After planning the idea out roughly, I spent too long messing around and testing mechanics that I wasn’t even sure I would be using in the project. This certainly came back to punish me. I also spent too long trying to figure out the combat system as I would look at the scripts and the animators and would run away to do something else rather than slog through it trying to understand and make it work.
In the future I need to plan more thoroughly. At the very minimum, I need to list everything that I will need broadly at the start, such as sound. That way I can have a crude to-do list throughout the entire project that can be modified with more details later. Also, at least write tidbits in the blogs as I go instead of just keeping versions of everything I’ve done to then comb through later trying to expain once I’ve forgotten most of the details. And most importantly, do more work earlier in the project. Even if it’s 20 minutes a day thats still better than nothing.