I don't have experience with games, but I dare say it's not exclusive to games. I work on a desktop app for over a year. Initially I thought that 1,800h was a f

I don't have experience with games, but I dare say it's not exclusive to games. I work on a desktop app for over a year. Initially I thought that 1,800h was a fair estimate for minimum acceptable version. I put 1,400 of raw dev time in 2021, I got a very rough prototype that is barely usable and far from finish. I estimated that going at this pace, I need at least 2,500h more but realistically - 3,500h (making a grand total of 4,900h), which is going to place the launch somewhere Q1 or Q2 2024 - I don't work full-time, I'm freelancing and I spend a lot of time thinking how I can maximize the number of hours I have. In 2021, I kept freelancing at 15h/week average. Now I'm upping paid work significantly to make some savings and accelerate later. I love it, but the sacrifice is huge. I'm 26 and I get to experience very little regular life. I can't imagine giving up though at this point.