Finish It! Motivation & Processes For Game Developers Course

Learn the Tools & Techniques For Staying Motivated & Productive When Creating Video Games Or Apps.

Bestseller 4.7 (1,068 ratings) 17,486 students

Join 734,000 Strong Student Community

Get Teaching Assistant Support

Earn a Completion Certificate

Enjoy 30-Day Money-Back Promise

Lifetime Access to Course

Get plugged into our communities of amazing developers on Facebook (nearly 20k), in our own TA-curated Community (17k views/day), or our student chat group (10k live at any one time)

If you have a technical or creative project that you want to finish (or start!), this course will help you to identify why you are getting blocked, how to stay on track and ultimately help you FINISH IT (your project that is).

We often use the word "motivation" to summarise the process of staying focused and getting our work done. But finishing challenging projects requires far more than just motivation - it requires systems, strategies, tools and planning.

In this course we start at the high level and explore how this project fits into your overall career or life goals. We look at what, exactly, your final product will look like and why on earth you are even working on your project. Often its not for very powerful reasons which can lead to some funky unproductive behaviour on our part.

We continue to drill down through your project to look at what are your very next actions, where you are blocked, what you plan to accomplish this week, this month and the next 90 days. You will learn techniques such as:

The Very Next Thing technique
The Clear Your Cache technique
Your own personal approach to Finding Flow
The Work-Or-Dont-Work philosophy
The Work Breakdown Structure technique
The Accountability Buddy approach
And many more techniques for success

The goal of this course is very simple: Get you to Finish your project.

Some examples of projects that our students are working to finish are:

Video game project
App development project
Portfolio building project
Online course / study project

Looking for specific technical content? Check out our comprehensive range of game development courses.

The course follows a step-by-step Workbook which will guide you through your specific set of circumstances and help you finish your project.

The instructors of this course have spent years studying and teaching personal development. They have completed many projects as well as not completed many projects and have an acute understanding of what it takes to achieve success when you are in charge of your own milestones and deadlines.

You might be working solo on your project, but you don't have to do it alone. Come and join our community, share your challenges and learn from others with theirs.

We hope you allow us to contribute to the completion of your project!

Come join us now, you won't be disappointed!

What you'll learn in this course:

Specific strategies for finishing your technical and creative projects.
Methods for identifying why you are getting blocked on your project and what to do about it.
The What-Why-Who-How-When process for professionally completing projects.
Agile development processes for planning, scheduling and completing tasks.

Your Instructor

Rick Davidson

Hi, I'm Rick, nice to meet you all. I've been making video games for a living for more than 2 decades as a Game Designer, Producer, Creative Director, and Executive Producer, creating games for console, mobile, PC and Facebook. I founded an Indie game studio, called Inspirado Games, which was acquired in 2012 by Electronic Arts / PopCap. I also worked on cool IPs such as Mario, Transformers, Captain America and Mortal Kombat and created successful new IPs from scratch (such as "GardenMind" which was nominated for Canadian Game of the Year in the social / mobile category).

As a qualified Career Coach, I've helped thousands of people achieve their dream of making games for a living - both as Indie Game Developers and as valuable game industry employees.

Course Curriculum (7+ hours)

Your High Level Vision (1 hours 24 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Preview
Section 1 Introduction (4:21)

Start
Course Workbook (3:14)

Start
What Is Your Project? (10:11)

Start
Not A Waste Of Time (2:01)

Preview
Why This Project? (11:09)

Start
Your Powerful Why (5:22)

Start
Should. Want. Have To. (6:13)

Start
Sharing And Asking Questions

Start
Role Models (8:39)

Start
How Will You Finish? (7:02)

Start
Changes And Gaps (8:24)

Start
The Toughest Question (2:54)

Start
Intention Vs. Commitment (3:14)

Start
Ballpark Milestones (9:12)

Start
Note On The Workbook (2:24)

Getting Unblocked (1 hours 55 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Preview
Section 2 Introduction (1:05)

Start
Why We Procrastinate (1:47)

Start
Clear Your Cache (14:52)

Start
Honest Assessment (5:11)

Start
Procrastination Pattern (7:11)

Start
VNT Technique (11:19)

Start
1 Minute Reminder #1 (1:01)

Start
The 4-Letter Word (9:59)

Start
Why Am I Blocked? (4:24)

Start
Who Can You Ask (20:15)

Start
Killing Distractions (13:46)

Start
Your Workflow (6:45)

Start
Work Or Don't Work (2:18)

Start
Finding Flow (10:40)

Start
Being Specific (5:09)

Start
Setting Good Objectives

Building Momentum (1 hours 4 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Preview
Section 3 Introduction (1:45)

Start
Work Breakdown Structure (8:43)

Start
Single Most Important (5:24)

Start
What Is Agile (8:15)

Start
User Stories (4:48)

Start
Skin In The Game (8:10)

Start
Accountability Buddy (6:43)

Start
Inputs Not Outputs (9:46)

Start
Change Your Environment (3:28)

Start
Make The Commitment (7:25)

Building Habits (1 hours 45 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Preview
Section 4 Introduction (3:01)

Start
Your MVP (6:30)

Start
Create Your Backlog (9:35)

Start
Event-Based Milestones (9:46)

Start
Committing To Inputs (3:45)

Start
Sharing Is Caring (5:55)

Start
Who To Share With (9:51)

Start
How To Share Projects (19:07)

Start
Negative Feedback (3:59)

Start
Iterate Not Zig Zag (8:21)

Start
Dealing With Scope Creep (6:58)

Start
Analysis Paralysis (10:03)

Start
Being Concrete (8:48)

Getting Results (1 hours 9 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Preview
Section 5 Introduction (2:05)

Start
What If We Ask What If (11:19)

Start
The Four Whys (7:23)

Start
Left Side / Right Side (7:25)

Start
Marathon Not Sprint (1:53)

Start
Manage Your Physiology (10:59)

Start
Marketing Your Product (8:51)

Start
When To Stop (19:57)

Continuous Improvement (0 hours 13 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Preview
Section 6 Introduction (4:00)

Start
Using Your Workbook (2:57)

Start
More To Come!

Start
Being Driven (4:17)

Start
State Of Work (1:58)

Extras (0 hours 0 minutes)

Available in days

days after you enroll

Start
All Downloads

Frequently Asked Questions

When does the course start and finish?

The course starts now and never ends! It is a completely self-paced online course - you decide when you start and when you finish.

How long do I have access to the course?

How does lifetime access sound? After enrolling, you have unlimited access to this course for as long as you like - across any and all devices you own.

What if I am unhappy with the course?

We would never want you to be unhappy! If you are unsatisfied with your purchase, contact us in the first 30 days and we will give you a full refund.

Reviews

Bassam Dib

"This course is very valuable! A must have for independent game developers. I am a Project Management Professional but my current approach (Predictive Project Management) never worked on my game design & dev projects. The processes taught in this course, Agile Project Management, were just perfect for such projects. The "Motivations" sections are also very helpful! Thank you Rick for such a great course!"

Jonathan Fink

"This course provides lots of motivating perspective on getting to work. Even if you're like me, at the start of game development without any projects or value, there's still a lot of good information on how to get to work, staying motivated, how to view big projects and what to do when you do make a game. I'm glad I took this course. Now to get to work and make something!"

Lawrence Simpson

"Very effective course. I worked through it while implementing a career change. Finishing the exercises as suggested helped me focus and literally helped me get a project contract with a client. The contract involves a segment of the very project that I had been working on in the workbook!"

Erika Hulse

"I really think that this is a great course due to the hands on activities and the energetic enthusiasm that is reflected throughout it. I feel I am really making progress with the game I am making and that Rick is following along as well with the creation of Project Dragon."

Emerson Fitzer

"I have read, watched, and listened to so many self help anti-procrastination books and media. I think this is the best product of them all. The key difference is the work book exercises and introduction to his elegant organization system. Thank you Rick."