Every hobby project of mine has died the same way. Either it grew far more complex than I could handle, or a stressful stretch at work interrupted it — and if neither happened, I simply lost interest somewhere along the way.
This is my second attempt at getting around that problem.
Small milestones for a continuous project
Instead of starting the next big game with a new mechanic that might not even be fun, I build one long chain of tiny projects. Each one is just a little more complex than the one before, small enough to fit into any week, and finished when it is done — so every step delivers something that works and feels rewarding.
Step by step, the chain moves towards two things at once: learning, and eventually an actual fun game.
The Rules
The rules
- Every project starts from an existing one in the series.
- Every project adds exactly one new feature.
- Every project documents what I learned.
The very first project is the obvious exception to rule 1, so it starts as minimal as possible.
The German posts Der Plan für 2021 and Das Ein-Feature Framework describe the first run of this idea in more detail.
Comments