Learning to finish your games

Okay… here’s the truth. My hard drive is basically a graveyard of games I never finished. Brilliant ideas, half-done mechanics, abandoned in frustration or boredom. And honestly? That’s mostly on me.

First, I tried to do everything myself. Every art, every sound, every line of code. “It has to be mine!” I told myself. Result: nothing got done. You can’t be good at everything, and pretending you are will kill your project. Use assets. "Steal" smartly. The game doesn’t care who made the trees in the background, it cares if it’s fun.

Then there’s perfectionism. I’d look at my project and only see the flaws. “I’ll fix this animation, rewrite this code, redo that mechanic…” forever. Meanwhile, the game stays unfinished. Learn this: 80% done and released beats 100% perfect and hidden. Always.

And yes… working alone is brutal. No one to push you, no one to complain to. Then a new shiny idea pops in your brain, and suddenly your old project seems boring. Motivation crashes. This is why you need someone. An artist, a writer, a friend. Anyone. Share your progress publicly, set a deadline, make it real. Nothing motivates like external pressure.

Finishing a game is hard. Tiring. Frustrating. Your code will break, your team might quit, and you’ll want to give up. But… there’s nothing like that first “publish” moment. That’s the victory. Don’t quit when it gets hard. Push through. Ship your 80%, then polish later.