Gaming making problems

This may not be the right area to type this, if so I apologize in advance.

           A little bit of history, I've worked several years on my game projects , employed many of the artists on the forums(some of you may remember me, I have very vague requests and lots of needs) and encountered multiple of problems, you know standard gaming making stuff... although I never finished a project.

           I've rebooted my projects several times rewriting months of dialogue and recommissioning tons of new art that I don't even necessarily need. Eventually this piles up to a lot of resources and time(I don't want to talk about how much), and even though I couldn't reach my goal (my most recent attempt was too large scale and there was lack of availability among scriptors), I find myself drawn to create another game. I tell myself I want to quit so many times but I just have a dream to create a successful game(at least get back what I spent, if not more) and it haunts me to not be able to do it.

TDLR – I failed to finish a lot of games but I still want to make more. What should I do?

Pick one of your ideas and stick to it. Start with a simpler game. Plan ahead everything you want the game to have and avoid adding/changing plans later.

Find people interested on your game and chat with them about it frequently, try to get feedback on things you do. Show your progress to the community. Set small goals often.

If I think on something else I'll edit it here.

I agree plan something small. Maybe an hour. Use resources freely available, or any store packs you may already have. Reuse the artwork and such you've already commissioned.

Finishing a project, no matter how small, can be a great motivator for the sense of accomplishment it brings.

Planning isnt really a problem, its more of being unsatisfied with the results(art wise and story wise). You can only get so far with what you have and your image may not be the same as that of (the artist/me). 

I've never really shown my progress because i just never think its ready.

-- I'm never set on a story, I like to keep improving it if I can, as much as I can.

I still think creating a small, short game might help. But, if not, then I'm really not sure what to tell you if the problem is never being satisfied.

One thing I've noticed is with a game (or any other thing), you're never going to be 100% satisfied with it, as it will never be perfect. Instead, you will need to set some deadline or goal or something and say "Once I hit this, it's done".

Personally, for me the IGMC was a big help, as it gave me a 30 day deadline to release my game by. Whatever I had by then I had to just live with it, and you know what? Some people liked it. So you don't need perfect for others to like it. Maybe you could do something similar, by setting a deadline date to release a demo by, and what you got by then, you live with? Maybe that would work for you?

Well, you can do what I've historically done.

New ideas go into notebooks and notecards and word documents.  They don't go into RPG Maker as New Projects.  If an idea is interesting enough for my current project, I try to find a way to fit it in (or fit it in with other existing project ideas).  I leave just one project up at a time.  It stays up.  I don't deviate from it.  If I open RPG Maker, I work on the existing project.

If you absolutely must do something else for a while, create a "Test Map".  The purpose of "Test Map" or "Test Project" is to tinker with the systems and with characters without actually making a new game (9 times out of 10, the reason you quit work on a project is because you just want to play around with the systems in the maker you enjoy, and aren't interested in some of them that revolve around things you personally do not enjoy, so you make a new project to go back to messing with the things you enjoy.  You must resist this, or only do this in Test Projects or Test Maps where that progress won't be saved, or at least, won't be a new project to work on, just a collection of vague ideas).

It's very difficult to stay on task (I have issues with this), but by making sure I'm only working on a single project at a time, I have made considerable headway in my initial project, even if it has taken me 2+ years to get where I am (which isn't even close to a demo).  Sticking to that one project has helped immensely.  It has kept me on task when I have opened the program, and kept me from straying on to start other and newer things.

Also, it helps to work on a current project at least 3 hours a week.  Commit to that 3 hours.  Preferably all at once.  Find someplace it fits, and leave it there.  Make sure it's the same 3 hours every week if possible.  But, if it becomes habit and scheduled, you're more likely to think about it, work on it, and not quit the project.  Beware of burn-out, but try not to allow more than two weeks of no work to go by without doing something in your project.

I hope that helps.

Maybe this is your main mistake? You basically trying to make a full, complete game without showing the concepts and ideas to your player base. What if your project's foundation is flawed? Or the problems are in additional features, which don't fit with your general concept? You can't tell, because no one can actually test these things separately. In fact no one tests the whole game except you and few people that work with you.

So, my opinion - you should try to show what you had accomplished (or not accomplished) to other people (of cause it's not easy too, because not many people will be interested in your project) and try to understand, what's wrong and how you can improve.

It really does sound like you need to cut yourself some slack and try to reach a smaller goal.  Try making something that you think is 'okay' not 'good' for the first thing, you'll nearly always think worse of your game than everyone else does, but I don't think there's ever been a developer who's released a game they have a passion for (one that isn't a cash-grab basically) who has also been even 75% happy with their project.  We're our own worse critics and that's particularly true a phenomenon in game development.

Got a possible idea for you if you still find yourself stuck: make a short 10-20 minutes long game with no custom assets (that you don't already own licenses for), show it on the various forum threads on the way but don't spend too much time procrastinating and then release it and see what you did right and wrong.  A lot of people don't manage to finish their games on here and it's mainly due to: motivation, lack of resources and giving themselves overly high standards/ambitions too early on.

Try a ludum dare or other small contest. Make it an aim to just get something out there and released. I was having the same trouble, so I made an effort to make sure my game got released. It's an awful game, but it's playable, and the realisation that you can do it pushes you onwards for your real projects.

Every game that has ever been made has problems.

You just got to accept that your game will always have faults no matter how hard you try.

Trying your best to make a good game is different then trying to make a perfect game (perfection will never be achieved).

Since you have experience with lots of project (and know how long it takes to generally do something), I suggest setting deadlines for work on a game.  

I don't mean a deadline for the whole game but separate parts (get this map done today, setup this bossfight by Sunday, etc).  When a deadline is reached, go on to the next part that you should work on and do not look back at past work.

After you get some progress setup a deadline to go back and fix past mistakes/problems/etc for a particular part of the game (ex:look over water dungeon and fix problems/unfinished parts by next Sunday).  And after the deadline is reached move on to another part without looking back.

If you want to go over and fix something again after the initial pass for fixes, give yourself a smaller time frame to go over the problems (and keep shrinking it each time). (this will make you reluctant to go back and fix minor things or things that are not really high priority)

This will take discipline to do (which is needed to get a complete game out anyway), but it will help with you actually get a game out (Even if it ends up not being the best game is will still be better then nothing ever being released).

You should also consider that many famous game creators of beloved franchises are unhappy with game that they finish (feel segments should be improved, expanded on, or the like).  This is despite lots and lots of people loving the game that they made.

Nobody knows the flaws of a game more then the creator of it, but lots of these flaws will probably be ignored by the playerbase for being too nitpicky (it being fun is the most important thing).

My brother is going through this same thing, he wants to start over. I this this quote above best explain what I am trying to say. If a project is too grand make it smaller.

From what everyone's said, I'll probably work on a smaller project once I have time. We'll see how it goes.