I used to like making video games...

Nope. Millions of people feel this way. Not particularly about video games, but other stuff.

Do something else. It's useless IMHO to stick to an old dream/passion/whatever. I changed so many times: I was positive that I will be an astronomer. Then a musician. now I'm a mechanical engineer but I wanted to try lumber cutting. I was into programming for a long time, now I have a big project (signature), but I'm not really passionate about it.
I'm thinking about learning carpentry and building wooden houses/columns/saunas/whatever.

I feel this way all the time, though it's not so much the passion is gone it's just I can't commit myself to one idea, and when I finally do, I get a "grass is greener" feeling when I think of another project I'd like to work on.

Of course the end result of this is that nothing gets done.

Take a break. Don't open an IDE or really thinking about programming for a while. Play games, have fun, do other things.

Then after a while, come back to it. You may reinvigorate your feelings towards programming. If not, then programming probably isn't what you want to do anymore. Try to retain the knowledge (you never know when it might come in handy!) and move on.

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Original post by Flimflam I feel this way all the time, though it's not so much the passion is gone it's just I can't commit myself to one idea, and when I finally do, I get a "grass is greener" feeling when I think of another project I'd like to work on. Of course the end result of this is that nothing gets done. Take a break. Don't open an IDE or really thinking about programming for a while. Play games, have fun, do other things. Then after a while, come back to it. You may reinvigorate your feelings towards programming. If not, then programming probably isn't what you want to do anymore. Try to retain the knowledge (you never know when it might come in handy!) and move on.

No I like programming and that has always been the case since I was 7 years old but lately I've lost interest in making video games. It's like I really want to make video games but after working so long and hard to make a really good game I've realized that it's far more work than I will be able to complete any time soon...

You thought that games were made by 1 person?

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Original post by ProgrammerDX You thought that games were made by 1 person?

Most indie games are made by one person...

and you want to make indie games?

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Original post by ProgrammerDX and you want to make indie games?

I thought that was pretty obvious though I do set my sites too high which is probably the reason I am getting discouraged about making video games...

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Original post by SteveDeFacto No I like programming and that has always been the case since I was 7 years old but lately I've lost interest in making video games. It's like I really want to make video games but after working so long and hard to make a really good game I've realized that it's far more work than I will be able to complete any time soon...

Yeah, thats the point where the hobby becomes work. From this point on it has to be treated like work otherwise u will endup nowhere. U need a project plan, deadlines, time management - all that things. Thats where indie game development becomes tedious. Quote [1] from a gamedev news entry just a few days ago: "Being a indie developer is really really hard. And if a indie game is a success, its for a damn good reason." There's nothing more to add.

My advise: Make a real simple game. Start off with a really polised tetris clone, that has levels, highscores, nice artwork and music and all the whistles and bells. Even that will take quite a while to do, but its doable. But finish it! U will see, its a good feeling afterwards to make something thats actually playable.

[1] http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=586205

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Original post by cruZ Quote: Original post by SteveDeFacto No I like programming and that has always been the case since I was 7 years old but lately I've lost interest in making video games. It's like I really want to make video games but after working so long and hard to make a really good game I've realized that it's far more work than I will be able to complete any time soon... Yeah, thats the point where the hobby becomes work. From this point on it has to be treated like work otherwise u will endup nowhere. U need a project plan, deadlines, time management - all that things. Thats where indie game development becomes tedious. Quote from a gamedev news entry just a few days ago: "Being a indie developer is really really hard. And if a indie game is a success, its for a damn good reason." There's nothing more to add.

Can you give a link to that article?