Stop Waiting for Perfect, Start Shipping Games | Frank Force

Frank Force joins us to talk about how game developers can ship faster, learn better, and avoid getting trapped by perfectionism.

He shares lessons from AAA development at studios like Volition, Midway Games, and others including milestone pressure, polish, crunch, and speedrun-style bug hunting on PsiOps. He also breaks down his current push to release Pyroot, a C++/DirectX Metroidvania he started 6–7 years ago, on Steam Early Access.

The conversation dives into why Frank believes browser-based development, JavaScript, game jams, and sharing work early can be powerful ways to build skills and a portfolio. He challenges the idea that web development can't produce “real” games and explains why low-friction tools can make it easier to experiment, iterate, and actually finish projects.

Frank also gets into sizecoding and creative programming through JS1K, JS13K and Dwitter, the origins and growth of his open-source LittleJS game engine, procedural audio with ZZFX, and the mindset of removing rather than adding.

Plus, he shares how AI is already helping game developers find bugs, prototype ideas, and give small teams more leverage, while also discussing his concerns about sunk-cost thinking, exploitative player psychology, and where the industry may be heading.

Topics include:

• Breaking into game development

• Building a portfolio

• Shipping games instead of endlessly polishing

• JavaScript and browser-based game development

• AAA development lessons

• Indie game development