I am looking at the holiday break coming up and it's not going to be enough time to probably finish my Stupid Indie Game. One of the problems of being perpetually 90% done is the last 10% is like 50% of the effort. I'm at a stage where I am just trying to complete a play-through without a softlock or major bugs, then cut a build from that, then release this miserable thing.
I remember this point last year, where I tried to make major headway in it. I didn't get far in the 2 weeks I had. And in the preceding year it feels like I strung together all the little broken systems and then ironed out some of the remaining major issues.
Two years ago around this time I was trying to cut a minimum build and release it before I started a new gig, because I was worried they wouldn't let me work on it. It was very busted, and that didn't go very well. I had to wait until after the holidays for my job side-work agreement to clear in order to start working on it again. It sucked. I had planned to release it then, but then I shipped a AAA game. I had hoped that post release I'd have some more mental space to do so, but then they stuck me onto live-season crunch, and I burned out, and I've spent months in minimum maintenance mode just trying to sit down and work through the game's issues.
Work saps so much from me, and then I have chores and other shit to do, that finding even an hour a week to work on it is difficult. I don't feel bad though, whenever I spend an evening playing fortnite, because social interactions and playtime is just as important.
but I can't help but think that every year for the past like 3 years my resolution is to finish it by year's end, and then stuff happens and I don't.