Indie Game Developers: Motivation is NOT What You Need!
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2023
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So many people are looking for Motivation to work on their games. Motivation can be HARD to find sometimes as an indie game dev! Luckily for us, there's something MUCH more important than motivation that will keep you coming back to your game development project day in and day out.
Do you have a goal of making your dream game? or quitting your job to become a game developer one day? or even just learning how to make your very first game?
If you think that you lack the Motivation OR the Discipline to make our own indie game, I promise you there's another way to reach your goals that is MUCH easier.
In this video, we share some tips we've learned from working daily on our 2d metroidvania Veil of Maia for many many months now. We don't claim to be experts, we're just two regular people that are learning and working away at our game one step at a time.
*Mentioned in this video*
Book: Atomic Habits
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#motivation #indiegame #gamedevelopment - Ігри
It gets real once you move from playing around with prototypes and mechanics to the full production phase. That's where the grind gets tough in my opinion as it stops becoming a bit of fun and daydreaming to becoming real. I try to make some progress each day even if I don't want to, so when I do want to I've got some progress.
Creating habits is super important. Whenever I do feel motivation to do something, I try to find a way to create a habit around it. That way I'm trying to do something to lock it in before the motivation disappears. Admittedly, I'm not always successful, but I find this to be helpful for me. Should probably try to come up with some sort of reward for myself as well. That would do wonders for mental well-being.
Whenever I'm working on my game, I created my work habit out of a cycle.
It first started with the desire to work at least 6 to 12 hours a day.
In there, i use my planner like a quest log, and anytime I complete a huge task, especially in the game's animation, I reward myself with at least one hour of gaming or reading one piece.
That's brilliant. I love using reward systems. Especially for things like gaming or reading as I have a hard time letting myself do those things on normal days, but if it's a reward for doing good work...that's genius, I'm going to add that to my reward list :D
Thank you very much for the video. This is just what I needed. I've been struggling finishing something to the point where I haven't even started a project as I knew I would never get to the finish line. Giving up before even starting. There are probably other things as well that affects this, but this is a very good starting point to work from. So, thank you very much for taking the time to make this video.
i had created really good habits with creating and painting models in blender every day, placing them in the world and doing level design. but then family visited, and i didnt want to spend all my time doing dev work while they were here ( i knew that i had created a good habit of working so i really didnt want to stop) it ended up being a hard internal battle the first day they visited. and I ended up saying i could put down dev work for their visit. then christmas came and more family visited. and i got no chance to continue working on my game. now its january 4th and im struggling to find the dopamine to make that habit again. i watched videos that say character movement is the most important thing and that is what i must focus on first. but i had such a good flow with making models and painting them. so anyways. here i am wanting to make good habits again. and found your video. thank you for making these.
This is a very refreshing view on this classic question. I really like this analysis and I think it contains great knowledge and wisdom
Good stuff! I've certainly suffered from lack of motivation in my own game making, and those bursts of Motivation that crop up from time to time aren't enough to make any real , solid progress. Thanks for your insights!
Love your content and down to earth wisdom. Keep it up man!
Great insights! Atomic Habits is a powerful book indeed 💪. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts.
Indeed habits are really powerful, and you should really create a (physical) environment for yourself that enables building habits as you mention. Also, treat your future version of you as a friend, and try to make his life easier. Simple things like, future me will be really glad if I now make just a few game art designs to start from. Future me will appreciate it if the desk is clean and can just start from a clean slate tomorrow...
What also helps me is to divide my work in chunks that will give me motivation. If I let my brain loose, I can quickly and up with an idea of 100 features, super complicated an ambitions plans. I write it down not to forget it, but then I make sure to split it up in steps that are manageable and are rewarding. Having a first prototype of the game mechanic is one step. Upgrading my simple blocks and squares into something that resembles assets is another step... and so on. After each step you still have something that is a complete prototype/game, and each step gives you that little boost of motivation, and a little upgrade to show to others and get feedback. If your idea about the game changes over time it is also much easier to redirect the game after such a step, compared to when you have this huge mountain you are building with many features that are not completely finished yet.
And a final thing that helps me. When I really lose motivation I just step back and take a break. I wouldn't want to grow resentment towards my project. I will find some other small project or a little game jam to distract me and often that relights the flame of my original project🕯
dude this is gold. Thanks for sharing
This channel doesn't have much subscription but look how truthful this dude is.
Thanks body
This is a great video!
I have adult inattentive adhd. Its been hard. Hoping to change my general habits because as it stands, I feel as though I don't have control over my life, even.
Totally with you on the main thrust of this video but I disagree with the candy jar reward because if the person just wants the reward, they will get it some other way with less effort. It's the reward they will optimise for, not the original task. You see this in children most. "Clean your room and get a cookie" and the child will do everything they can to scale the refrigerator and get at the jar because the cookie is the reward, not the clean room.
The reward needs to be built into the action itself, not a separate action. The reward must only be achievable by inching toward the goal.
Some examples: "Clean your room so we can build a massive LEGO fort together all afternoon" is a reward that can only exist with a clean room. In game dev: Watching other people play the game (so early playable prototype important), getting a Patreon with demo so people can donate, giving you money because of the game you've made.
The best rewards fill a need so that doing the action fulfills that need. For my son, it was building a LEGO fort (he's big now). For my game dev, playing with my friends and making new friends. I know that's deep down why I do it, so the reward needs to fill that need.
Great video, new sub'd and I really need to get round to making my motivation series!
YEYE! I try to reward myself like "if i draw enough today i'll play this game after" but i end up playing the game without drawing, while reminding myself of my goals i can only get with drawing work better like "i want to get better at drawing to get more work" makes me actually want to draw instead of seeing it as a task it looks like an essential step for the goal
Didn't expect to watch a game dev video and find such great parenting advice, thanks for the insight.
@@CosmicDeejay you're welcome! It can be difficult to implement because we have the weight of society telling us that clean room gives us cookie. You have to think outside of the reward norms that we ourselves grew up with and that's really tough.
Agreed and I also think "The War of Art" should be required reading for anyone who wants to make a game. It really puts things into perspective if you want to create art.
I've tried to get 10 different people to read that book and every time it's like trying to push a penny through a pin-hole, procrastination is a strong foe :D
@@lew.bow.studios It is. To be fair though, most self-help books tend to be garbage.
Could not agree more :D
Very high quality content here. I hope you guys explode in popularity.
I love the atomic habits book, thank you for the reminder to reward myself after doing my routine, that's a very good point
I'm so happy I found you.
Great video.
Great video, thank you for it! I will try to think about game dev in new terms, of habits, not of motivation from now on.
So practical! Excellent!
motivation to finish a game is one thing but what i was searching for is a vid finding the motivation to even go the extra mile and find how i could be one where thousands of others fail
So basically I must train myself like a dog 💀
Hello, I'm here because I started learning VR & 2/3D game dev in Unity.
At first, I was progressing so fast, felt like I am doing quite well, and started to learn C#, which was also a very great experience. Then, I decided to start another full course on Coursera, where I felt discouraged. I thought I am a very disciplined person, and usually applied the same techniques which you mentioned (instead of candy, I used other rewards like buying some gadget or put a project as a prerequisite for something I really need to keep myself on the road), but this time I failed, and could not make myself turn back to developing for cca 6 months.
I tried it a few times, but still felt I am just not enough.
Now, to climb up from this deep hole I decided to watch gamedev videos while I am doing some handcraft - which was your 'How to Start Gamedev in 2024' video.
I reached the Game Jam part from earlier attempts, but chickened out from participation. So now I made notes of your video and pull myself together.
Next step will be the one where I paused, I decided to start and finish a jam, even if the result will rather be something basic rather than a well-groomed project. Thanks for the tips!
This is a brilliant take on the issue. Good habits and a healthy work/life balance are pretty much key to any productivity.
Just game across your videos and I just want to say they’re so refreshing compared to the “I’m about to give you my bitter opinion on the harsh reality of game development!!!” videos that are all too common on YT. Thank you ❤
You can literally take the advice from the video but instead of gamedev instert literally anything and it's still really great advice! Golden video!
Some of the best game dev advice I’ve now injected into my brain. Thank you❤
Thanks so much for the support! Glad you found it helpful!
Great video. Thank you. I need to form new habits.
I love the work you are doing sir you have understanding
Bruh you gonna get a driving ban :')
Good video though. Great even. I really enjoy your breakdowns of the mental process, and appreciate yet another tangent off the ole "I'm going to be a gamedev" path. I think this is what makes me want to do this - it's such a huge, challenging and taxing undertaking, that I believe with the right mindset this could be my biggest teacher yet.
Thanks man!
I agree with habits. I combined going to the gym after work with reading manga, watching media, or playing certain switch games. I love games but sometimes I feel I'm wasting time by sitting down, it's more proactive combining both for me in terms of mind, body, and time.
Love this channel, ironically this motivated me. lol
lol! Hey I'm glad to hear it. Good luck!
I don't disagree with what you've said at all but I think if someone is having to work so hard just to sit down and work on a game then maybe game dev isn't for them. I have been a person who has struggled to get out of bed early my whole life. However, since deciding that I want to pursue game dev and I have a speciic game that I am working on I can get up at 4am because I want to work on it. There's no need to motivate myself or set up my environment. I just want to do it.
My feeling is that if you are really struggling just to sit down and work on a game then either it's not the right game idea or this isn't the thing that you really want to do.
it took me a whole month of doubting wether i should continue game dev just to realise i plugged my blueprints to the wrong input...
This was a really great video, want to say "motivation" but now I feel like it's the wrong word. Great video tho keep it up.
Im still quite new in game dev, but I have experience in other creative spheres. Sometimes you will be the most unmotivated person in the world, but if you start suddenly it's easier to do progress
For me what really helps is switching between art and programming when I hit a slump. It allows me to rest my brain on the logic stuff and yet still be making progress.
great stuff
habits is just part of the problem, getting rewarded by working on your game in small chunks and see daily progress is what move the train for me, as long as I know where the end of the tunnel is, I will find the will to continue ahead
i imagine trello boards are really helpful for that
@@Atticus_Moore Yes and no, I used Trello boards in the past but for small projects is fine, once you have bigger projects dividing the task into 3/more buckets is not very useful, you need to have some way to plan for many sprints/cycles with velocity and many other metrics to understand what you can deliver with your team and have a more detailed view, so Trello is not enough for me.
@@MysticRiverGames ah okay. Were you able to find a solution for that?
@@Atticus_Moore yes, I do my planning in Excel and divide my tasks accordingly , keep track of effort and time spent on tasks, overall progress and plan for many cycles ahead so I clearly know what must be done, by when, and how much work is left. There are a lot of tools but either I have to pay for more advance features to get what I can do in excel or it is too high level that is useless for complex projects. So Excel or Google sheets can do the same for free.
So basically I waste 10 years because of bad habits?! Plus procrastination, searching for excuses, doesn't have a clear goal what I want to do?!
- Yes! 💯
Thank you for the video. I hope everything is going well for you and your family. 🙏
Fighting my adhd is such a problem when trying to do development, my brain goes down rabbit holes and its frustrating. creating new habits is just difficult for me. I'm still fighting the good fight
my biggest tip for anyone else that has ADHD that might be here, If you are not taking medication for your ADHD, please speak to your physician and get some. I understand apprehension about taking medication, but its just a tool that helps you do what everyone else already does natrually.
Diagnosis and medication is whats i'm waiting on, because this type of advice just half works.
I'm 25 now, been trying all these type of techniques since I started learning to draw around 12 yo and I they either don't work or half work and I need to find my own crazy way to do things.
¡Gracias!
Thanks for the support!
The thing is I’m still in school. I’m not give a lot of free time and it’s often not consistent when I have time. What should I do?
When I make big projects in minecraft it's always fun, even though it literally is alot of work ?
Why it's not stressful to spend weeks planning, gathering resources and building and then decorating a big castle for example (in minecraft)
But its stressful to spend weeks planning, gathering resources, building and then decorating a game ?
I don't understand-
Discipline is a complicated word because it has three uses.
The first is the type of discipline we talk about when we say self discipline, by which we tend to mean self control.
The second is as in to discipline a child, which means to punish.
The third is as in to learn a discipline which is to expand one's mind.
Heard the same thing on a podcast, from some study or something. Same idea, no such thing as willpower but just habits and environment. Throw away the candy that is easy to reach if you wanna lose weight, not power through the temptation.
I think this is rare, but for me, I don't have a problem working non-stop. I have a problem going to bed and putting a stop to my continuous thoughts. I would work 24 hours a day if I could but my body and family just won't let me : ) Light
Awesome
If yall try work, discipline, motivation, what not techniques over and over again to the point of going crazy and having breakdowns because it doesn't work or just half works; then try get tested for ADHD because that's what I'm doing and while I'm still waiting f or the diagnosis I am 99% sure that is the problem and not something else.
right, its time.
One comment that I want to get to editing video is I would if there was a transation when that's going to turn red orange stuff cuz it's kinds annoying really fell something on my eyes even tho I don't have epilepsy
I've heard about "Atomic Habits." I think those are good ideas. I do want to play video games and watch UA-cam videos and shows and such. I just wish there was some other place to do those things besides my study where I have my computer. I need a 2nd computer and 2nd study, lol. And not have games installed on my game dev computer and install parental controls on it that forestall access to UA-cam and so on. And put snacks in there, and no snacks in my gaming room, lol. But short of that.. the games and videos sure do call to me when I come into the study. =/ And I don't think I can bring myself to uninstall my games or block my access to videos and shows in my only study.
Yeah. Mini habits totally work. They allowed me to work on my game and do 1200+ daily tweets about it. And I'm a guy who would never use social media before that.
best advice i can give is if you dont wanna work on it, just do it for 5 minutes
heh
theoretically you're just gaslighting your brain💀
Just play other indie games - whenever I do that I instantly feel like there are things that I could do better (even if I can't - it's just really about putting my own spin on them). I turn the game off and put Unity on ;)
What can you do if you live a small house with less than 10 rooms and 7 people living in it? I can't really separate my work space from my living space with these linitations because all the rooms are either occupied or not suitable.
Even a corner of a room or one particular desk can do the trick.
If you're REALLY tight on space, which it sounds like you are, you can do other things like listen to the same music everytime you work (I recommend Binaural beats) or lighting the same scented candle each time.
Honestly, anything that uses your senses that you do repetitively will kinda trigger your brain to go into "work mode."
@@sasquatchbgames Thank you, I'll try to apply something along these lines. I have a hard time staying focused and get easily distracted, so it would be good to try and do something about it.
Just play songs that you really like only when doing game dev. Makes you wanna do game dev to just listen to those beats again. Playing without doing game dev feels inefficient use of time if you do this also send you into the game dev zone
That's what works for me. I don't allow myself to listen to music unless I'm doing something productive, and it actually works pretty well for me!
@@bluesillybeard tho it sucks when you're doing something when you need all your hearing for the task itself. Like finding SFX, and music, can't even listen to music at that time
Are you going to do another devlog?
Absolutely, hoping to start working on one later this month!
Sir, every time i try to make my own game, I stuck like I can't do anything in my own, notice that everything I have to check tutorial, so how can i actually learn something this chain is going from last 2 years, please help me
I've been in the same boat and still kind of am. You just have to start something and keep going. I still look up a ton of stuff, but as you become more exposed to concepts it will start to stick in your brain. Or at least that's how it works for me. Don't get discouraged because of all the things you don't know. Learning is part of the process and every attempt you make to try and learn just makes you that much better of a game developer.
@@StealthyShiroeanGames thank you
@@samidev4122 No problem and good luck to your future game dev endeavors!
I was in the same boat for around 2 years as well.
First off, you'll need tutorials for certain things for years to come, as you develop your skills you'll have strong points and weak points. I still look things up all the time, I use tutorials, google, and now ChatGPT (when I"m able to get in) fairly regularly. But there's plently I don't need tutorials for (and some just plain don't exist for what I'm looking for.)
There's a lot of things you could try, but overall I'd say that there's a transitional period we all have to go through where you have you force yourself to stop following hand-holding tutorials and start trying things on your own, and allow yourself to make dozens of mistakes. If it takes you 27 tries to get one simple thing working, then you have learned FAR more than you might realize.
Mistakes will teach you far more than getting things right, because it will help you understand why things work/don't work. To that end, I'd say maybe try challenging yourself to create one tiny game 100% yourself. And if you really get stuck then let yourself research, but try yourself first.
That first 'junk' project you make where you are trying to create your own tiny idea yourself is where I really leveled up for the first time.
Good luck!
@@sasquatchbgames Thank you so much sir
I'm not motivated, I'm determined to learn and make games, because I don't want to go back to cutting gyro.
That's awesome, good luck!
I've found the solution boys and girls. As we are gamers, I won't tell you. Instead, I will give you a hint. It's now legal in California 😉 Highly motivated.
First