Are You Building Your Game on the Sand?
Jesus told the story of a man who built his house upon some sand (Mathew 7:24-27). We don’t know much about him or the house—it could be that he dreamed of building it his entire life, or maybe he heard a word from the Lord. If we had seen him earlier in life, we may have seen him studying plans, sketching designs, scouting sites, and driving everyone around him crazy by talking about how great it would be.
Regardless of the details of the man, the beauty of the house, or how much effort and resources went into its construction, things turned out differently than he had planned. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.
Hopefully, this story was merely an illustration, and no one was injured when the house collapsed. Nevertheless, these types of failures can cause injuries to ourselves and those in proximity. Ask those who have worked on failed games or lived through a studio collapse.
No one sets out to fail; we all start building with the best intentions and confidence in our success. However, sometimes, things happen along the way that unknowingly sabotages our project—little things that go undetected or dismissed until we see them in hindsight and realize what happened.
Here are thirty characteristics of failed projects that I’ve experienced or witnessed throughout my career. Use it as a spot-check while building your game, and hopefully, you can help avoid disaster.
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Unrealistic timeline
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Unrealistic budget
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Building multiple games at the same time
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Relying on volunteer labor
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Hoping someone will build your game for you
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Misappropriating a promise of God
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Trying to build a AAA game
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Not having a marketing plan
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Leaving marketing to the last minute
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Betting your family’s future on the success of the game
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Not having a backup strategy
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Not seeking advice
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Not validating your target audience
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Refusing to listen to feedback
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Unwilling to define goals
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Working in isolation
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Not trusting your teammates
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Not empowering your teammates
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No clear direction
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The design lives in a single person’s head
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Unwilling to edit or cut ideas
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Prideful about investment/publishing deal
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Prideful about press coverage
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Prideful about past success
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Distracted by the shiny
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Working in your own strength
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Neglecting your family
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Neglecting your health
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Scaling too quickly
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Not spending enough time in pre-production
