why games are hard to finish

A198_ has made a good point and I would like to address that.

"you rarely see a complete game, a good game, a I want it to be complete, bug-free, and enjoyable to play"

In my view it's primarily because we are doing it solo, and there is burn-out. A coder can only go so far intensely working on a project before they realize it's interfering with normal life, and they have to put it down. But to put it down means you might not want to go back to it if you left it in a dangly-state and can't remember what you were doing. So you finish it to doable point and stop.

Personally I have not done group projects before, but I see the value now. There is both a mediating effect and group energy to keep going. Also you have people to share the results so far. microStudio is intentionally designed to share your projects once you release them, so everything is a group project in a way already.

On another note, the platform doesn't really support bigbig projects, in that debugging gets difficult here with lots of code. One little typo or misplaced scope and it's a blank screen or pages of errors. Personally I uses classes and objects to keep variables together and it helps, but it takes more forethought.

So I am saying that really complete games of any size, likely takes more than one person to accomplish.

Just thug it out, do something you love, and take breaks for every time you’re about to add something

Yes mrderry, I know, I'm still working on the same project after almost two years. I had to redo it about four times, sometimes because I realized the variable names were annoying, or because I forgot what each thing did after picking it up again. I literally reached level 52 with just that one project, and it's still not finished

And all this with only a little programming knowledge. Imagine what it's like for others who don't have any basic understanding:

• They don't know how each programming element works
• They don't know that objects aren't actually inside other objects; they're all references
• They don't know how to keep everything organized. I remember helping other people with projects, and it was a real headache because they had like 100 variables scattered throughout the project, and I'd think: Ahhh boy.. I wonder how this project will end 💀
• Sometimes they get confused with the names of their own variables
• They're not used to using math or physics when programming

And well, I don't blame them at all. I didn't know any of that when I started either, and I'm still seeing new things. But I still say that learning all this on your own takes time

But the biggest problem I've encountered so far is when I get stuck creatively, or I don't know what to do next with the project. The ideas are there, but I don't feel like applying them, maybe because the project is too big. It's not like at the beginning when you only had about 3 objects, 10 functions, and that was it. So for now, I'm taking a break from the project

And also, doing all of that alone. You have to figure out the programming, the art, the music, the history, the ideas, etc., on your own. So, besides knowing how to program, you also have to know how to use drawing and music applications. And even if you know everything, it can still be exhausting (and let's not even talk about how certain things don't work well in Microstudio, like the music). Also, finding a team that shares the same vision can be complicated, especially if you tell them they have to program in microscript lmao

Even so, I'd say it's not impossible to finish a game alone; others have done it too. But it's still difficult and takes time. So yes, it's highly recommended to look for a team if possible

But, if someone is just starting out and reading this, I'd recommend starting with a simple, cheap game and then gradually improving it, don't try to start with something too big; so you can learn to use basic mechanics

Generally, I almost never manage to finish my projects, even if I have excellent ideas, because either it takes too long and I give up, or I'm not good at drawing sprites, or I don't have the necessary programming skills (for example, for 3D games). But I'm improving little by little. And it's working out pretty well, and besides, I tell myself that my games wouldn't interest anyone, so what's the point!