Hi, I'm fairly new to these forums myself - I admit, I've lurked here for awhile - but this issue of "too many projects" is very much on my own mind. I come from a writer's background, decided to make games based on what I've written. Writers are constantly dealing with "too many projects", and I remember writing several stories at once, or worldbuilding in several different worlds, or a mixture of the two.

I still do some of that, but not a lot. I've been disabled for about a decade now, so game design is something I'm working at when I can, hoping someday to get a game done and "out" somewhere. But yeah, I occasionally work in little bits at other projects while dealing with the main one I have going right now.

I agree with those who say, "choose a focus and stick with it - don't veer off." Like I said, I have ONE main game project I'm working on; sure there's a couple I add ideas to every so often, or do a tiny bit of worldbuilding for them here and there, but I've learned pretty fast that I can't do like I did with story writing and work on two or three games at once!

I'd say make a physical LIST of the different projects you'd like to do, and keep that as a file. Then, if you want and can do things this way, add little bits to whichever one you want every so often, but have ONE MAIN PROJECT that you keep working at steadily.

I'll also add that in the writing industry there's a common idea of "killing babies", where you actively go about in your files every so often, or in your stories, and get rid of something that is not working. It doesn't matter how much you might love this cute green dragon who is hanging out in the gardens, the question is, how useful is he to the plot? Do you really need to have a three-page interaction with him? Is this conversation going to affect the main character's life somehow? If not, get rid of him... If you look at your projects this way, maybe you can better organize them, by considering seriously which ones might actually work and which ones just wouldn't be worth your time.

Um, that's an issue I have hit before. For full disclosure: I did work in computers and I have a degree. I stopped because writing legacy code for database applications was basically killing all my interest in programing. I wrote several, finished, (and some of them) successful, mods for various AAA games. I also wrote a few game related software (a server browser before the Steam era and various game launchers/editors). But on the other hand, I started countless projects that no one ever saw, and many that never reach more than beta stage.

Forget about the video linked before, it is counter productive. Sorry if it sounds harsh, it's not intended, but your results (or mine or anybody's else) will never be as good as your ambition. You do not have better taste than everyone else, and you are not a special snowflake. There's thousands of hobby programmers who want the exact same thing as you do. And there's more by the minute. You have to accept that there's a large part of luck in the success of any game: Angry Birds or 2048 are objectively shit games that can be written in 2 hours, they have completely broken mechanics, but they are successful while gems while get ignored by the masses. The highlight is that you don't need to be recognized by the masses to be moderately successful :) Hell, even the act itself of actually finishing your first project 100% is an achievement you'll remember.

Anyway, game designing is work. As indie, it's even more hard work because you don't have a boss forcing you to write code you don't like. Starting a lot of projects, trying out a lot of ideas is good, but only for a time. Once you're confident enough in your abilities as a coder (and game designer), you have to choose one singular project and finish it. Not alpha, not beta, but feature complete with all the bells and whistles. And it will make finishing the next bigger / better one so much easier.

Do not go for the current gaming trend, because it will be over way before your project is finished. Trends come and go. Yesterday it was zombies, today it's survival (with or without zombies), tomorrow it will be another thing. It's a cycle anyway, what was popular yesterday will be again soon. Think that you're not behind the curve, but way before it if you like. Focus instead on something YOU want to play, or something you've played but you think you can improve upon. It helps a lot. Starting with a relatively straightforward project is also a big plus. Your first completed one won't be a 100+ hours RPG anyway.

Then, to get something you like, ironically enough most of the time you'll spend will be on things you don't. It's part of the trade. As an example, i love to code simulations. A few years ago I wrote a whole city simulation where people work, sleep, spend money, eat.. It had cops, civilians, gangs, and so on, but when I had to write the actual gameplay (think turn based GTA / roguelike) out of it; I lost traction and never finished the thing. It's still available in beta, but calling it a game is a stretch. Don't do the same mistake.

What I've learnt from it is that the nearer you are from completion, the more likely you are to hate working on your project. That's perfectly normal. You just have to force yourself to do it. There's no magic trick, coding, even something you like, is work.

Many people I know recommend to participate in one of the several 24h/48h/7d gamejams / ludum dare as training. Never did that myself, but I understand how it can teach the needed discipline.

Forget about the video linked before, it is counter productive. Sorry if it sounds harsh, it's not intended, but your results (or mine or anybody's else) will never be as good as your ambition. You do not have better taste than everyone else, and you are not a special snowflake. There's thousands of hobby programmers who want the exact same thing as you do. And there's more by the minute. You have to accept that there's a large part of luck in the success of any game: Angry Birds or 2048 are objectively shit games that can be written in 2 hours, they have completely broken mechanics, but they are successful while gems while get ignored by the masses. The highlight is that you don't need to be recognized by the masses to be

I think the video implies that if you have a taste (ANY taste, no "better" or "worse" applies here) then with work, you can create good things. Most people don't have a taste in most fields (they don't care), and most people who does have a taste in something don't have the willpower or ability to work in that field. That's why there are only a few creating people.

The only flaw I see in the video is that it simplifies the thing and says you only need to work and that you only need to know WHAT is good. But you have to be effective otherwise you will never be able to make anything in an acceptable time frame. That ineffectiveness and no feel of success will eventually make you give up. Knowing the HOW and WHY will shorten the time you need to create something you like.

Just two examples:

I have a taste in music (not better than anybody else has, but at least I care, and I don't use it only as some background noise). I have a quite strong taste in drumming (I play those). I can pretty easily decide what is good and what is not. But most of the time I don't know how any why. This means that during five years of playing in one band which plays music that I could like, there were only 1 or 2 drum themes I thought were okay. I just didn't have the willpower to put 3-5 hours a day into drumming. I started to play again, the best I can think of is making some random drum theme generator and deciding it there's accidentally something good along those themes (process has to be repeated for every music themes of course).

With Lego model design: I have a taste (I don't like some model because just because it's big or functional etc), but I build so slowly and ineffectively that it takes months to make a small model I can call okay (it will still have many flaws).

graphomania over

What are some of the ways that you prioritize or cut projects?

I'm actually planning on flipping a coin in two weeks and devoting the summer to the result. Not even joking.

I have two in-process projects and a third I'm considering, so it may not end up being an actual coin, but the point is that if I can't decide in a timely manner, I'll offload the responsibility to something that can. I work full time as a software engineer and I'm going to grad school at night, so I can't afford to waste an entire summer of free nights and weekends foolishly trying to make the decision myself (as clearly I find all three ideas equally interesting, else I'd have decided already).

Personally I feel like giving up quite a lot, when I watch a video of the likes of John Carmack or Tim Sweeney or some other technical guru or I see some tech demo or new game trailer, or even just trying to keep up with all the latest tech and software happenings, it quite disheartening as I know I am so far away from that understanding of coding and art.

But I seem to bounce back also and just keep grinding away hopefully things will start to really come together sometime, although I haven't really been doing this for very long. I have tinkered away with coding for years, but it's all just a huge learning curve. I starting off on the programming side of things and am now moving over to level design now that U4 is out. The level design really requires you to be an architect, a lighting engineer, a scripter and a fun gameplay designer, so it's no easy task but it's a lot less stressful than trying to learn 3D transformations or Ray tracing alogorithms and the like. Totally different areas of your brain.

I suggest choosing the project which is most likely for you to see through to completion. This essentially consists of two things: motivation and scope. It needs to be a project that you really want to see completed, and at the same time it needs to be within your scope in terms of required work hours, resources, cost, etc. Choosing to focus on one project to complete does not mean you have to put a halt to thinking of ideas for other games. Just write those ideas down and file them away for the future.

I differentiate "projects" from "prototypes": I will build any number of prototypes, but each one is in a very specific timebox (usually 5-15 hours of work total). Once I have a prototype that screams "this needs to be finished", it's much easier for me to focus on that as my "one project" until it's ready - then, back to prototyping mode!

My recent project Smash and Dash was initially built as a 3-hour prototype. It turned out really fun, so I decided to build it but I strictly timeboxed it as an 80-hour project, which let me finish and release it in the same month! Doesn't mean the game is "as finished as it will ever be" - just that it's finished enough to release version 1.0, and I can continue with it as I see fit.

So for me, very strict timeboxing coupled with a "lots of prototypes lead to one project" mentality helps me keep Too Many Projects Syndrome at bay.

JBourrie thats not a bad idea. Crank out some prototypes and go from there.

http://zurb.com/article/744/steve-jobs-innovation-is-saying-no-to-1-0

Just keep on working on it. I'm in no position to talk since I also don't have a finely polished, finished project to show either but I also started out 2, 3 times, gave it some shape and dumped it later (and those were good decisions). However I'm working on my current project for years now and on a constant basis even though I don't really have time for it. Parts of it leave the "yeah, yeah I'll finish it sometime"-stage and slowly grow to the "finished"-stage. Sometime along the working process stuff simply fell together and it became clear what I wanted to do.

Consider your work an investment. You don't know for sure whether there will be good fruit or not but you know that it's worth investing in.

Just keep working.