Late last year, I wrote about embracing failure. Specifically, I wrote about how I was trying make a small video game every month of 2013 — and how I was totally going to fail in that attempt.
But then in January, thanks to the Global Game Jam and some really talented partners, I dodged that month’s failure bullet and whipped up Drakkenhart, a short platformer. “This isn’t so hard!” I thought. “Maybe I don’t have to fail quite so often!”
Fast-forward to the end of February. I had a game. Sort of. Okay, I had a video game mechanic that mostly worked, but no levels, story, or coherent vision aside from “Move the thing and shoot the bullets!!!”
I considered releasing it anyway. After all, there’s no panel of judges for One Game a Month, no one to point out that it was unfinished, poorly animated, and smelled like something left in the toaster too long.
But I would know. And I didn’t want something I wasn’t proud of lurching and shambling around out there in the world with my name on it.
Sometimes, you have to take down the “Mission Accomplished” banner, stick it back in the box for a bit and say, “Nope. Not good enough. Not yet.”
Sometimes, you have to embrace the failure.
Of course, now that February’s failure is good and embraced, that means March’s game is well on its way already. It’s got a mechanic that mostly works! And poor animations! And that newly-burned toast smell the kids love!
If that’s not a formula for success, I don’t know what is.
