In Jonathan Blow’s talk on design, time constraints, and the disappointment of not reaching the goals you envisioned in time, he discussed his next game that he refers to as “Game 3.”
Planned to take twenty years to make, the game currently has 40-60 playable hours. He plans the release in installments, but not episodically. Instead, he wants to use each installment to explore design, building a vast tapestry of work that he couldn’t achieve otherwise. He cites his inspiration as Gravity’s Rainbow again, where “it tells you to fly, to flap your wings and come with it,” something he feels games don’t do.
How does a 20 year project look? It has to survive market conditions now and those 20 years in the future, so he presents several problems to overcome including securing funding, adapting to platform changes, and keeping the game in scope of potentially evolving production values.