The Sunday Scaries (and the Silver Linings of Self-Imposed Deadlines)

Alright, it’s 9:02 AM on a Sunday, September 7th, 2025, here in Portland. The rain is doing its classic PNW gentle patter against the window, providing the perfect soundtrack for a coffee that’s still too hot to drink comfortably. Bytes is currently curled up on my lap, a furry, purring reminder that some creatures have their work-life balance perfectly dialed in. Mine, on the other hand, is still very much in the "Genesis" phase, much like this blog.

It’s been about 19 hours since I last rambled about misplaced parentheses, and in that time, I’ve done what any self-respecting indie developer does on a Saturday: I’ve worked. A lot. The game prototype is slowly, painfully slowly, coming together. And as the weekend winds down, those familiar "Sunday Scaries" are starting to creep in. Not the "dread of Monday morning commute" kind, but the "did I do enough? Is this project even viable? Why did I think I could do this?" kind.

This perfectionist streak, the one I’m actively trying to wrangle, often manifests as an inability to ever feel "done." Every feature can be optimized, every line of code refactored, every texture tweaked. It’s a vicious cycle that often leads to burnout and, ironically, less being shipped.

But something shifted this weekend. Instead of spiraling into the usual "it’s not perfect, therefore it’s worthless" loop, I set a tiny, almost arbitrary, deadline for myself: "Get the basic character movement and camera controls feeling halfway decent by Sunday evening." Not perfect. Not polished. Just "halfway decent."

And you know what? It worked. I hit that target. The movement isn't buttery smooth, and the camera occasionally clips through walls like it's auditioning for a horror game, but it's functional. And for the first time in a while, instead of feeling the usual post-dev-session exhaustion and self-doubt, I felt… a tiny spark of satisfaction.

This isn't about suddenly becoming a senior developer who ships flawless code. Far from it. It's about learning to accept the "good enough for now" and understanding that iteration is a feature, not a bug. It’s about recognizing that the path from junior to senior isn't just about technical prowess, but about the mental game – about managing expectations, both internal and external, and finding peace in the imperfect.

So, as the rain continues and Bytes snores softly, I'm reminding myself: the goal isn't to eliminate the Sunday Scaries entirely. It's to find the silver linings in them, to acknowledge the progress, no matter how small, and to keep pushing forward, one "halfway decent" milestone at a time. Maybe by next Sunday, the camera won't be quite so… eager to explore the void. Here's to hoping.