What's stopping you from succeeding? It's you!

I just want to share a few things which have been helping me a lot recently to get some actual game development accomplished. Sorry if this is a little long or wordy.

I've read stories and seen evidence of people from all walks of life, all levels of experience, all backgrounds, completing their games and getting them out there. It seems to have very little to do with skill level, or education, or previous experience, or money, or tools available. There are really really bad games getting finished by total beginners. There are also really really good games getting finished by total beginners. There are games getting finished by men and women of all ages and skill levels and backgrounds. Then there's me, fairly skilled, fairly experienced, creative, capable, not finishing any games.

There is some other factor besides the skills and know-how, or even the planning and management, that results in getting a game made. It's whether or not you are prepared to take a lot of ACTION.

I'm one of these people who has a lot of ideas and can get lost in idea-land easily, expand a project indefinitely, and not take actual action steps to make an end product. What I wasn't doing that all these other people were doing? I wasn't taking enough action. Making a game and finishing a game requires MASSIVE ACTION. I would instead get into various victim thoughts, self worth issues, judgement, comparison to other games, people-pleasing, excuses, reasons to do it, reasons not to, avoidance, procrastination, disillusionment, guilt, 'research', distracting other projects etc. All of this stuff really has nothing to do with the game getting developed, it's all issues where I am getting in the way myself. I am the hidden problem that is stopping me from finishing. The remedy to get out of my head and to make actual progress has been simple.... take really massive amounts of action!

This action is the only thing that makes real progress. It's the only thing that actually STOPS all of those self-defeating, fence-sitting thoughts, and does something about it. It takes you from being a powerless victim, to being empowered and confident. It cancels fears out because taking action actually makes real progress, and then all the foundations for these 'worries' and 'blocks' is wiped out. I can't really be concerned about what people would think of my game if I'm putting in so much action that I'm actually feeling a `confident disregard` for their opinions. I can't really be spinning my wheels worrying about whether the game will be liked, or will even end up any good, if I am taking action to make sure it will be good. I can't be feeling all insecure and uncertain if I'm taking ACTION to answer all of those concerns in steps that lead to even more action. So that's my first lesson - take a lot of action, and then more action, and don't stop taking really big huge amounts of action until it's done. Get off the stuck-in-fear bandwagon and take real action, right now.

The other thing that really helped me, is I received a vision. In this vision I was shown a way to look at game development which was quite different than what I had before. Previously I saw it as a big uphill struggle with a tonne of loose ends and uncertainties. I had no real plan, no design document, nothing planned out properly. This gave rise to a lot of questions and doubts and fears. All those uncertainties have to be resolved and pinned down with actual ACTIONS, ie making actual decisions and sticking to them and then moving on.

In the vision, what I was shown was a kind of corridor. It was straight. This was in comparison to the previous `path of development` which was convoluted and littered with obstacles and fears and problems. The corridoor led from the start of development to the end of development and beyond. There were no obstacles in the corridor. There was no attachment to the game in the corridor. It was like I was not lost inside the game or caught up in it. I had a detachment. Along the sides of the corridor were all the actual action steps needed to make the game, all the phases of development, all of the roles I would need to fulfill in order to make the game, and the very clear awareness that the game is completely FINITE. Everything about it is clearly defined and limited. All decisions are made. And when all of the finite steps are done, it is complete.

Everything is perfectly planned. All steps are simply taken. There is no uncertainty, no confusion, no fear, no doubt. And most importantly perhaps of all... the finiteness of this one game had an END to its development. It could only have an END by being FINITE. I saw myself moving on afterwards, having actually FINISHED developing, without attachment.

What this revealed to me was that I simply need to look at game development as a set of steps to be taken, completely finite and limited, like just a bunch of tasks to perform, and to take action steps to perform those tasks, and LET GO, and then move on when it's all done. Being too attached to each step or dwelling on it or not moving past it was the problem. And it only remained a problem so long as I did not take ACTION to resolve all questions and the lack of decision. Yes, that means I cannot just indefinitely keep imagining more possibilities or adding-on extra outcomes. A finite, limited, confined, closed, locked-in, clearly laid out set of work steps, completed simply and methodically, leading to a result, and then letting it go. Do this step, do that step, done.

This gave me a whole different view of the process of development. I see now that as a solo indie developer I have to wear ALL the hats of development.... game designer, audio/musician, artist, level designer/builder, menu/gui maker, documentation maker, marketer, sales person, community builder, logic programmer, everything. I have to be willing to do all of these things, and if it means I spend 2 weeks doing game design and then am DONE with game design, and move on to 2 weeks of programming, and then am DONE with programming, and then 2 weeks of art creation, and then am DONE being the artist, then that's what it takes to get the game finished. I put on a hat, I do the tasks that are clearly defined without attachment, and I move on. The moving on part is really important. Letting it go. Somehow this way of looking at it - and maybe this is what all you pro's and finishers have been doing all along - has given me a) a full awareness of everything that is going to be needed to finish a full game, and b) a clear vision of how to plan everything out and make decisions that complete steps, and c) a willingness to take a lot of ACTION to actually move forward, forward, forward, forward and get this thing made. If there are decisions not made, that's what leaves the game plan open-ended, and then it cannot be finished. You have to close every open door and then do all of the tasks required, by taking a lot of action.

I just spent the last week-ish working on a game design document. I did not have one before, and was riddled with uncertainty and procrastination. Taking action. Making decisions. It feels a bit weird to make creative decisions and to then be done, and to have to stop making creative decisions, but at least I know the scope of the game has a limit and CAN BE COMPLETED. Being willing to decide a creative decision and to then accept it and move on... not lingering in la-la land dreaming up more things to decide about... deciding, then letting it go, and moving onto the next action step. I can't be a game designer all the time, or a programmer all the time, or an artist all the time. It's a journey through different territories. Doubts and fears? Decisions haven't been made. Time to take action and close off those loopholes. And now I can see the GOAL more clearly - there really is no goal... you move through the action steps and keep on moving. It's working for me And when the plan is fulfilled, and all the steps are acted on, and all remaining doubts are ceased with decisions being made, and the finite game is finished, then it's time to keep moving on. Moving on happens when you take action. This is I think the biggest lesson for me... the willingness to LET GO of what I'm creating and let it be done with.

It's paradoxical, but letting go of the project is the only real way to actually make it!

Now I'm off to take more action!

 

Not wordy, descriptive
Good job.

"Being willing to decide a creative decision and to then accept it and move on" Yup

 

Very well said and I'd sum this up as clarity and focus. They lead to massive focused action. Two excellent books (for a long time I was a fanatic devouring everything I could find to help me reach my goals) I read years ago are Focal Point and Maximum Achievement. Both by Brian Tracy and available on Amazon. I highly recommend them.

 

Clarity, yes... good word... being clear about what there is to be done, getting out of doubt and confusion by making committed decisions, having a clear picture/plan of what is needed and following it, getting a clear picture of what the game will be, will entail, who it is for, how it looks when it's done.

Focus, yes... also good... focusing by bringing clarity to all uncertainties and indecisions, to reel in all those stray wandering thoughts and bring it all back to the clear plan, and then acting on it.

Execute!

 

I'm not doing game design documents because I don't have the time or motivation really to implement the ideals in my head as much as I like some of them but were I to do so their complexity would require a game design document.

Instead, I decided to adapt one of my hobbies to the reality of my personality: I use Unity Free and the Asset store to integrate into a turnkey game, then owing to my lackadaisical attention span I plan to expand that turnkey solution with my own original work over the course of a time span as my interest in it waxes and wanes. eventually it will be as complex as the approach above but it will be much more modular owing to the approach I took to create it.

Otherwise this week my interests lie in going through boxes of things I hauled back from overseas and hadn't looked at since 2006. I need space. Feature creep just ain't on computers. I can't even figure out what some of that stuff is. Bizarre. And some of the most evasive and bizarre things I've found are old tax returns; not on my part, on the part of the governments involved. This particular set of governments consistently waits 3 or 4 years after a tax year to grandfather clause in taxes to charge you. I hadn't noticed that when I lived there as I was too busy with other things.

 

the TL;DR;

you need motivation/focus/drive to succeed.

 

Oregon is beautiful and full of mountains. Suppose someone would like to start hiking them, how would they start?

Option 1:

• - Do extensive research on mountains and geology in general.
• - Read and research books about mountain climbing, hiking, wilderness trails.
• - Read books about experiences and adventures by people who have hiked/climbed mountains.
• - Find an online discussion forum on the topic and ask where best to start.
• - Do extensive research on the best types of shoes, (gear, clothes, etc)
• - Write to shoe manufactures and suggest how to make their shoes better.
• - Suggest shoe manufactures provide you shoes for free to try out.
• - Suggest shoe manufactures provide personal guides for your trip.
• - Do extensive research on weather and weather patterns to find the best time to go
• - Engage in online discussions about the philosophy of hiking/walking.
• - Write a plan.
• - Share with everyone you can, how you have come up with a revolutionary type of walking.
• - Write up a plan to include all the possible things that may come up in the next decade.
• - Scrap everything and reconsider because someone online said butterflies are deadly and will sting.
• - Write a new plan.
• - Go to the Timberland forums to educate the users there why Columbia boots are clearly superior.
• - Research on the best way to make an action plan.
• - Create a plan to make the time create a new plan.
• - Discuss this plan online.
• - Ask for critique of your plan.
• - Research butterflies.
• - Explain to everyone who provides a critique why they are wrong and they just don’t “get it”.
• - Put your plan on hold because there are rumors that new Columbia boots are coming soon.
• - Engage in long arguments about the fallacy of deadly butterflies.
• - Create a blog do document your preparation for hiking.
• - Start an online discussion about why the current state of hiking is clearly out of date.
• - Research equipment for recording your hike so you can provide tutorials.
• - Write a new plan.
• - Give extensive advice to hiking “noobs” about the proper way to hike based on your research.
• - Research the reasons you are not able to get started.
• - Discuss online with others who are also unable to manage to hike.
• - Read books on motivation.
• - Try to determine who or what is actually to blame for your inability to climb a mountain.
• - Post a rant on the Columbia forums as to why their new boots clearly aren’t next-gen.
• - Consider switching to Timberland boots.
• - Write a new plan.
• - Ponder how unfair it is that people do manage to climb mountains got so lucky.

Option 2:

• - Point yourself at the closest small mountain.
• - Start F***ing walking! (The rest will work itself out.)

 

how do I start walking???

 

Press W

 

If you are in an area full of mountains you shouldn't even need to pick one. Just start walking in whichever direction you're currently facing. Chances are very good you'll eventually reach a mountain.

 

Well... While numerous, they are largely to the east. A westward stroll will lead you into the Pacific ocean long before any mountains. But hey, it's all a learning experience.

 

There are always underwater mountains.

 

Am I the only one amused that a Disney employee just used the "F***" word?

 

Its a new ride ;-)

Anyway... interesting discussion.

 

This sounds great until the heel of your left shoe falls off because you didn't get the good ones. And when you run into a pack of hungry wolves man if only you had prepared better by researching the hazards ahead. Option 1 may never reach the mountains but they clearly had a hell of a lot of experiences anyway. Lol

 

Always wear a condom.

 

Quite possibly my favourite post. Do I have permission to reference it whenever I give a talk to students about making games?

 

Yes, by George, he's got it.

 

This actually reinforces my point.
If your shoe falls apart then you have learned through experience a valuable lesson, very quickly and with no harm. (and probably less time that researching).
If you run you into a pack of hungry wolves, hopefully you have a camera. There are less than 10 packs in Oregon (less than a 100 wolves in total). There have never been any deaths associated with wolves in Oregon, only 4 deaths in North America in the last 200 years. Looking at it in a positive way, if you do get killed by wolves, you will be very famous!

Option 1 is a wasted life. If your goal is to climb a mountain, talking/planning about it for years is empty and meaningless. Just start climbing. The real questions/concerns will be self-evident.

Obviously there is a big flaw with my analogy, you can’t get physically hurt making a game (unless you are doing it wrong).

But, this wasn’t an arbitrary analogy either. When I was about 19, my older brother took myself, my sister and a couple of his friends on a “day hike” up the backside of Mt St. Helens. It was about two days from the time he brought it up, to the time we we were at the base (treelike) before dawn starting the climb. He told us it was going to be like a few hours of intense walking. It would be for him (he does this a lot is in fantastic shape). It was over 10 hours of painful non-stop climbing over rocks uphill. Ruined my shoes and clothes. Blistered 60% of my feet, bruised and cut my legs and arms and was generally more exhausted than I have ever been in my life. If I had any clue of what was actually involved, I would have never agreed to go.

However, it was one the greatest experiences of my life. We spend the day at the summit, looking down into the volcano, watching the boulders roll, steam venting and planes flying beneath us down in the crater. It was pretty much pure magic. (and my brother played his bagpipes while on the summit, which had a surreal quality). I have since climbed more mountains in the PNW, and done serious desert and forest hiking.

The point being hiking sounded fun, so I went hiking. Had I fretted, wrung my hands, overthought it or whatever, I never would have done it. And would have missed out on an incredible part of my life, and amazing experiences.

Less talk more walk. A person know nothing useful about building games or game design application until they have built a game. It’s that simple. If you want to build games, then the real questions and things to learn will become evident.

 

Thanks! Of course!

 

I think you can still have some planning so long as there is a limit to it, and taking action can also mean 'actually making a sensible plan'. . its just that you have to make sure to keep on taking action and not get 'lost' in endless, open-ended avenues. I've been taking action to make a gade design doc, which is help a LOT. I don't see it as avoidance at all. I am putting a limit on how detailed it can get. When it's done, it's done, and I'll take the next action. Climbing mountains can include mental activity too. Just have to be careful not to get stuck in the ravines.

 

I've seen cows airlifted out of ravines by helicopter it's really bizarre.

 

I just skimmed over this whole thread and read that post...
I'm not sure what's going on but it sounds awesome.

 

I was being silly. Lol. Absolutely sooner or later a person needs to just jump in and do it regardless of what "it" is. I know what you're saying... I see it a lot too. So many times people talk and think about doing something sometimes for years and even decades and never do it. That is craziness. I think that is just people who like to dream and talk about it.

Other times I think there are people who really want to do something but have no idea how to even get started so they don't even know where to jump. They jump and end up way over their head taking on way more than they should have. They see so much to do chaos and complexity all around they don't know how to get it under control.

Others start planning and end up with Analysis Paralysis. All time is spent on planning and preparing. Way more time than is needed. So no action is taken beyond this point.

I use a mix of planning, gaining what I can from other people's experience and just jumping in the fire to get things moving. Most of the time I am just "doing it" and some of the time I am focusing on preparation and improvement. Preparation just to move forward from this point, learn about any likely obstacles or other risks, to get around known obstacles and take an efficient path. Improvement just to enable me to get to where I want to be faster. But yeah in the end all of it is just surface value unless a person uses it "in the field".

 

It seems the planning has to be controlled, e.g. putting a limit on the scope of the project, making decisions which are stuck to and not questioned, closing open loopholes/doors or things undecided, not getting too detailed, etc. Surely that has to lead to a completion of the plan, and then the execution stage?

 

I like to have a good balance between productivity... and feeling right about the results of what I'm doing.

I've tried working fast, getting things done... thinking ONLY about getting paid, thinking "time is money"!
Didn't work for me... it's a bad cycle in which I get sloppy results, so I lose motivation, and start hating what I'm doing. Might as well work at a shoe factory or something. So I decided the best way is at least compromise, between getting things done, but keeping a standard I can personally feel proud of.

Oh btw, this is just my personal experience. I'm yet to finish a single game.

 

Like any massive engineering problem and undertaking it is incredibly daunting and overwhelming at first but I find that the key is to break these big problems into ever smaller and more manageable problems, that way when you are tackling a task it is not too big to be intimidating. You shouldn't work with the objective of building your dream game. You should work to get this specific piece of functionality into your project, something small and manageable, like controlling input, or updating player movement, or adding audio to this action or whatever. Then you just do an incredible series of small tasks and eventually you have a cool playable product in front of you! That is the most rewarding result.