SPRINT OF DOOM (MINUS THE DOOM)

I'm still sprinting toward a firm completion deadline, and at this point I feel comfortable claiming I'll have the demo finished in time. Finished, and polished to my satisfaction, are two entirely different things, and we both know that if I were allotted another year to work on this demo, I could make good use of it. However... there's considerable merit to calling something done and moving on, taking your lessons into the future rather than letting them stew in the same pot. And truly, I'm so burned out I may need a year to recover. As usual, I bit off as much as I could possibly chew, and not one ounce less.

That's been the main lesson from the 4X challenges. We've collectively pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones every four months, and grown so much over the last three years. New frameworks, APIs, hardware, scaffolding and management techniques, debugging, etc. My animation skills alone have received a huge buff over the last year from all the demo work, and my last three 4X entries. I can't wait to get this behind me, and start applying those fresh skills to new (and some existing) projects.

I wish I'd had this wisdom decades ago, but alas, I was younger, more ambitious in certain ways, and some perspectives can only be viewed through the lens of advancing age. I try not to beat myself up over it.