Why Journaling Beats Starting Over: A Postmortem
Cosmic Critters: A Postmortem on Starting Over (And Over, And Over…)
“Cosmic Critters,” a quirky indie game about space-faring hamsters, is dead.
After a year of passionate, yet ultimately chaotic, development, we pulled the plug.
It’s a painful decision, but necessary.
The postmortem isn’t pretty, but hopefully, it’s instructive. Our biggest mistake? A chronic lack of journaling. We kept “starting over” because we kept forgetting what we’d already tried.
The Black Hole of Lost Ideas
Our initial concept for “Cosmic Critters” was solid: a charming roguelike with resource management and adorable characters.
But somewhere along the way, scope creep set in.
New features were constantly being suggested, implemented, and then, frustratingly, often scrapped weeks later.
Why?
Because we weren’t documenting our design decisions. Someone would suggest a new mechanic, it would sound cool in the moment, and we’d blindly implement it.
Later, someone else (or even the same person!) would realize it didn’t fit the core gameplay, but without a record of the original reasoning, it was hard to argue against its inclusion.
We’d debate the same points repeatedly.
A simple game dev journal documenting the pros and cons of each feature, along with the rationale behind its initial implementation or eventual removal, would have saved us weeks of wasted time.
The Playtest Feedback Graveyard
We did conduct playtests.
That’s the good news.
The bad news? The feedback vanished into the ether. We collected valuable insights from players, but without a centralized repository, it was nearly impossible to track trends or prioritize changes.
We’d get similar comments week after week about the clunky UI, for example, but because each playtest was treated as a separate event, the urgency never truly registered.
A game development log detailing playtest sessions, key observations, and action items would have highlighted these recurring issues and forced us to address them earlier in the development cycle.
Imagine the players’ frustration when they saw the same bugs in the next build.
The Coding Quagmire: Reinventing the Wheel
Coding was another area plagued by our lack of documentation.
Complex systems were built, then refactored, then… partially reverted to their original state after realizing the “improvements” broke something else.
Without a proper record of the code’s evolution, we were constantly reinventing the wheel, debugging issues we’d already solved, and introducing new bugs in the process.
A coding journal tracking changes, challenges, and solutions would have provided invaluable context and prevented us from repeating past mistakes. We could have tracked down what we were doing and when, and what the result was.
The “Start Over” Mentality: A False Sense of Progress
The constant cycle of adding, removing, and re-adding features fostered a “start over” mentality.
We felt like we were making progress because we were doing things, but in reality, we were just spinning our wheels.
We weren’t tracking game development progress.
Each “start over” felt like a fresh beginning, a chance to get things right this time.
But without learning from our past mistakes, we were doomed to repeat them.
How to Break the Cycle: Embrace the Game Dev Journal
So, what’s the solution? Simple: start journaling. Here’s how to implement a project journal into your game dev workflow:
- Establish a Regular Journaling Habit: Dedicate a specific time each day or week to record your progress, challenges, and ideas. Treat it like a mandatory meeting with yourself.
- Create Templates for Different Development Phases: Design separate templates for design decisions, playtest feedback, coding challenges, and marketing efforts. This will help you stay organized and focused.
- Be Brutally Honest: Don’t sugarcoat your failures. A journal is a safe space to acknowledge mistakes and learn from them.
- Review Your Journal Regularly: Schedule time to analyze your past entries, identify recurring patterns, and track your overall progress.
- Automate and Streamline: Use software that automatically logs check ins, pull requests, and build publishes.
Avoid the Cosmic Critters Curse
“Cosmic Critters” is a cautionary tale. We learned the hard way that consistent journaling isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s essential for avoiding the “start over” trap and building a successful indie game.
Don’t repeat our mistakes.
Start tracking your game development progress today.
To avoid the fate of Cosmic Critters, try Project Journal: Your Key to Indie Game Dev Success for free, and start documenting your journey today!