“Panic project”—a nice coinage: "where you build something safe after bailing on a riskier project that didn’t work out." Notable that he lists Opus Magnum as an example (it was quite popular).
(from “Zach-Like,” a collection of design notes from their games)
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This does seem like an essential practice in open-ended creative work! I’ve definitely done a number of panic projects. None are among my favorite work, but many were quite useful.
My master’s thesis. Original plan was ridiculously overambitious, crashed and burned, lost two years. Accidentally proved a couple stupid little theorems instead, which took a month and established my credibility for life.
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