Your quest for perfection ends here, dear traveler.

The Secret to the Perfect Game

Have you wanted to build the perfect game (or project, app, piece of art)?

Me, too!

When I'm working on a project whether that's a game or a client strategy, I'm often thinking, "How can I make this perfect? With a little more time and energy it'll be absolutely pristine!"

Then, after infinite revisions, headaches, and redos, I remember something important:

Perfection is optional.

It's also impossible. Nothing you ever make will be perfect. Why? Because perfection isn't real. You can't pick up perfection and throw it in the air. You can't buy a box of perfection at the store.

Perfection is a thing we create in our minds. It's an ideal that isn't standard, complete, or objective. In fact, the pursuit of perfection holds us back every time we let it into our world. This pursuit is a treadmill fueled by the fear of failure. Coincidentally, "failure" is another one of those things you can't order on Amazon.

What's the antidote to this fear?

I'll give you an example from my current work on Legacy of the Cage 2.

In preparation for an internal playtest, I created no fewer than 3 versions of a digital helper tool because I thought, "nobody is going to want to help me if this isn't polished and simple and a one-click experience." I spent an extra month trying to dial in every possible detail that could crop up during a playtest. I was afraid it would fail. I was afraid it wouldn't make "perfect" sense. I was afraid, frankly, that my friends and community members wouldn't like it.

If this sounds insane, it's because it is.

A playtest, by nature, is a test of an incomplete piece of work. The intention is not to present something final, marketable, and "perfect." The intention is to figure out what needs tweaking so that your final version (another myth, but for another newsletter) generates as much excitement and enjoyment (or attention, revenue, value, etc.) for your players.

Here I am today, ready to put this playtest prep on the shelf and start getting real players to beat this thing into submission [ha, MMA pun]. I'm not afraid of what I might find out. I'm ready to win.

Don't let the fear of failure drive you to pursue the impossible

I'm rooting for you.

PS - Reply to this email or message me on a mutual Discord server and I'll set you up with the playtest materials so you can win with the rest of us!

To future worlds, Matt Ventre