We all know the feeling of starting a new game project. We get an amazing idea, and that leads to more amazing ideas, and then even more. We’re excited, we’re energised. We start planning, we start working. We build the blocks that all of our amazing ideas can rest upon. And then, the realisation starts to set in. This amazing idea. . . It’s going to take years of hard work to execute the way we have it in our head. Potentially even longer when you factor in procrastination, and a full time job.

This has been my experience working on The Source. The initial idea came about in late 2022, and I spent about a year just slowly building up the game in my head. I had this idea of an amazing game, something that would be revolutionary. And when I started working on the game, I had that idea I built up in my mind as the target for this game. Obviously, that’s not how things are turning out.

You see, we often think of scope creep as something that comes during development, but it often can come before we even start developing games. We get an idea in our mind, and we want to make this amazing thing we have in our head, forgetting to consider whether we can even pull it off, or if we even want to pull it off. For me, The Source has become a shackle in many ways. I want to finish it. But with the end so far down the line, it makes me worried that I’ll never get to explore the other ideas that I have.

This is why scope creep is so dangerous. Not because large games with tonnes of features are bad, but because it takes a toll on us while we develop games. The original idea I had for The Source isn’t bad. In fact, I think that it would make for a really unique experience. But the only way to do what I wanted with The Source would be to have a whole team of developers working full time on it. And even then, it would still likely take years to develop.

There comes a time in each creative project where you have to be willing to kill your babies. You have to be willing to let go of some things in order to make something. It might ‘compromise’ your vision, but if you can find ways to still execute in a way that you’re happy with, you may find that it makes the game better. Getting rid of the fluff makes for a better experience much of the time.

This is what I’ve been doing with The Source the last couple of weeks. I’ve been going back through my plans, and figuring out what are the core, essential, parts of my game, and what I can remove while still keeping those core elements. Just from last week to now, the way I have planned for the game to turn out is drastically different. The game might be better, it might be worse, but the important part is that it will be. I can actually finish this, and I hope to have it done by the end of the year. It will still be tough. I will still likely have to cut content, and remove parts I think are cool. But I’m ready to do something else. And in order to that, I need to finish this game.

I hope you come along with me on the journey.