This is an announcement for changes to my current projects and a cautionary tale about taking on too many ambitious projects.

My Problem

Recently I caught myself staring at my catalogue of projects, thinking about my progress over almost 10 years.

Pitch Black and Flipping Reality, two story-focused games, were being transitioned from Godot 3 to Godot 4, but I gave up early because I have ADHD and didn't know it at the time.
State: Written lore and potential, but no gameplay or identity.

Home Grown, my main focus for a while, has no win/lose state, the redesigned limb mechanics yet to be implemented, with tech-demo-level world generation.
State: Tech-demo with no goal and too many disconnected ideas.

Six Hours at Diddle's is closest to completion, I could finish it in a few months... But it's been 7 years in development, the gameplay isn't fun, and a voice actor ghosted me with lines unfinished.
State: Unfinished with generic gameplay and messy graphics.

Then there is Lights: DIE OUT. I had a script I was writing, it would only have one ending, I immediately started designing original gameplay for it which wouldn't have a dozen systems mushed together... Yet it's gone from a hopeful release of Early 2024 to me not touching it for almost 3 years.
It had unique gameplay, an actual story, and wouldn't overstay its welcome or overwhelm the player with too much info or too many tedious mechanics. Why did I stop working on it? I got bored and never returned because I didn't think it was big enough.

My Solution

This is an issue I've known about for a while, but the only thing I've tried is 'limiting' myself to a number of projects I'm allowed to work on. Instead of confronting the main issue, I simply contained it. Now that I'm in a moment of clarity and also not in a depressive state, I want to take this chance to actually hold myself accountable and push myself out of this loop.

Firstly, the development of Home Grown and Six Hours at Diddle's is "officially" postponed, which means I'm no longer professionally working on them by setting expectations and deadlines, but that doesn't mean I won't be working on them on the side. Home Grown wouldn't be released for years even if I had a full team of developers. Six Hours at Diddle's, is purely a passion project, something I work on for fun and practice, not a major release I'm trying to get finished in time.

This makes Lights: DIE OUT the only game I am professionally working on. I will first continue planning the new mechanics and drafting the script, then finish recreating it in Godot 4 with updated graphics and mechanics, and from then on just focus on creating all the levels.

While I can't entirely stop myself from getting demotivated from time to time, I think this new way of working will help and I'm excited to post updates on my progress in the near future.

If you're a developer and find yourself raising a spiral of unfinished projects then try taking a step back to reevaluate your plan and take real action. You can also give feedback or thoughts on my conclusion, if you agree or disagree, why you think either way, and maybe suggestions if you have any.

Despite the many bumps, I'm hopeful for my future in game development, I want to get my ideas out there and one day make this my career... or maybe fallback to jumping between 50 different unfinished projects and find myself flipping burgers for the rest of my life.

Either way, good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight. I hope to see you all soon.