I always felt that trying to figure out mechanics from some of your favorite games and recreating them to be the best way to learn how to make stuff. You don't have to worry about coming up with a full fledged idea while learning how games are made, and you'll probably come up with something easier.

What engine are you planning on using and what kind of games do you want to make? Those two questions will help to find communities for you.

That's what I'm thinking! Some of the best music, movies, books, etc are depressing and games aren't any different!

I feel your pain. I've been "in the scene" for 21 years now and have but one roughly thrown together game released in 2009/2010 to show for it. So many projects started, but nothing to really show for it but endlessly rewritten prototypes.

Be excited with whatever sticks and make your dream!

I tend to get very distracted during longer sessions and my perfectionism often causes more problems than good, so this is has helped me tremendously with staying focused and planning ahead instead of getting caught in a loop of haphazardly rewriting and abstracting all of my game's functionality.

I think this is why I always stall when working on projects. As much as I love learning and implementing new and complex features that will benefit the project later on, I never get to a point where I have a functioning and fun prototype and makes me want to continue working on it.

That's kinda where I'm at right now, though I unfortunately don't get a lot of time to work on projects. I'm currently working on different systems and project structure in hopes it'll spark something up in this brain of mine. 😅

I've pretty much been in a stagnant game development hell since 2009, starting projects to never finish since releasing my first game. I have many ideas, but scope creep makes me feel like I need to start elsewhere. Currently I'm working structure & systems hoping it'll turn into something as I go.