Can't Seem to Finish a Game?

If you're an indie game developer, especially a new one, chances are you're having trouble finishing a game. You have lots of ideas, and plenty of content, yet, you just can't seem to stay focused long enough to finish. Or the game grows to big, too quickly, and becomes very overwhelming. Well, if this is the case, then here's a neat little trick you can do to help, a little.

All you have to do is "charge" yourself for work. Force yourself to give up a dollar or so for each feature you add to the game. Put it all into a jar, which you cannot collect from until the game is finished. No matter how big or small a feature is, you must pay for it. Some features that take longer to implement, cost more, while quick changes cost less. If you have a friend, have them hold onto it to stop you from losing will power and giving up, too soon.

How does that help? Like this.

1. This helps slow down the rate of small useless features, and forces you to focus more on the important ones.
2. By investing so much money, especially in larger games, you cause yourself to be more inclined to put your money to use, and feel more rewarded when a feature is finished, and works well.
3. When the game is done, you get everything in the pot. Which can be quite a bit if the game took a long time to finish. A nice little reward to look forward to when you call the game done.
4. When you get into making larger and larger games, paying others for features will start to become a common thing. This gets you used to it, early on.
5. You get a better feel for how time is important, and wasting time on useless features, can waste a lot of money.
6. You'll start to plan out features ahead of time, to judge their importance and difficulty to implement. This is critical for most games to be successful.

So all-in-all, this may or may not help you. But, it's worth a shot.

Also, don't cheat. Charge feature fairly, and don't sneak money from your jar. You'll only be cheating yourself, and not helping anything.

If you can get a friend to help, do so. Make them hold onto the cash, and if possible, even set the prices. This will help keep you in check.