This is a small post with only a couple of thoughts that I had a hard time placing anywhere else specifically. I decided to just make a separate post for them because I associate them with the end of a production cycle. If there are things that you get to experience or notice when you ended a project, then please share!
Over-burn and the price you pay. There are many talented individuals who do other things besides studying game development. And we all have a life outside of our studies. The trick is to find your balance. If you juggle several cross-disciplinary projects then you risk going into an over-burn mode and this has a high chance of ending badly for both the individuals in question and those around them. Take one or two things at a time, because if you have too many balls in the air, if one of them explodes in your face, then this may cause a chain reaction that could potentially cause harm to both mental and physical health. It is painful to see someone talented leave because their body gives up from the overload of things. You want to feel well to make your games, don’t you?
Feeling ashamed of your game. Argh, this one is painful… Remember, that we are all student here and this is an education. This is the time to fail. It’s ok to feel dissatisfied with the results you have delivered. It is not ok to feel ashamed. If you are ashamed of your game, this is most likely an evidence of something being wrong within your group (the disharmony). Talk to your group about your dissatisfaction, map the weak points of delivery with the team members and move on to the next project. You still managed to create something in a short period of time. Some companies (not mentioning any names…) managed to deliver bigger turds while having huge budgets and bigger time frames. You are definitely not the worst in the world and not even the lowest tier.
And if you feel like telling people about your feeling, just be mindful of the environment where you share your low opinion of your creation. Someone who is playing your game or is about to play your game might overhear and that might damage their opinion.
Losing a member makes people sympathise with one’s group? Not sure why that is, but it seems that people sympathise highly with team members who have taken losses. Could this be connected to the value of the game rising in their eyes as they re-evaluate and redistribute the load of disciplines in their mind? So, if you want people to make an accurate judgement of the game you made, don’t be embraced to tell that this isn’t a work of X people, but of X minus X.
lostingame.design 