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The Power of A Goal

In my many months of messing around with Unity, I have started numerous projects, few of them to completion. I never seemed to understand why? I tried many approaches to the development of a game, some I "just winged it", others I planned everything down to how many hairs a character would have, but they all turned out the same, they all failed. Why? Lack of goals.

The only games I have officially released have all been game Jams, and they all had a deadline to meet. A quantifiable goal to work towards. This is key. For without a goal, we are a homing missile that has no target.

As a creative person, freedom is something that we require in order to be at our best, but without bite sized goals, it is easy to get overwhelmed by larger scale projects. How do we combat it? By using a tool that can enhance our productivity ten fold. A tool that can provide clarity through the mish mash of ideas being generated within our heads. A tool that can be used by everyone. A goal.

I'm sure you have all heard of S.M.A.R.T goals, well the key point to them is be specific. Don't just say, I want to finish my game. Give yourself a deadline. When do you want to finish your game? I want to release an early alpha to my game by 30th of May. That can provide you with so much more drive to actually finish it.

It doesn't just end there. Break everything down into bite sized chunks, things that can take less than 30 minutes to achieve. For example when you want to create a character for your game, don't just have "Create character" as your goal. Break it down into parts, draw 3 concept sketches of character, 3d model character, texture character. It can really help to make things seem more achievable. It keeps momentum going, which when working on big projects is really key!

 I like to use an App called ToDoIst which can really help me to break down my projects into smaller goals.

https://todoist.com

As a last bit of motivation, get out there and do something creative. Something that gives you a great sense of joy. Start it today, whether it is go down to the park and try your hands at some nature photography, or modelling something out of clay. Get your hands on something creative. You'll never regret it.



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