Maybe it's time to use some rapid prototyping tools? Have you tried Unity?

@rubzo: I've never really looked into those types of programs. I've always assumed they aren't compatible within Flash, but I suppose I don't have to actually do my typing in Flash. In fact, I could even write out some really basic scripts (maybe even in a template form) and have them saved as .txts...maybe even share them with the community. This is a good idea. Thanks.

Can you only program on Flash? If you're just not comfortable with it maybe try using other platform/language you know. Just straight up using a pre-made game engine like Unity makes it easier too.

@audiobusting: I'm totally comfortable with ActionScript. When I complain about Flash, it's about Flash being a rapidly dying format that doesn't play well with others.

1. Don't use flash.

2. Try reusing code? If you've written shit for collision detection befire , why write it again?

3. Make something different. Make a game that's entirely text, make a game that has no controllable character. Make a god sim. Variety!

Lastly, I recommend taking part in Ludum Dare. It forces you to be creative, as you have to follow the theme, and the timescale of 48 hours forces you to get shit done.

And finishing projects is the most important part. Even if a project looks bad to start it might be worth finishing it, its far more useful to have a few finished projects than hundreds of unfinished ones, and more fulfilling too.

Ten years ago I had this idea to create an awesome 3d platformer. but I too found myself just getting to the fun part.

So after raeding patricks story about dwarf fourtres (hopefuly. someone else can link you because im entering earts atmosphear on a buss right now) I discided to just makw a text adventure using dos. and it is a lot faster. Also you should look into C#, it works a lot like action script.

I have a full notebook of game ideas and I've built 4 or 5 mostly working game engines and still don't have a finished game. I have a terabyte hard drive half-filled with AI, collision and dialogue system prototypes.

I used to do flash games, but it wasn't fast enough to do a lot of the kinds of games I wanted to do so I went to Java and C#. I got into XNA for a while, and liked it, but I don't really like working with JIT compiled languages and the idea of making people install the compiler to play my games bugs me. XNA had great asset management and a good API, but it had some limitations working with scripts that I didn't like.

I'm pretty settled into working with C++ now and things are going well. I'm applying ideas about scripting and component systems I learned from all of the old, scrapped projects. I just look at all of that unfinished stuff as school for what I'm doing now. Who knows if I'll ever get to the point of having a finished game. I've built a lot of assets up working on those projects, but the amount of art and music and scripting that would be required to finish just one of my projects is pretty overwhelming when I think about it, so I try not to. What I'm trying to do now is get an engine together that's good enough that I don't have to do all of the bullshit stuff you're talking about and can just create a lot of config files, behavior scripts, shaders, animations and models and it basically runs them. It's like modding a game that has no core game attached to it.

Unity seems to do something very similar to that. I've played with Unity and I have a lot of respect for it, but I haven't been able to get into it, because I'd have to abandon all of the progress I've made on my own stuff and I'd probably find myself writing a ton of custom code to get it to do what I want anyway. You can use C# and javascript in it. It has shader support too which gives you a lot of power to do some nice visual effects.

I may not be the best person to give you advice, but I will tell you not to ever let yourself get locked into one system. Once you know something like Flash, it's great to be able to just open up the software and be productive, but like you said, Flash is getting pretty old and with all of the WebGL and HTML5 canvas stuff happening, it is going to be totally obsolete in no time. You could end up like a person in a bad relationship who is too scared to leave because they're afraid of going through the trouble of meeting new people. You don't want to spend all of your time learning new languages and toolsets to the point that you get nothing creative done, but it's always good to know more than one system and be as flexible as you can.

If you decide not to work in Unity, maybe some kind of web-based HTML5 canvas + javascript solution might work for you. It looks to me like you could replicate a lot of what flash does with that combo even though I've never tried it myself.

What many don't understand or appreciate is that software development is hard where game development is just a small subset. System design is hard. Project management is hard. Content creation is hard. QA is hard. Maybe the problem isn't "programming" but the entire venture is very difficult to complete full time where it sounds like you are doing it part time if you are asking a "random gaming message board".

So what is your elevator pitch? What is your time line? Do you have fully fleshed out design specs? If you don't have any of that or can't communicate it to any one then it doesn't matter if you have a dozen coding gurus willing to whip something up for you. People can write up stuff for you but if it turns out none of was what the project needs then it was a gigantic waste of time and energy.

Do what the rest of the world does with tedious work and outsource it to china.

Yep, I can relate although not in exactly the same type of work. I was a freelance illustrator for some years. And an art student for four years prior. At some point I started losing the thread. I derived no satisfaction from drawing professionally. I quit, found a different job, did drawing as a hobby for a while in hopes that maybe I would get the enthusiasm back. "A while" became several years. I still hated it. And, looking back on it, like you I think I was more engage in learning about the activity and figuring out all the problems for the first time. Once that learning process tapered off and the job became more about repetition of all the usual techniques, I wasn't having fun anymore. So it goes.

Also, the graphic arts industry is shitty, but that's a whole different post entirely.

I would honestly look into more advanced stuff. It sounds like your problem may be the fact that it isn't challenging enough which in some of your examples make it sound like that was when you had the most fun.

Try looking into languages that will allow you to reuse most of the code you have written. Basically move onto anything not Flash.

If you find a language you like albeit C#, Java, C++, etc., you can start coding multiple things at once. You can set up a project for your core game and another for your engine. Anything you code in your engine (Collision detection, physics, graphics, ...) will be available to your game. Even if you aren't liking the game you creating, you can start a new one and just reference your engine's project and still have the core functionality and begin work on just the game itself since you already have most of the stuff needed in the engine.

I wouldn't necessarily jump right into C++ since that could possibly deter you even more because you are having to deal with things way out of your league right off the bat. I hate Java, but it is simple enough and plenty of OpenGL tutorials out there to help you out. C# is almost exactly the same syntax as Java, but is a lot more fun to code with and much more powerful syntactically. There are open libraries out there for working with DirectX and I believe OpenGL for C#.

You could work in Unity like others have suggested, but personally I would recommend coding in C# first so you get a feel of the syntax since that is what the Unity scripts use and it also gets you great experience in learning a new language properly since Unity has some limitations. The added benefit is that you can also take your new found skills and apply them to creating your own Windows applications or back end coding for ASP.NET web sites should the need arise. This can be done in Java too, but I have a small hatred to Java when cross platform is not needed. I also don't know what OS you are running and C# is Windows only unless you dig into Mono C#. If you are on a Mac then go for Java. If you are Windows then I suggest grabbing yourself a copy of Visual Studio Express.

Hope this helps.