Starting a project is easy. You've got Flash, a ton of ideas, and you know how to animate and code. Now for the hard part: finishing your project. Many developers (including myself) have tons of half finished projects sitting around that may never get finished, and here are some tips on how to see your ideas through to completion.

Start with something small. If you shoot for the sky on your first try, there's a good chance your project will not get done and will do nothing more than collect dust. Once you get some easy things done, you can put them out there which feels great, and you can use the community feedback to improve your next bigger project.

Write down your ideas. Many Flash creators are doing it for fun, so you probably want to just dive in and play with Flash. However, you're probably also doing it to get it done and out there for the world to enjoy. Putting your thoughts on paper or in a text file can keep you focused on what your goals are and how close you are to completion which can keep you motivated during those tough times when you can't seem to get that drawing to look just right or that bug seems to keep eluding you.

Keep the scope of the project under control. Coming up with interesting ideas is the easy part. Limiting your ideas to just a handful of the best and rejecting some of your cool ideas is hard. Developers frequently face a problem called scope creep where the brainstorming and prototyping phases never really end, the goals keep getting bigger and bigger, and the release date keeps getting pushed back further and further until it becomes known as vaporware. At some point you have to commit to a goal and a vital few of your ideas. Keep writing down your other ideas, as some of them might be able to get into this release or some of them you may be able to combine into a sequel.

Cost vs Benefit Try to evaluate possible features in terms of how much work it will take to implement versus how many people will enjoy that feature and by how much. In most cases quick and easy features that will polish the game in subtle but major ways are probably worth the effort, whereas massive undertakings that only you and your closest buddies will even get probably need to be tossed. This little formula can help you keep the scope fun and reasonable.

On a more personal note, I had tons of half finished projects that are all completely gone now because my computer was stolen. Now I have a renewed focus on getting my games out there with the realization that my time is valuable and finite, so when I'm staying up until 2am furiously coding away I know that my efforts will all be worth it when I get to click that upload button.
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EntropicOrder has been developing Flash games since 1998. Check out my latest game Buried Alive! It's a challenging Tetris-inspired action/puzzle game with 6 unique levels and bosses. I definitely had to use the techniques described above with this game as it would have taken twice as long to make otherwise. Here's a little preview of my next game in the works.