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I want to make a game. A video game. A really cool video game. I've got an idea and it's going to be the best thing ever.
A video game needs an engine, so I need to choose one. Or build one? Commercial engines are big and scary, indie engines might limit my options, making my own engine is hard - I should investigate all of these options to make an informed choice. But wait, I can't make a decision like that without having a solid idea of the features and mechanics I want to implement. I need a comprehensive design doc with all of that laid out. Now should I have baked or dynamic lighting...
13-year-old omegastick didn't get much done.
I want to make a game. A video game. A really cool video game. I've got an idea and it's going to be the best thing ever.
But I tried that before and never got around to actually building it.
Okay, there's an easy fix for that, let's open Vim and get to typing. Drawing some sprites to the screen: not so hard. Mouse and keyboard input. Audio. Oof, UI, there goes three weeks. All right, at least we're ready for the core mechanics now. Oh, my graphics implementation is naive and performance is ass. No problem, I know how to optimize that, I've just got to untangle the spaghetti around GameEntityFactory. Wait, there's a memory leak?
20-year-old omegastick didn't get much done.