Shipping beats perfect

I've done a bunch of game jams over the years. A space shooter for libgdxjam, a 64x64 walking simulator for LOWREZJAM, a decaycore dungeon crawler, others I've probably forgotten. The scope always starts ambitious and the result is always smaller than planned.

That's the point. You don't enter a jam to make something good. You enter to make something done.

The first jam I did, I had plans for multiple weapons, enemy types, levels. What I shipped was one weapon, one enemy, no tutorial. I stopped trying to make each piece good and just put things on screen. 15 minutes per art asset, max. The result was rough, but it existed.

Every jam since has reinforced the same thing. Finishing teaches you things that planning never will. You learn what actually matters by cutting what doesn't.

That loop works outside of games too. This site was built the same way. Ugly first, then less ugly, then maybe good. The alternative is nothing.

Nobody ever learned anything from a project that lives in their head.

Perfection is a form of procrastination that feels productive.