Pokemon Took 6 Years!

...before you could catch them all a lot of development happened.

The other day I watched a youtube vid called “How Pokémon Red & Blue Were Made”. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaUHU2I-haA

Alright, so there were a ton of bonkers things talked about in that video. But one huge thing stood out to me.

It took six years to make the original Pokemon games for Game Boy. Six years!

I’ll sit and sip my coffee here while you let that sink in. (dramatic pause for effect)

Okay, do you understand how long six years of development is? As a Software Architect, I am often asked to design a system/feature/whatever and then get it implemented in one or two quarters. Rarely is there a plan or discussion for a year long software project.

I don’t think I’ve been involved in a discussion of developing something for more than half a decade before the first version is released.

In fact, I’m sure that if I told any of my bosses, investors, owners, or whatever that a project was six years from completion, either they would cancel a project or fire me. That kind of duration flies in the face of everything modern software development is oriented toward.

Everything now is so short term, quick cycles, and all of that to the point where sitting on an idea for half a decade to “figure it out” isn’t even plausible to me. Not because I think it’s a bad idea. I think it might be the right answer on many projects.

Nobody has the patience for that kind of time frame anymore. Even if it’s the right answer.

That is a shame in many ways. Everything is so short term that we are certainly missing out on the next great “Pokemon” kind of idea from developing.

New ideas are sometimes hard, rarely obvious, and take time.

I would say that if you’re working on something that matters, it might take much longer than you anticipate. Many years. Perhaps many more years than you considered it possibly could.

The next time you get impatient with a project, it might be useful to say to yourself, “It’s okay, Pokemon took 6 years to make.” And then get back to it. You might just be on a project that is a six year project and it’s going to take a while.

No worries, it will be fine.

You got this!

-Brian