#16 | 14-09-24 | Postmortem Addendum

Hello.

It's been a few days since I decided to end the project and wrote my postmortem. This addendum will cover a few more thoughts I've had since then.

During the development of "Dead Alert" and "Hit That Target!", I found the amount of work needed to get to the release version of those projects quite intimidating. There would be three major milestones I'd need to pass before that version: MVP (minimum viable product), Alpha and Beta. At these stages, I would need to gather testers which I found to be a major challenge. Who's gonna want to test an unknown game by an unknown developer? All three stages would have many tasks that needed to be completed.

My current thought is that if I modify my approach to development, I can mitigate the risk of burnout and self-hate of the project.

The new approach is as follows:

• One pre-release version, MVP (contains only core mechanics)
• Release version is minimal expansion on the MVP
• Post-release versions contain the extra game features
• Balance other hobbies and school / work with game dev

My biggest source of frustration when working on these last two projects was there being a mountain of self-imposed work before the release version, the finish line. By reducing the amount of work needed for the release version and not spending all my free time working on projects, I can reduce the risk of burnout and keep motivation high.

I also didn't have a plan for the projects after the release version was finished. I thought at that point, I should start another project and keep the cycle going. That's great for practice, but not for creating a long lasting game.

I've also figured out a good way gather game testers and feedback. Instead of focusing my efforts on finding people online to provide feedback, I should focus my effort on getting those I know (family, friends, coworkers) to help in person. In some ways, it's easier to talk to people in real life than through a screen or messaging board.

At the time of writing this, I have another idea for a game that will combine two of my favorite hobbies. I'll announce it on a separate blog page on this site as well as on Twitter. I might create a Facebook account and page for this too.

Thanks for reading!