I post this here because it's more about programming and project management challenges than actual gaming:
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/articles/article2259.asp
Interesting read!
Worth the read for sure.
LOL no kidding: "At this point I realize I'm more than 3/5ths of the way through my schedule, and that I have less then 15 hours left to finish the game. I go through my list of Things To Do, and assuming one hour per feature, it'll take around twenty-five hours to finish it all. That's ten hours over my limit I'm halfway through the time I'd allocated to getting the environment active, and I've not really started on it yet. The project is officially in jeopardy... Aside from spending a lot of time on the Internet looking for magical free solutions to my problems, I really have no choice here but to cut features, and see what I can do to simplify my design."
Ah, the joy of being both dev AND client. ;)
- - -
Really valuable (and applicable not-just-to-GAME-dev) section at the end: "Aftermath: The Post-Mortem"
Lesson 9: Cutting features isn't always free
Lesson 8: Do the important stuff first
Lesson 7: Scope will expand to exceed your budget and schedule
Lesson 6: Get the Game Playable [Application Feature-Testable?] as Fast As Possible
Lesson 5: It's sometimes much faster to throw away old code and start over
PS: List of their other games: http://www.rampantgames.com/
And I especially like what their "about our company" page says:
"
-We believe that it doesn't take $5 million to create fun, nor does a game have to be expensive to be of value to the player.
-We believe that innovation should be more than just a new feature on a the latest sequel or clone.
-We believe that game developers and game players should be the ones deciding what games should be made, not corporate committees and marketing departments.
"
http://www.rampantgames.com/company.html
I occasionally participate in 'Allegro' Compo's, like the Allegro SpeedHack (http://speedhack.allegro.cc/), basically a contest with some random rules, and a weekend timeline.