Little vs Big Projects

Tonight our kids wanted to have a little picnic outside, so they grabbed some blankets and put them on our front porch and I made pancakes and we all sat out on our front sidewalk and ate pancakes. It was a fun little FHE (which we are having on Sundays instead of Mondays because our it's easier to do that day).

Yesterday my kissy wife Heather and I played Sagrada.

She won.

A level I made for a contest was played and here's the YouTube video of the guy playing it:

Now, I know what you're thinking (okay, I don't, but I know what my inner doubter is thinking, which may or may not be the same thing you're thinking): Andrew, why do you waste your time away on small little things of no importance, that will be swept away and forgotten in less than a year's time? Why not work on something longer lasting, more permanent, more important? Something bigger and better?

My answer to that is: I am. Or, I'm trying. Or, I want to and am occasionally working on it in my spare time. But some things that are smaller are easier to finish. 

I have a bunch of game ideas. These games are games that I consider "big" projects. Lots of pieces, a large board, rules that I need to figure out, and I need to playtest it (against myself most of the time because I have no Perazzo family near) to make it fun, and I need to pieces, and plus if I'm feeling really ambitious I might want to get files up on printplaygames.com and send it to a publisher. 

All that takes a long ling time and I only have the slightest chance of seeing any results. For instance, I don't think my awesome game We Three Kings has ever been played. Which you know, is fine a lot of the time because the joy comes in making it. But smaller projects? Like, I already have a level I made played by a YouTuber and now it's online and he enjoyed it and so did the viewers and the link is above.

My levelpack for Baba is You already has 9 downloads (admittedly, three of those are Ryan, so like, 7 downloads?) and so I feel like the "little" things I do have more possibility of making it out into the world. So that's why I do smaller things which my insecurities may say are "not important."

Other smaller things I've accomplished include writing the short story Synesthesia. I have also written some chapters of my longer books like Paths of Zarahemla and The Fallacy of Time, but finishing a short story is easier to do because it's, uh, shorter. Eric, meanwhile has already written his entire first book of his trilogy.

Anyway, so that's why I do little stuff even if it's not "as important" as the big stuff. To, you know, actually finish something instead of just having a bunch of half-done projects.