Perfect Is The Enemy Of Good

I talk about the phrase "perfect is the enemy of good" and its implications on game development.

[VaultDweller]

Tim, this series is an appreciated gift. It's great hearing wonderful behind the scenes stories and lessons. Thanks.

[whiteegretx]

"Perfect is the enemy of good" definitely applies to any creative endeavour, now that I think of it. This is a valuable video for explaining why.

[XDapologist]

I just want to share that even that im not a programmer i still enjoy hearing you talk about your craft. Im an art student and in every video i try to find something that I can apply or try to relate to something of my field. Im trying to say that this videos are highly appreciated ! Sorry for the weird English.

[Hakita]

I have this back-and-forth with my lead programmer often and the motto I always repeat is "The only thing better than 'good' is 'good enough'."
It's good to have both someone like me who prefers doing things rough but fast and someone like him who prefers doing things slow but clean, so we can find a perfect balance between us, and he finds the things that I've left TOO rough, and I find the moments where he's TOO focused on making something clean.

[nutherefurlong]

I have to say, one of my fondest memories of Fallout was how great the animations were. It might have been rough but that footstep movement matching was definitely a highlight for me

[xieliming]

Thanks for sharing that last insight on Fallout. As a long time player of the game I never noticed the smooth footsteps. Maybe it’s one of those things you don’t notice if it’s done right. Asides from the awkward straight walking, I fondly remember creating a chicken walking effect by repeatedly clicking to walk to the same destination!

[ExxyPlays]

All I can say is I definitely noticed the smoothness of the walking animations in Fallout (without having that vocabulary at the time) AND I've always felt that the "janky" vertical running is part of the charm of that game. I don't mean to be pedantic, since it doesn't change the point you were trying to make, but I really like those things—I think the walking animations brought a kind of gravitas to the game experience, only seldom interrupted by a little Benny Hill routine that also somehow seemed entirely appropriate—so maybe perfect doesn't have an enemy sometimes? Or one could strategically plan their jank to allow them to perfect a couple things? I dunno. I just want to advocate for perfect a tiny bit.

[allluckyseven]

I also heard that as "Perfect is the enemy of DONE" which is something that I take to heart... especially after not finishing _a bunch_ of stuff.

[aaronvold]

Q: Did companies of PC parts ever requested game to run slower on higher presets to sell new products? What does it mean if a game have company logo in intro of a game? Do they send parts, help optimize it or just pay so there is a logo at the begining?

[clef]

Love watching these videos before going to bed. Sounds kind of funny, but watching these is sort of just relaxing listening to your thoughts and insights on things. Thank you for providing these videos!

[stufco]

Similar sentiment I really like is "Not everything worth doing is worth doing well." In Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine, he mentions the team leader has this pinned to his wall

[PretendCoding]

I feel like I need to watch this video about once a day

[misterj]

I really like the general advice videos like this, I'm not a programmer but so much of your experience can be applied to many professions. Thanks Tim!

[drithius]

Doggo making his presence known! I genuinely love it 😊

[Trassel]

I gave up drawing completely for several years because I let my perfectionism get the better of me (I thought it’d be better to just not draw ever than to draw badly), these days I try to live so that I’ll end up as “that guy who didn’t really succeed but at least he tried making a bunch of stuff” when I’m dead rather than “that guy who may have been good at something but we’ll never know because he never tried anything for fear of failure”.

[minerman]

Related to your tangent on having to remove a feature late in development, Folding Ideas' video "The Art of Editing and the Snowman" dissects something similar happening to a movie.

[StodgyAyatollah]

A long time motto of mine. I usually sum it up as "good 'nuff" in everyday life. We live in a world where time is a very real factor and the persuit of perfection has diminishing returns.

[soontwobdead]

These videos are so helpful! Sometimes my team share these to communicate and start discussions with one another :)

[gelatinousentropy]

I noticed the footsteps and I thought it was a mark of quality! I also didn't mind the jerky walk. It was a hex grid and I just sort of though, "yeah, it's a hex grid". Just thought I'd share my 2c. :)

[GeomancerHT]

I was kinda sleep and read something about the Enemy of God and wow was that a topic for a gamedev talk hahahaha

Thanks Tim for the actual video!