I just spent about an hour trawling through loads of project threads and the like here, and I'm starting to find it depressing how many of them die out through lack of time. Another recurring theme appears to be developers disappearing on holidays...
 

Anyway fearing the health of my own project, I appeal to the superior wisdom of you who actually manage to complete your projects to find out just what it takes to see an idea all the way through 

(N.B. I did a search to see if this has been done before but the search was buggy so I'm not sure  )

Funny thing is, coding always throws up crazy problems. I guess experience really helps there.

 

Funny thing is, coding always throws up crazy problems. I guess experience really helps there.

 

true, but finding out what is going wrong can be fun.
I dont know if it occurs often, but I think some poeple may get so frusterated with a project that they quit. In this case, take a break and come back with your mind refreshed, it definately helps. good planning also helps alot, I learned that the hard way.

To make sure a project won't die, you have to be motivated to work on it. The way I do this is by switching between level design and programming the engine (this tactic only works when programming games). I first start creating a lot of the engine, untill it can load a simple level. Then when I start to get bored on the engine, I start creating a level. Then I start adding more things to the level, untill I reach a point where something I want to put in it isn't supported by the engine. After designing or improving the level, play it. Then you really see the progress you made, you'll see it a lot better then when you're only working on the engine, and the 'level' consists of only the thing you're working on. When I've seen the progress, I'm moivated again to continue working on the engine. then the cycle repeats and the level gets larger. The level keeps containing everything worked on so far. That way you see how far you have come, and this is what keeps you motivated. And if the engine is almost finished, then you can start creating the levels that will actually be in-game. If your project reaches this stage, you can be almost sure that it won't die before it gets finished.

some other tips to keep you motivated (based mostely on game design)
 - When you start to get bored, play The your game. Don't just test it, but play it. Have fun.
 - show your work to friends. This isn't only good to keep you motivated, but they can also give good comments on how to make it better.
 - When playing other games (or using simular software than the one you're making), look for inspiration. Look at some things and think "I can do that better in my game". Of yourse, don't copy, just look for inspiration, because it's hard to stay motivated on a project for which you have ran out of inspiration.

You can also work open-scource. Then if a project would die (which is still best to prevent), someone else might be able to use parts of it (for example AI, code for a menu, ...) or maybe even continue it. That way all your hard work wouldn't have been for nothing. But still, it's best to keep you motivated and keep working on it.

Well said Merthsoft. Also on Omnimaga (I don't know about Cemetech but I assume it's similar), certain projects such as text-only games or project threads with no screenshot ever will usually get few or no replies after a while. Same goes for games that have been done several times before. While you may not receive much criticism, it's best to try new stuff you can do and also stuff that will attract a good audience. This will keep you motivated to get comments. And of course those who comment needs to remain realistic too: Don't say stuff such as "Your game suxxorz cuz it has no grayscale 3D" in a TI-84 Plus Starcraft clone thread.

Also, motivation-wise, make sure to not write unnecessarily long walls of text for every project update. If you need to do so anyway, just bold the important stuff. Else, a lot of people will not even bother replying.