Frustrated with Myself - No Real Progress

Akake on 2010/03/31 18:21 of Return of the Laughing Fox

I'm really aggravated with myself. I haven't been able to get anything done for my game. I've completely lost interest.

Why does this keep happening to me?

I may or may not continue. I'm not sure.

I'm really sorry to anyone who was looking forward to my game, but... I can't get myself to work on it. Again.

I need help keeping myself interested in things that I start. If anyone can point me to help, I'd really appreciate it.

For now, I'm just... Sorry.

--Akake

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Comments

cyhawk on 2010/03/31 19:09:

I would say don't try to write a "genre" game -- a platformer, a beat-em-up, or a tower defense. They are pretty much stretching it for a solo developer in a week and even if you get to complete it, you will probably get low innovation scores.

Think of something that is very easy to implement. That is no challenge at all to write. I think Featherbound (http://pyweek.org/e/abg7/) is a great example of this. You could code it in an hour and it requires practically no artwork. Still it is a great game — fun and innovative! Once you have that you can work on production if you want to and still have enough time. If the game is fun from the start, you will have no problem finding motivation!

Akake on 2010/03/31 19:25:

My problem is, though, that I can't think of an idea other than a genre game.

If I could think of something, I would, but I'm just not that creative. I'm really lousy at having original ideas.

richard on 2010/03/31 21:02:

Don't stress! You owe us nothing :-)

tartley on 2010/04/01 08:32:

Hey Akake,

Don't fret mate, it happens to all of us. (well, it does to me, anyway)

Like cyhawk says, for me personally, I think the key to maintaining motivation is to only commit myself to something very simple, then I don't get too bogged down in the details once I get started. I really think I benefit hugely from challenging myself to come up with the simplest idea ever, then implimenting it to completion. It's like exercising your 'completion muscle'.

In order to do that, I think of the simplest thing ever. Don't be ashamed to reinvent 'pong'. It's a valuable exercise! Then I spend a while stripping everything off it until I'm left with something the simplest it could possibly be. Then you can implement that in a day or so, and after that you can quickly see whether you are done with that project, or instead have been inspired and are itching to improve this or that (change the game rules, or add sound effects, change the appearance from squares to bitmaps or whatever.)

Best wishes.

    Jonathan

Tee on 2010/04/01 08:55:

Relax. Make anything you want, feel free to simplify your idea as much as you want. Just have fun.

Remember this exact same thing happened to you two Pyweeks ago, and yet you managed to build a nice game. Just keep the scope small and the objective focused.

Like tartley says, this happens to everyone. The important thing is to learn how to deal with it and, as long as finishing Pyweek is meaningful to you, keep trying.