Mistakes. We all make them, just try not to lose it all on a bad one. When making games we all have our successes and failures. If you learn from your failures you will be better than before.
I have made many mistakes in my time running Quick Simple Fun Games, and I am sure I will make more going forward. I write this post in the hopes that people don't make huge mistakes that lead to great anguish. Here are a few that I made.
From my personal experience, Licensing Mess Machine was an issue. Someone in the industry had told me that it was an older design that was unique when it was released, but that now it was older and outdated. They were correct. It cost us a lot of time, money and anguish.
Licensing Burano was a mistake. It did not fit with the profile of our company, and the manufacturer insisting on being in Taiwan caused the game to be way over priced. I signed it because my benefactor wanted it, even when I argued against him. It cost us a lot of time, money and anguish.
Producing Gold Raiders was the worst mistake I have made to date. I destroyed all the copies we had. My benefactor wanted us to use a design team, so we could deny them to another company that he had an issue with. The game was flawed from the start, and even with a year of arguing with the design team, finally we had something better than what we started with. The game still had major flaws and was not good. I pushed forward after spending so much time and effort on it. This was a mistake. I should have walked away.
I admit my naivete in producing games was an issue when I started, but having success with Celestia and Hanamikoji, made me think I was bullet proof, especially after I made a suggestion with the rules for Hanamikoji that made the game much better. I thought my design and development skills were great especially since I had years playing games, and my first foray into the development of a game was a success. Wrong mindset. To learn and grow, rather than always thinking I am correct is the mind set to have.