper isn't going to do anything.
solipsist 15y ago
Thank god it's not just me! I always found finishing a game to be extremely difficult - to the point where I have stopped making them all together. After being done with 90% of a game you still seem to have 90% of the work left to do. kylemaxwell is right that this happens with many endeavors but it seems to happen with games the most.
- mlok 15y ago
  This reminds me of the Pareto Principle : It takes 20% of the total time to reach 80% of the project. It takes the other 80% of the time to achieve the remaining 20% of the project. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pareto_principle https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pareto_princi... One of the most important thing I've learned.
  - henry501 15y ago
    And if you can identify the last 20%, eliminate it and you become 4x more efficient.
TheRevoltingX 15y ago
Pretty neat, specially for us on the last leg of development which seems to be taking forever! Been blogging about my 2d mmorpg for android here: http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/ http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/
GvS 15y ago
I'm at last 10 percent now, left with most boring parts and hardest to find bugs. This post motivated me to go back to work, thanks for that!

72 points by Sodaware 15y ago

Oldie but a great read for anyone who's working for themselves, doesn't have to be specifically with games it's the same for weekend projects & anything else too.

angrycoder 15y ago
Oldie? Its from friggin September.
- benologist 15y ago
  That's almost a year ago now, and I know it's been here before!

kylemaxwell 15y ago

It’s easy to confuse “preparing to start the damn game” with “starting the damn game”. This is true for many, many endeavors.

icefox 15y ago
On the flip side I am often glad that I only prepare and don't jump into coding/doing. It would take me a lot longer to figure out that it was a bad idea if I am coding and not sketching out the full thing. I have a whole blog of http://ideasfrommydreams.blogspot.com/ http://ideasfrommydreams.blogspot.com/ such ideas that upon reflection are usually not that great.
- benologist 15y ago
  Problem with that approach is a small idea that isn't that great can evolve into something a lot better while you're working on it (esp. with casual games) - an idea that only exists on paper isn't going to do anything.

solipsist 15y ago

Thank god it's not just me! I always found finishing a game to be extremely difficult - to the point where I have stopped making them all together. After being done with 90% of a game you still seem to have 90% of the work left to do. kylemaxwell is right that this happens with many endeavors but it seems to happen with games the most.

mlok 15y ago
This reminds me of the Pareto Principle : It takes 20% of the total time to reach 80% of the project. It takes the other 80% of the time to achieve the remaining 20% of the project. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pareto_principle https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Pareto_princi... One of the most important thing I've learned.
- henry501 15y ago
  And if you can identify the last 20%, eliminate it and you become 4x more efficient.

TheRevoltingX 15y ago

Pretty neat, specially for us on the last leg of development which seems to be taking forever! Been blogging about my 2d mmorpg for android here: http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/ http://developingthedream.blogspot.com/

GvS 15y ago

I'm at last 10 percent now, left with most boring parts and hardest to find bugs. This post motivated me to go back to work, thanks for that!