I've been working on this game for what feels like forever and I'm starting to lose steam. You know how it is - staring at the same code and assets day after day can really drain your enthusiasm. How do you all keep your motivation up when you're knee-deep in a long project? I've tried taking breaks, but I'm worried about losing momentum. Any tips or tricks you use to stay pumped about your work, especially when the finish line seems so far away?

Rather than telling an advice, Iet me rather put myself in the subject based on my experience. Of course, this is how I see it, so it can be different on how people (and you) see or deal with their morale problems.

In context of making a game as a hobby, if taking breaks make me worry on losing the momentum, that means I'm not enjoying the process. It's the situation where I will expect my game to be as perfect as I can. My expectation soars sky high time to time, and then I realized the reality kicks in and I start to lose power, and boom, I stopped. Sometimes if not careful, this carries out with ever-expanding project scope, which made me just want to scrap it off to recycle bin. It's the “I want to finish this game ASAP because I'm so tired of it so I can create my next super exciting dream game” loop moment.

So what is this, really? In my opinion, it's when it feels like a job. There's this feeling of “responsibility” to finish it. The hype is over, all that's left is work. Labor. Oh, I surely do want it to finish, but the need and want begin to merge, and that's when joy and obligation start tomess up.

Okay, so I asked to myself. So what if I can't finish it? If I have to reply against this ("duh, because I have to!"), then the answer is clear; I feel obligated to finish it. Feeling obligated means I got to do it, like it or not. That's when the energy starts going out of me. If I'm having fun, do I even care when it will be finished? Last time I checked, the last 20% of each of my game is up to me on when I should stop, just like when I create my 2D/3D/music contents, individually or for the games. Remember, it's as a hobby, not to deliver based on a deadline for my boss(es)/client(s)/user(s).

There's a reason why burnouts exist. People who work on art, got popular, then stop working on it when there are expectations from their fans that they can't keep up then just take a break from all of it. The obligation to keep up with those expectations are tiring, even though it feels great to have anyone to have attention to what they create. It's even more tiring when the fans expect something that the artists/developers consider boring and not even what they like to do, but it's simply popular demand. Success isn't always equal to joy, it's mostly hardwork. They reach the top and some don't feel like they're happy. I wonder why. It's what they dream, right? That's right. Expectation kicks in, or at least that's what I believe.

Do I want to succeed, or do I just want to have fun? The answer to this will determine how tiring it can be to finish the game for me. If it is tiring, is it worth all my energy to do it? If it is meant for success, then it's definitely worth die trying.

If it's just for fun, I wouldn't worry about me getting tired or not. It's that moment when I discover tiny little thing in coding/content creation and suddenly went hyped for a few days to do it just because I feel the “eureka” moment despite of it already exist somewhere out there. Sometimes, the game is finished after that.

Too Long; Didn't Read (TL;DR)
For success? Work hard/smart to finish it, there's no shortcut.
For fun? You probably won't even ask this question because you're currently having fun. Maybe, it will finish anyway in the end.