This month, I took my first pottery class making pottery at a wheel. My wife Julie and I were taking our niece out to celebrate her birthday, and she has been wanting to learn to throw pottery on a wheel.
During the tutorial where our teacher was explaining how to make a bowl, it looked so simple and easy. Once it was my turn, however, it was very challenging. The clay wobbled on the wheel as I struggled to hold my hands steady.
As my first piece of clay slowly molded into a lopsided bowl, our teacher came over and gave a great piece of advice: once it looks in general like the shape you want it to be, call it. Don’t keep going. If you keep messing with it, it’ll fall apart.
In programming, one thing I pride myself on is having really solid code. As I work on game development projects, I have the same goal: make everything as good as possible. And while I still hold that value dearly, my pottery instructor did remind me of something else: once it’s what you’re looking for, don’t let perfection get in the way of publishing a good game.
Preston Grau 