A lot of my latest work on Nerepis has been fine-tuning the more interesting features of the game which are outside of the “core” experience. It’s certainly been a labour of love. I get up very early in the morning and do my best to move the game closer to what I want to implement. I then work all day and try to put in another hour of work in the evening. The amazing thing is that it rarely feels like a chore working on this. I’ll be honest though, there are some features which can feel like a grind. But generally, I’m happy to work away at solving new problems or just fine-tuning the game.
My last few weeks have been adding new features and it’s pretty safe to say that those features are largely implemented but not bug-free and must be tuned. I can tell you though, that everything I wanted to put in the game, is now in the game. Once these features have passed my tests for quality, I can then finish production. Production work is where I seem to have the most fun because I get really creative. Essentially, my strategy is to ensure my production work meets a level of quality for which I’m aiming for. If not, I’ll consider either pulling the asset or determine how I can add value into it.
This methodology works for any asset you add into a game. If the animation/level/character isn’t quite right, don’t remove the asset, you can come back to it later. Where you need to make a final decision is when you are getting ready for a release which could be months or years away.