and it was exhausting

This email is a reality check that, sooner or later, we have to face as game creators.

I’m going to quote Aureus, creator of Roadwarden, who put it very clearly in an interview:

I prefer to avoid a lot of preparation before writing, and instead discover and explore as I go—and that’s terrible for video games. I wrote quite a large chunk of the game having only a few vague concepts in mind, and that did wonders when it came to throwing new hooks at the player or adding more mysteries to the world. And as time went on, the more the stories in the game felt detached and nonsensical, with no end in sight.

I had to tell myself to stop and tie things together. I spent months updating not just the script, but also the code, the illustrations, and the game systems.

And then, indeed, work went much faster. Using my previous experience and the clear goal in sight, I started adapting old areas, writing [about] new settlements in a much shorter time, and adding more answers than questions. The game had its skeleton, I just had to add the flesh to it.

And it was boring.

Since I already knew what specific characters ought to do for the story, I just wanted to be done with them and get back to planning new, weird things. In other words, I got better results the more I worked against my nature. And it was exhausting.

I think that in one way or another, all creative disciplines have this situation, but in video games, at least for me, it’s brutal.

Especially because it can last for years if the video game is big enough.

This resonates a lot because I’m currently in that moment with Dance of the Spirits: things are taking shape, but it takes a brutal effort to get through the boring parts.

And well, not everything can be fun and games.

To not end it in a sad note:

If you’re in this situation, get together with other people, play your game with them, a little praise/feedback helps move things forward.