If you start trying to add branching paths or take the remake pill you'll never finish jack. Just focus on making one path that seems the best/ you enjoy working on the most and don't go back remaking/remastering/reworking/rewasting time on it after it's done.
100% agree.
Development cycle for the game from first release to public to completion shouldn't be over a year, if you can help it. If you already think your project will take over a year, don't add anything that takes more than a week to add to the game. Ie, adding secondary paths (non-branching, just short term differences following decisions) can work, since you can keep the scene quantity from bloating too much. But if you try for branching paths, you can easily end up doubling the scene count (minimum). If the project is under a year from completion, ONLY the most important major changes should occur, and only ones that you are reasonably confident will keep the total completion time under that 1 year mark.
Then, once the game is finished, you have "only" invested a year into it. And you can figure out whether you want to add further features to the game, start over with a new game (2nd chapter, alternate timeline, whatever), or stop with a completed game before you burn out entirely.
Especially here on F95, there are WAY too many incomplete games. The games forum is so full of version 0.0.1s that browsing for new content is a pain in the ass.
And even for the games that progress past 0.0.3 versions, the vast majority either never get completed, or take 5 years to complete while the authors beg for funding (and/or exploit their patreon users). Completed games are the rarity. But a half-as-fulfilling game that got completed is usually better than a game that had way more going on and got abandoned halfway through (with the same number of developer hours).
Provide the complete game first, follow up later. Plus, by the time the finished game is done, you'll have far more feedback to work with.
Also remember: You won't satisfy everyone. That's why we have hundreds/thousands of games. But you also shouldn't make a game for "just yourself" (dear god, so many self-insert fantasy games out there that are just impossible to enjoy because you're just reading the author's self-isekai fanfic). Figure out early on what players you want to cater to. Figure out which kinks you want to fulfill. Then stick to them. Branching out will get you a few more players, but will slow you down. And see point #1 - once you finish the core game, you can possibly go back and add more in, or you can make another game with a different set of kinks & target audience.
