Don't usually comment but I have to say this video was a Godsent. Well structured, well presented, well explained. These are lessons that could've only come from experience and you've indirectly saved alot of people suffering by trial and error to learn these. I noticed some people might misinterpret the drilling part so I'll put it like this. The value of drilling is it's effect on "your mindset" and "mental fortitude". Once you have the habit of enduring on difficult problems without skipping to sth else, you build confidence bcos you have created a backlog of evidence of yourself overcoming challenges by persistence. Where the objections might come is in "taking breaks" bcos in truth, staying too long on a problem without diverting your mind to sth else can be counterproductive & lead to diminishing returns. So yes, if you're too stuck, you may have to do sth else to allow your subconscious find a solution for you. The best strategy I've seen is to do sth "UNRELATED" to your current field. If you're a game dev and stuck, rather than taking a break with another game dev project, your breaks will be better taken by doing sth outside game dev and when you return to game dev, you are solely returning to tackle the problem again. The Disadvantage of taking a break from a difficult game dev problem with "another" game dev project is that you might end up running into "another" game dev problem. And since you don't have a track record of solving your previous problem, the brain autopilots and you end up repeating the pattern of avoidance and skipping to yet another project. This leads to a deteriorating cycle of abandoned projects and leaves you mentally and emotionally stuck with low self-esteem in your ability as a developer due to your history of unfinished projects. So back to my original thoughts on the value of Drilling and how it affects time management in game development - it's hard to finish games quickly with low self-esteem in your ability as a developer, it's hard to finish games at all if your brain sets you off on an automated pattern/cycle of skipping ships when things get hard. It is easier to finish games quickly when you have confidence in your ability to handle whatever roadblocks come in your way. It is easier to maintain motivation when you have a history to overcoming challenges through persistence when things get hard. Drilling is a "mental exercise" that builds your mental fortitude, confidence, persistence muscles. The effect will spill over to not just your game development habits, but in your life in general as you become more mentally prepared to handle life challenges. Overall. This was a goldmine of a video. Learnt alot and will be rewatching for the third time😂🤌🏾. You've earned yourself a sub. EDIT: Grammar
@@treasureimpact Goated, Elaborated perfectly, and you landed a critical hit with this one! This is exactly is mostly what I wanted to articulate with the drilling section. I’ll ensure to prepare vague sections way better for the next video and this comment genuinely synthesizes what I wanted to say in the drilling section. Godsent comment! Thank you for organizing this, for your comment, and your support! Glad to have you here and remember that you’re warmly welcomed here. I wish you the best in your game development journey!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Welcome man. Don't allow finding the perfect non-vague explanation stop you from sharing your knowledge. Even if the idea is still vague, earnestly explain as best as you can in your own words. Everyone might not pick it up immediately, but definitely someone out there will pick it up and find massive value in it. Hopefully, like this comment, they might even try to re-articulate it in their own way. But even if they don't, we usually get clarity by sharing. So you might even get more insight when rewatching the video in future and dump your new insights in the comments or in another video🤌🏾❤️ Keep creating man, we're rooting for you🙌🏾🔥
I would argue against "Drilling". When I encounter a hard problem, I drop it for a couple of days. This allows the mind to take a step back and invent solutions out of nowhere or realize that the problem doesn't need solving and can be completely removed. On the contrary, focusing on a thing and methodically hacking at it only stresses me out and bears no fruit.
Glad to hear your approach on it - I can see why its frustrating to hack at something with no avail. I should've communicated this better, but the main concept of drilling is to stay in the area of frustration when hacking away because that's what would build your tolerance to deal with those "Impossible" problems until a solution is reached. However, like you stated, taking breaks/letting go of the problem definitely allows you to think about it from other angles and provides clearer solutions. I strongly suggest drilling primarily because of the following three benefits: 1. It tends to give you the benefits of tolerance building 2. Is less expensive on time when you "take a break" and 3. It reliable keeps you engaged on said task. You're not wrong and if you are not shifting into other tasks duirng that break process, then you've absolutely hammered it and are completely right. I'm voicing this for the sake of not losing production time and/or getting distracted by other "smaller" tasks that take away from actually solving the big problem. Great insight and Iovely comment. Thank you for your advice!
i hate to agree with this because i have spent days at a time on a single problem only to realize that the solution was mad simple, and this has happened multiple times, blah blah blah, sunk cost fallacy, blah
Hahaha, if there's an opportunity to keep learning from each other by simply reading the comments, then we need to make that happen! I appreciate your words!
I was you 15years ago, what you are talking about will eventually lead down a road of being alone, overworked and depressed. Games are a black hole of time consumption, each time you plan a vacation some deal will show up "xbox license if you can finish in X months" and the crunsh goes on.
@@vikingfabian Hey man, huge thanks for the warning. I can see how this methodology forces you to dedicate a ton of time and resources to projects. The future in this industry is unpredictable; however I’m suggesting these tips to get games done in shorter amounts of time in order to avoid the “blackhole” effect. Regardless, I completely understand where you’re coming from and I’m grateful for your forewarning. Thanks for the heads up!
Oh hey! VikingFabian! I know of you because my friend was a huge fan of your XBLIG stuff. I really liked BGL back in the day. It's really funny to see you here.
i think its most important to be kind to yourself and structure your life in a way that's sustainable in the long term. I have been making games for the better part of a decade and i feel like I'm just at the beginning of my journey. I heard an anecdote in school that the average career span of a game developer was around 3-4 years before they switched jobs/ burnt out. whether you're working on small games or a big project, focus on doing what you love, take breaks, find others to help in areas that you lack interest in and measure success in stuff you learn and will still benefit from for many years.
This is a very kind and endearing comment. Everyone has different stages in their lives and what seems to be appropiate can only be determined by your current intentions and path you seek. I can't deny that the statistics are true - long-term game development is difficult mainly due to the lack of ROI, overcomplication of tasks that lead to burn-out, and the sheer underwhelming support that many developers simply do not receive. Not to mention a plethora of other reasons that can easily discourage many developers from taking extreme steps. Taking development from a hobbyist perspective does imply more room for passiveness - regardless, it truly comes down to how you want to handle the circumstances of your life, how to balance your time/efforts, and what you're willing to do with yourself. Taking a step back to recognize what matters most to you is crucial to one's peace; I just hope that for anyone who reads this understands that habits play a key role for longetivty.
You are correct this will push a game out really fast but if i do this i will burn out and become depressed and my social life will be non existent. During the work week i follow your exact schedule, i exercise, i stay efficiënt and keep the focus on the project. However i do need relaxation!!! In the weekend i need to see my friends and do fun stuff otherwise I'm going mental
@@timvandeneng4724 Correct! Please make sure of two things: 1. You set an endpoint because if you endlessly do these routines without a termination point, you will burn out and 2. Take breaks when necessary. Regardless, thanks for pointing this out and just want to make sure you’re not burning out! Thanks for the comment!
Good advice overall. My advise would be a LOD approach (level of detail) start with super simple idea, super simple graphics with the goal of finishing fast the game and add detail later on. This way you can make your game as complex you want but you will also always have a finished game. Thus finishing becomes super easy too. Working linearly, from point A to B , is for people who love pain and wasting time.
I agree - this is a very strong prototype advice. I've failed to mention ways to quickly prototype your game, this'll be an interesting topic to cover in the near future - so huge thank you for your input here. In addition to keeping your LOD simple, it's also critical to keep your scope small especially when you're starting off and/or are truly solo / without a team. You have a great approach and great advice; I appreciate it!
This is a good general advice. But I know many developers and small studios that see this be too slow. To get funding and to make game marketable fast u need splice. U need polished assets, mechanics and it needs to look like full game altho it's just one level or 15min of gameplay. And if u just have some blocks it is hard to get wishlists on steam, funding from publishers, interaction on socials or support from kickstarter. Ur method is perfect for person/team that is making one of their first games and still learning stuff or if they aren't sure what the endproduct will look like or if they have funding already covered and don't have tight time-limit. But teams/devs that need money and/or don'-t have time (and know what they are doing) need to have something to show quick.
@@samamies88 Absolutely agree with everything you said. Unfortunately there is always a price to pay. If you do it your way obviously a nice vertical slice will make it much easier to sell to a publisher and general public (kickstarter, early access etc) but then you may get plagued by missed deadline, scope creep plus extra time needed to get to the marketing phase of the game. If you do it my way, that back and forth will waste you some time and make it much less likely to promote to a publisher or to impress gamers without a polished end result that also affect how marketable the game can be but it will secure it from scope creeep (always a huge issue in game dev and dev in general), make sure the game is always fun to play, avoid the negative publicity of an unfinished , buggy and rushed game etc. You also can do both approaches, work a tiny part of the game as a vertical very polished slice if you aim for a publisher or getting some extra eye balls and then do the rest in a LOD approach. Also my approach works better for sandboxy game with a lot of replaybility value instead of games with beginning and end like story based linear games.
I am so torn by how the tips in this vid are both incredibly helpful in achieving set goals while simultaneously they seem so artificial and robotic. It all feels like a highway to achieving your dreams and reaching burnout by the way. Becoming a perfectly tuned factory that looses its' humanity somewhere along the way, minmaxing your life so you have time to create, limiting the time you spend with other people unless it's necessary - it all works but I'm wondering at what price from a future-you point of view
This is what hard looks like. The strategies I'm sharing are meant for short-term sprints, not a permanent way of life. To achieve something truly remarkable, balance often gets sacrificed - whether it's missing out on social events or setting aside other interests. These are the prices we pay to reach challenging goals. Your comment made me reflect deeply, and I genuinely appreciate your words. You’re right: "GameDevMaxxing" isn’t a sustainable lifestyle. Too much of anything can be harmful, and burnout is real. Moreover, even with intense effort, there's no guarantee of financial success or any tangible results beyond finishing the project. The so-called "powerful habits" I've mentioned are just a fraction of what it takes to speed up development. There’s also marketing, community management, team leadership, ideation, post-launch support, and more - each adding its own layer of complexity. This has made me question whether these habits are truly humanizing. I do want to share the lessons I’ve learned and why I believe it's sometimes okay to commit to these intense bursts of effort: Retrospectivelty reflecting, here’s what this journey has taught me: 1. You can accomplish more in less time than you think, freeing up time for other life pursuits. Every moment counts because it's time you'll never get back. If this project had taken me a year, I might have spent nine months on tasks and systems that may or may not have succeeded. The outcomes from three months of intense effort are often similar to what you'd achieve over a longer period. So, investing three tough months instead of twelve gives me more time for other things in life. I’ve realized that adhering to Parkinson's Law (10:00) - where work expands to fill the time available - can help avoid unnecessarily prolonged challenges. 2. Your priorities, habits, and worldview shape who you are. If you're willing to push yourself, take on challenges, and explore unconventional methods, that’s a reflection of who you are. It’s perfectly fine if that's not for you. But if you build your identity around embracing challenges and prioritizing the unexpected or difficult, you'll set yourself apart. You may even become a source of guidance for others facing similar struggles. This shift in perspective changes how you approach various aspects of life. 3. The bigger the challenge, the deeper the reward. Even if the reward isn’t something tangible like money, reaching milestones is something to be proud of. It builds confidence, helps you assess your capabilities, and encourages you to take on even greater challenges. That’s why I emphasize the importance of completing difficult tasks - not just for the sake of completion, but for the personal growth that comes from pushing through. (26:37) I should've articulated this a better, but that's the point of drilling - doing the hard to build tolerance to do harder tasks. 4. Self-imposed limits are often untested beliefs. I never thought making a full commercial game in three months was possible until I asked, "Why not?" By setting ambitious goals and adjusting my approach, I discovered that even if you don’t hit every target, you achieve far more than you would have without that pressure. Yes, it involves making tough choices, like saying no to social events or optimizing every minute of your day. While this might sound robotic or inhumane, I believe there's always a way to make it more manageable. Each of us has the ability to adapt these methods to make them more human and sustainable. Most importantly, 5. Life doesn’t stop for your projects. No matter how focused you are, life will keep happening. During this intense period, I still had to participate in family celebrations, play in a pickleball tournament, have difficult conversations with coworkers, fulfill church duties, and handle other personal responsibilities. Life teaches you that you can’t become a robot, even if you try. Ultimately, only you can decide what matters most to you. We all have different backgrounds, beliefs, goals, and limits. The most important thing is to choose what aligns best with your values and circumstances. If you’re ready to take on something hard and sacrificial without guaranteed outcomes-go for it! If that’s not for you, that’s okay too. Prioritizing friends and family is incredibly admirable, and pushing them aside for a project without guaranteed success can feel like a questionable move. These are the hard decisions that go beyond the scope of actual game development, but they are essential if you want to achieve difficult goals. Regardless, I genuinely wish you the best to your development journey. Your comment is amazing and addresses real concerns, which again really got me reflecting and I appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time for stating your words and for checking out the video! Cheers!
The social life stuff and others about refusing, minmaxing and sacrificing other activities to get more time to work on the game sounds like an excellent way to ensure that when you get the game released, you won't have friends, family or the mental health to celebrate it with. Crunch is extremely harmful, but you're basically advocating for it. People in the know will realise that and will temper the suggestions in this video, but new, young and naive game devs might take the advice at face value and cause major harm to their mental health and relationships over the course of months or years. Crunch might be good for the short term, but your example of releasing 4 games in a year will cause burnout eventually, and then they won't be releasing any games anymore. At that point they might not even be able to work on games ever again. And about the mealprepping and other minmaxing: Cooking and doing chores can be an important point in the day where you get to let your mind rest, while mindlessly cooking or doing laundry or whatever. Trimming all that out and just sitting at a computer doing the same stuff all day (apart from breaks) will mentally exhaust you. There's a reason why some countries and/or companies have even started trying out 4 day work weeks or 6 hour work days. Because there comes a point after which the human brain doesn't do effective labor anymore, and it's more efficient to let it rest instead.
Man, the part about "if you want the game to be done in a month then the work adjusts to that timeframe" is so true. I've been working on a game for over a year now, mostly took so long as I was learning new tools & a new language, but then I took a break from that to work on a commission project and since that had an actual deadline I was able to put out the project in a few months.
@@GurkisDev This. Deadlines are requirements to get things done. As developers it’s common to dismiss this due to over-polishing our project while forgetting how events like Game Jams can generate results over a weekend. In addition, we need to stay focused and avoid distractions in order to maximize said timeframe before deadline. Thanks for sharing your proof for leaving an excellent comment!
Hey Gurkis, fancy seeing you here. I feel this, I have had the same exactly thing happening. We will take as long as we give ourselves to do something.
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A tip from Jim Kwik is to take breaks to move yourself for like 30s every 20 minutes, but it works for me every half hours too. Its important to stretch my back so I just stretch my hands up and bend back and also move my legs.
Iv been making games for 5 months now. Iv got a finished project and iv learnt alot! Working alone on a project is hard and sooner or later u run out of steam/motivation and focus, right? Iv come to learn tho that we all have a motivation bar. Taking too much hits to our motivation bar eventually makes us stop working on our project. What do i do? I plan well BUT not well enough. Plan what you going to do, but dont plan too well. If you fall behind your schedule, you take massive hits to your M bar. And by planning i mean plan to protecc your M Bar. So i back up my game after each hige feature i finish. Otherwise if i lose my progress? Massive blow to the M bar. Have a list, fill it with small tasks and scratch it off. Dont put "create inventory system" to your list. Add "create way to store items" "add a way to count item quantity to database" "add a way to display quantity". Break it down. Planning includes the bitch ass game doc. Keeps you grounded. Once you start writing the idea down, you get to see if the game works or not. And then stick to it. Itll help u keep out the feature creep. Refilling that bar includes short breaks, eating healthy, gyming, friends(even if you are anti social like me) 2 most important ways to refill your m bar? SLEEP and consuming content of the media you making. Watch devlogs, browse indie reddit subs. Keep ur brain thinking and focussed on what you wana do. You do that, not only do you learn from others. But your brain wont forget what its current objective is. This is my wisdom after 5 months and i dont see myself stopping any time soon. Oh and lastly, sometimes ull take a 3 day break. Life gets messy. Maybe u cant finish the things you wana do in time. Its ok. Shit happens, you will get burnt out and beating urself up on it gets you nowhere. Rest, reset and recover. And get back to it when you ready. Just dont leave it too long ❤ that part im still figuring out. Edit: Be the boss you've allways wanted and be the employee that you as a boss would want. So pay your employee the right pay, dont over work him and as an employee, work hard for your boss
First of all - Huge congratulations on finishing your project and I'm proud to hear your consistency on your journey - keep it up! 🎊 I love the vigor you're demonstrating by saying that you don't plan on giving up anytime soon - we need more developers with this mindset. Also, excellent insight and advice! I love the Motivation Bar idea; really keeps your comment gamedev-based which is super fitting for this topic. I do want to point out something and this isn't to counter argue your point, however, we all have different approaches and I purposely abstained/avoided using the word 'motivation' at all costs in this video. I think motivation creates emotional dependency. You're not wrong in using motivation to keep you on track to do work - as you've stated it's definitely a part of your system and keeping it high on energy will allow you to keep trudging forwards. The point that I do want to highlight is that habits create discipline which outweigh the benefits of motivation. What this bascially means is "Hey, even if I feel tired, bad, or not in the mood to perform hard work, I will still do it regardless of how I feel" and this is why a lot of these talking points may appear to be "extreme" or "hardcore." Now this isn't to say that your system is wrong - if you need rest, breaks, socilaizing, that's absolutely great and necessary too! Work with what works the best to you. I really enjoy your last statement "Be the boss you've always wanted and be the employee that you as a boss would want" because in practicality, we're all human and we need to focus on other parts of our lives too. Regardless, thank you a million for sharing your journey and for sharing what works for you. This is excellent advice + insight and I'm very confident a lot of developers are going to appreciate your words. Again, keep up the hard work and don't give up - keep making us proud!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev 100% everyone is different. I call it a motivation bar but its more like your gas tank. Or the burn out tank, similar to the internal steam method. Telling people your ideas could knock that M bar down. Motivation does eventually run dry. And like you said, the habits are more important. But if you dont watch that tank, eventually even your routines will suffer or suffer effectiveness at the very least. But yea my brains abit different when it comes to routine, which is why i dont talk to others about it. Eventually my brain gets bored of a routine/habit. So iv learnt to change my routine every now and then. Every month or so, so i try and keep it as flexible as possible. Nothing wrong with it, everyone is different. Find what works for you and dont beat urself up if something doesnt work you. Just for anyone else who is reading this.
I appreciate your comment and absolutely understand - there are a lot of talking points that require more attention than the actual development process and it can be very overwhelming if one were to adapt to all of these tips overnight. Feel free to try out one or two of these ideas and see if it works. Regardless, you're absolutely free to do what you want with your time.
In my opinion. Both development styles are valid. Specially when one got their time to enjoy developing. Or need to meet the end in a narrow time span.
Next game, make a game that shows how to make a game fast. Update it when comments suggest other ways. Eventually, it becomes the go-to game about making games.
This is the best video I’ve seen on practical productivity advice. Especially the tips in the beginning. I think it can apply to anyone in any field. I was surprised to see disagreements in the comments on this kind of mindset. It is a grind mindset, and that probably doesn’t work for everyone. If game development is simply a hobby of yours, then sure, you can spend your time however you’d like. But if the intention is to turn it into a career, then it’ll take a lot of effort and intention to get to that point. That doesn’t mean having a casual mindset is always bad, but you can’t put in casual effort if you want to turn something into a professional career.
Godsent comment, Gianni. Thank you for your input and for synthesizing the approach of career versus hobby. There's a whole set of ways we tackle our work/career, why not apply that to the same degree in Game Development? I really hope this video helped you in one way shape or form and there's more advice I'm about to launch.
Thank you for this video! I wish I could've seen this video 7 years ago, when I started my game dev journey. If I can help out and add more advices, here they are: 1) the Pomo Doro method helped me a lot : tho my version is 50 mins of work, then 10 mins of rest. 2) I use a website blocker like Forest on browser. I block Twitter and UA-cam (especially UA-cam Shorts) to stay away from doom scrolling. 3) I write my ideas down in a physical booklog. It's not perfect and looks like a scrap book on some parts but I keep it as clear as possible so future me can still understand what I've wrote ages ago and remember quickly how to do or change things. 4) If you have more than one project in mind and don't know which one to begin with, make a list of the features, places, characters, etc... of each project. Then pick the one that is going to be done the quickest. You'll get rewarded sooner and will get the experience you need for your bigger projects. Good luck fellow game dev, never lose the spark and don't burn yourself out.
This is honestly such goated advice, huge thanks for delivering this list on what you do to increase your productivity, Ardonie. The best part about these tips is how you can customize them to best suit your needs and habits. Also adding to point #4: Asset Pooling - once you complete a project and if you've designed your systems to be modular/felxible for porting to others, you've essentially created an asset that can be used for other project. Intrinsically, your reward for speedrunning a game is the ability to make another game faster provided it uses the same type of system(s) you've created. Thanks for dropping those tips - goodluck with your game development journey!
Great video, lots of good points but be careful to not make game development all you do ever. It's important to not shut out your social life or you'll end up feeling lonely and depressed, and this damage your game dev speed a lot more than doing social things occasionally ever could
I found this video a bit presumptuous. But one of the tips is really important: drilling. Not getting past major hurdles and showing off all the small achievements are real killers on the long run.
Thanks for the comment and I appreciate the feedback! It's important to share info based on direct evidence/experience, that way the source is reliable for all developers who want to engage in trying out these habits. It's also why I had to double down on lots of these points, especially the drilling aspect. Its something most of us struggle with and my solution to it is to remain grazing on it. Regardless, I really hope that this video helps you in any way shape or form!
The pointers and discussions mentioned are really good, it feels these notes are really good for people who are new to game dev and are a nice reminders for game developers with experience and trying to make their own game out of their main job(Yes I'm being very specific :d).
Hey, great comment, and thank you for pointing this out - you're right: this is tailored more to those who want to create more time for development (whether hobbyist or professional) - you do not need to take all tips, however, they do compound together. I really hope this was helpful for you!
Young or old - it's a choice you make and everyone has a different path. My perspective may be a bit different given my personal context, but I really hope this video can help you adapt a handful of habits that can kickstart or accelerate your development journey. Thank you for the comment and for your support!
Just really got into game dev and would want to add some things to the beginning of the video. When I first started working on my game I went all gung ho and dove directly into it, from building the game or following massive tutorials and easily putting in 12 - 16 hour days putting the work into it, and massive burnout happened. A schedule is something that is required to avoid this, and knowing how you work best. I just started going back to the gym as much as I would like, life can't just be game dev all of the time. Then how I feel after the gym placed it in a part of the day that I normally wouldn't go to it as I will often be worn, tired, and sluggish where it isn't uncommon for me to take a nap shortly after words. As and example my schedule looks something like this. 5am: wake up (my alarm is set to 6 but waking up naturally) 5:30 am: start on the game (snacks through out) 12pm: at the gym (home gym so that makes things simple) 2pm: extra work on the game, nap if need be 5pm: get things done around the house, make dinner 8pm: relax time 10pm: in bed.
This is great! Thank you for highlighting the importance of a scheudle, deadlines, resting, appropiating relax-time, and working out. Also great optimization tip - if you have a home gym, you can save time on the commute to the gym. Thank you for sharing your schedule since this is a great example to follow for those who agree with your habits.
I think the final advice here is the only one that's important. If you're just naturally slow and bad no tips and tricks can help you. Getting good is the hardest part. Workout can be a great analogy here where some people despite working out for years can't build the amount of muscle they desire.
@@stickguy9109 You’re right - its the conscious decision to improve that leads you where you want. You can “workout everyday” but muscle mass won’t increase if you don’t increase your weights, consume more protein, and optimize your routine. Reflectively, none of these habits work if you are not consciously improving. Thanks for pointing this out!
Interesting points in the video. I am developing my first project, and it is a 2D horror Shadow Pulse (btw, the game already has a page on Steam). And the development has been going on for three years, which is crazy. In my experience, the most destructive distractions for work productivity were crunches. Yes, before a gamedev event I managed to make a lot of progress in a short time, added a completely new location, removed bugs. But at the same time, I had to quickly introduce systems that did not work, forget about documentation, and most importantly, for a full month, or even two, after severe crunches I could not return to work. Burnout is a terrible enemy.
After looking at Shadow Pulse and re-reading your situation multiple times, this is what I have to say: Performing to Crunch without an endpoint (establishing a terminal "once I'm here, we're done" point of your development) is extremely unsustainable because you're essentially running towards a finish line without actually reaching the end. The amount of stamina you end up using to not finish is what causes burnout. From experience, I would say it's not the actual crunch but where the crunch ends. Again, if you did a massive crunch only to find out you're still at 50% of development, or you simply realized you need even more work to do, you end up forfeiting the purpose of crunching by prematurely completing the crunch period with an unfulfilled state. It's viable to crunch [so-that] you finish your game, not crunch [so-that] you have more work to do. Shadow Pulse has a lot of strong art which implies a sheer amount of detail/lots of hours of creating those artistic assets. For each new level, enemy, background, area, etc. anything that uses art, I can imagine you're spending tons of time just making sure that the art looks clean only to then start the process to implement it in-game which is a whole other procedure. If you haven't already, try to host playtest sessions to gather audience reactions to see how this is preceive the game - because your art may appear great for many, but it's important to scope it to see how others react to it too. Also, for a development cycle that has taken 3 years, do you think this timeframe justifies all of the features, content, and things you can do in-game? If so, great! Otherwise, I really recommend you launching soon so that you can use your systems/features and port them into your next project to further speedrun your next game. I want to bring this to your awareness becase 3 years of game development time roughly translates to ~6,480 hours of possible project time (if you work, sleep, and deal with other responsibilites life throws at you). While Game Development demands a ton of time to create, test, and polish your work, you need to account how much 6.4k hours is really worth relative to your endevour. Regardless of everything I've stated, I want you to know that your comment is heavily appreciated and that I really hope anything I've stated in this comment + video helps further your steps to completing and launcing Shadow Pulse. Keep up your endurance, do not burn-out, and let Sneaky Gremlin Games succeed because of the smart choices you make. Cheers!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Thanks for the reply! Definitely agree with the point that crunch leading to no meaningful output in the middle of a development cycle is a major part of the crunch problem for me. As for the duration of development - this is a direct consequence of the fact that I did not really understand the scope of the game I was taking on, given that I had literally never done a single project before. And how stubbornly I refuse to change my development plans (drop a project and take on a new one, for example). In my background, I am an artist, so yes, for me art was the main part of development, but now I see a very large number of problems associated with planning, a complete lack of a work schedule, and the resulting cases when I can forget about, for example, why the location I had in mind is needed at all. Now I am experiencing the consequences of scope creep, and I am learning my lessons from this, in short. And yes, I have already come to the conclusion that in the best case, the game will be ready for the spring Steam Next Fest, not by the end of this year, as I previously thought. Yes, I have a lot of finished art, debugged mechanics, several variants of monsters, even blanks for water levels! But all this is still not collected even in the demo, due to problems with planning and game design, for which I did not have enough time. I think, soon, I will have to postpone all work on art, sound, characters and other things. And deal exclusively with gameplay until I have a ready story campaign for each chapter of the game. Locations full of placeholders from the beginning to the very end. And then polish. Let's hope that this will be the last postponement of the release date 😅
I don't usually leave comments, but this video was incredibly informative and had such great practical advice for getting sh*t done. I know a lot of people aren't going to like hearing some of these points but if you want to produce more in a shorter time listen to everything this man has to say. Thank you for the upload
@@blakefpierson Blake, you’re a real one for this. Thank you for standing firm for the information provided in this video. I will continue to share deeper advice in the next ones and this comment really backs up what I believe in. Thank you for your comment and remember that you’re welcomed here.
Appreciate the motivation! I made some deadlines for myself that I set a few months out yet, in an effort to not put to much stress on the project. You had a great point with "the amount of time you give to finish the game is how long it takes to make it." (completely butchered in paraphrase, but I liked that quote) A bit of healthy stress is needed to finish projects.
The drilling section is complicated. Sometimes you could drill into a difficult problem that isn't necessary to be fully solved for a demo, and a week later you cut the feature entirely so it was a waste of time to drill. It really depends how critical this task is right now. If it is a critical task that you will need for your next milestone then I think your advice is solid, but if it isn't then sometimes ideal to do "good enough" for today.
@@MaximumAxiom Great catch! - I see your point and I’m glad you’re able to articulate it in this fashion. However, what I wanted to say (which may be controversial) is that when you can’t fully solve it and redirect the problem into doing something else/cutting the feature, you’re introducing the ability to avoid difficult problems. Now, I completely understand and get it if you truly don’t need said feature or if said feature is dependent on other systems. I really like how you used the word “critical” because that would raise its significance to the point where if this does NOT get resolved soon, you’re not executing your time in a manner that pushes progression towards your game. There are many exceptions and cases to this but the tl;dr is “Hey, stay on that difficult path as long as you can to grow.” Regardless, you’re completely valid in your statement too. (Also completely irrelevant but you have such a cool profile pic)
This video was perfect for what I needed right now. I was trouble applying Game Dev to my life the right way. This is a good framework / set of habits that I can work with them. Now I can finally focus on THE F_ING GAME. No more beating around the bush...
Eactly - focus on the actual game and you'll get results. Apply some basic lifestlye changes and you'll get results too. Now mix them both and...? 👀 Good luck on your devleopment journey! I'm glad this helped!
Make skeleton systems. Make one game object with all the enemy features and use that objects code to reference the other enemies so they all function the same. Very useful advice. I didn't think of it that way.
Amazing video, I agree with other comments that this video is so well explained. Few things I'd add I learned from many people: Exercise: - you should do moderate exercise when doing breaks between work if possible. Moderate exercise boosts brainpower, so do that during breaks instead of scrolling social media. By moderate I mean that it's comfortable but you feel blood pumping a bit (source: The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul) - walking is amazing, especially after meals, especially if you eat high glycemic index food, you will feel a lot better (source same as above) Food: - make sure you eat carbs during meal last, so if you have some veggies, chicken and pasta then eat veggies first, chicken second and pasta last (order: fiber, protein, fat, carbs) (source: The Glucose Goddess) - green leafy stuff is AMAZING, it has most nutrients per kcal, so try to eat more spinach, rucola/arugula, kale and similar. Throw in some mushrooms like portobellos too (they do have nutrients and quite a lot per kcal), and if you can spend some money try out chlorella or spirulina (they taste awful but very healthy and nutrient dense) (source: niche book from Poland, but you can calculate that based on nutrient tables for products, or take data from NHS or other local sources and calculate by hand) Breaks: - it takes around 15-30 minutes to go back to flow of things (at least that's what science shows regarding code writing), so do short breaks where you move (even better if surrounded by nature in park or something) but not overly often because then you spend half the time going back to flow (1 break every hour = 15-30 minutes every hour to go back) (source: Felienne Hermanns book "Programmers Brain")
@@doktoracula7017 This is super amazing information and the sources attached to it will definitely help provide even deeper insights for anyone else who wants to further investigate ways to optimize lifestyle to improve your project’s performance. Great comment; thank you for taking the time to share your notes, sources, and for your support!
nice tips. For 'passive' playtest I would request friends to record a video of their playthrough with videocam so they can comment while they are playing, also you can see their emotional reactions and this is unvaluable.
@@luckyknot Great point and absolutely agreed - your feedback survey will be based on how you design your play-test. One example I can share that l did in my first few play tests was that I added an intro scene that says “Press the Space Bar once you started recording your play test” and that way l have a screen-wide notification that prevents players from progressing until their OBS is actively recording the screen. As you mentioned, it’s critical to communicate that you need their reaction. Super invaluable tactic.
Bro this has to be the most helpful video I ever watched that covers stuff like that , sometimes it takes ages to figure out many of the things you've been talking about and sometimes you can't even identify them even after a long time , definitely very helpful thank you a lot for making this video.
@@KebeMaro Extremely happy to be the person that has provided that insight for you! Regardless, just as you said, sometimes we need to take a huge step out and think out of the box to really catch ourselves in bigger problems we won’t see in our day-to-day operations. Thank you a million for your comment and I can’t wait to share more information that will continue to solve these types of problems.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev I can't wait to get to listen to them thank you so much for this I hope you keep it up and also wish you best of luck on your game dev journey !
The "drilling" point really resonated with me. I am almost obsessive with problem solving and once I have a problem where I know the best solution I cannot do anything until I can fix it. I feel like sometimes it might be a hinderance because I work on things too long, but at the same time this very thorough approach leads me to be able to learn the optimal way first and foremost and carry good habits through my development which I think is going to pay off long term because I'm building things in a way that will scale.
Exactly - it may _feel_ unproductive in the heat of the moment because the delay that it currently causes does indeed prevent you from progressing - but what we tend to ignore or forget is that the very same delay that is causing all obstacles 9/10 times is going to be part of the game's core making it absolutely necessary to resolve with all the focus possible. It's not a delay - it's the difficult challenge that make you grow and stops other future delays. It's also where the biggest temptation that occurs: "Do I work on something else or do I finish my game?" Great comment - I appreciate your insight a lot!
Thanks for the tips. I didn't know that I do many things you mentioned. But, when it's time to actually create the game, I just get stuck at planning. Really, what's matter is to work and work in a big chunk of time at a time. And, yes, ban social media. I mean, I need to reduce my UA-cam watch time that doesn't help me progress my work. Like, don't just watch hundreds of tutorials, just follow one.
Thank you for your comment - I agree that social media is a time sink and this also includes UA-cam. I do think there is a time and space to use it, especially as leanring tools. Afterall, I need to use UA-cam as a platform to share my process and engage with developers like yourself to continue learning and avoiding large mistakes going forward. That being said, just like tutorial-hell, there is planning-hell and the best way to avoid that is to: 1. Apply a deadline (Seriously, I talked about Parkison's Law (10:00) and this is the key ingredient developers are missing) 2. Lower your scope 3. [Controversial] and if you're early in development, planning should be 10% - 25%. If you're already in it, it should be 1% - 5% :: the reason why I'm telling you to lower planning by a significant amount is because unless you're in-charge of a HUGE project, chances are that the planning phase should be delegated into really small chunks as discussed in (22:59) + (23:43) - this is primarily because overtime, you'll learn how to drill/tackle your planning methods to the point where plans can be drafted, made, and executed much more rapidly - it is a skill that requires time to develop; therefore, you can learn how to speedrun planning. Roadmapping is critical and important, but 90% of the time it will prove to be ineffective if you cannot iterate directly on your game and see what actually works. This is why small scope/scale, projects with deadlines, and a focus on core gameplay will always trump your process because even if you ended up making a "bad game" you've effectively created something you can learn from and avoid in a small amount of time. Repeat this process 50 times and you literally get 50 Games within a decade. Imagine how powerful your development would be a whole decade from now. The long-term projection conversation will be reserved for another time - but really ponder about that for a moment and when it clicks you'll see why it's critical to just act with deadlines in mind. Regardless - thank you for your support!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Thanks for such a very personal advice. I know it also applies to others, but you directly talk about my problems here. I started to plan only roughly and keep pushing myself to spend more time creating. And one tip I learned about making small game is that, a short story is enough to make a short game. I write some short stories as a hobby, and have some friends doing the same, so I chose one story to make a game about it. And it doesn't matter if the game deviates from the story, the point is to not think too much of what it should be and just follow the idea of the story. I know you probably know this but I just want to leave it here for someone else as an example of a small change in strategy.
I think most of the advice is good, except the one about learning to "Say No". Ive done that before, friendships will slowly to rot away if you keep choosing gamedev over spending time with them. From their perspective it's shitty, you are choosing speculative time-risky business venture over hanging out.
@@wildrosegamedev Thank you for the comment and l understand your point of view. Ultimately it comes down to what you’re willing to/what you prioritize in your life. l personally admire those who value the strength of relationships and do not/cannot judge their situation because of their values. However if you have supportive friends, that’s even better. I understand neglect/abandoning those around you who deeply care for you is generally a wrong choice, but like l’ve stated in this particular video, none of these habits are good for long term practices. Always establish an end-goal to ensure you don’t waste your time doing endless work. I really hope this helped you in one way shape or form. Regardless, l hope you have a wonderful game development journey.
Reusing objects is common for me, shooting systems, UI management, player moviment and input are some of the programming side that saves a significant amount of time. Reusing art, music and even documentation is also very useful. The more projects you make, the bigger is your pool of assets.
@@nasfoda_gamerbrbigproducti5375You pointed out critical information - “The more projects you do, the bigger pool of assets you’ll have.” THIS. This is exactly why it’s more important to do one project at a time, finish it, and before you know it, you have an entire project you can reference, reuse and/or recycle.
@@EdwardLabarcaDevAnd learning that your designs and code weren't good after two years can crush all your motivation. Even if you have to re-make many systems for your next game you will have learned from your previous projects to make those systems quicker and better.
Wow ! Thank you very much for your Awesome Advice !! Im a new Game Developer and have been self learning for the past 2-3 years, and a lot of the Points you made are natural conclusions I was coming too recently. Your whole Package of knowledge presented here has really helped me solidify these Ideas for myself. I aspire to be so skilled at Game Development that I can create any Game I dream of with ease, in short, a Master Game Dev. Mauri Ora and thankyou for your aid on my journey, many blessings your way my friend ⭐⛰
I'm thrilled to hear that this video helped you out, King! You're warmly welcomed here and I can't wait to keep uploading more deep advice soon. You will be able to reach your goal with time, patience, and as long as you're learning, you will get closer to where you want to be. Keep having that open mind and you'll be very impressed with how far you can go! Good luck on your journey and feel free to stop by whenever you want. 🎊
When I saw the game I sense some MMBN flair, and then you mention it on how they recycled assets on MMBN. Good call. Also, the Sakurai one, and many other tips. I do a living from this line of work for more than 15 years, and I support what you said. Good one. Kudos!
Your comment is gold, recognizing MMBN is based, and hearing you do this as a living while agreeing with my points is the icing on top. Huge thank you for your comment! I really appreciate your words and wish nothing but success for you.
Mike Mentzer's routine will save you a lot of time for those who are into lifting. You go as hard as you can with only 1 set for each lift, straight to failure. Im usually only in the gym 3hrs a week and I'm still making massive strength gains with this after 3+ years.
Important: Mike Mentzer has an excellent routine. I also reccommend Polarity Fitness for he too proves that as a lifter, you can make gains by only hitting the gym 2 times a week with high interval intensity training that focuses on compound movements until failure. Both sources are optimal for both time and results. I appreciate you sharing this tidbit!
i feel like if you can afford it set unrealistic time frames with Parkinson's law. I made a checklist for aug of stuff I needed to be done. All of it did not get done but a significant amount of work was done to the point I was ahead of schedule in reality of what realistically could be done on average the trick is staying ahead and not getting comfortable with your extra time but it really depends on what you're doing. I'd say only do this for a myriad set of simple tasks you need to be done, really simple design stuff nothing major.
@@lufuoena This is EXACTLY what happens when you use the law. You’re going to be way better off reaching your goals with it rather than without out. Huge thanks for sharing this insight!
You are warmly welcomed here - Thank you for making my day and I can't wait to share more of my insights. I really hope this helped you in your journey!
@@SecretZoneGames Hey man, the Discord is almost ready to go public. I'd love to have a community to bounce ideas with. In the meantime feel free to join the newsletter where you can get exclsuvie updates and advice from me such as when I launch the discord hehe: mailchi.mp/18769141c5f2/kick-ass-game-development
The drilling bit I don't agree fully because whenever I encounter something hard I try until I've explored most of my options and then do something else or just finish for the day because I'm probably tired already and can't focus on it. Whenever I sleep on it, I can usually resolve it by the time I wake up because when you sleep, your brain processes the issue in the background. Usually I do tasks one at a time and do drill like you've described but on the really persistent problems I don't stress out too much otherwise I get burned out and lose momentum which is way worse than just working on something else
@@finesseandstyle You’re right - Breaks are important are allow you to think about solutions passively. Sometimes we can stress ourselves for no reason and are required to take a step back. What I wanted to communicate is that you shouldn’t switch the task you’re working on until the task at hand is fully resolved. Regardless, really glad to hear your POV on this matter and I’ll make sure to keep your words in mind next time l speak about drilling! Goodluck with your development journey!
Really helpful and comprehensive insights. From sleep, focus, coding, reuse, delegating, drilling and more. You have a really solid system and your games look like fun mechanics and a lot of juice.
Hey - I appreciate your words a lot and thank you for complimenting my system and my game too! Great job on listing the topics covered too. I really hope this helped you in one way or another.
@@maheryrazafindralambo9679 More skills = less friction, and yeah -gotta love grid-based systems after you experiment with them hehe. Glad this helped and l hope you excel in your game development journey!
1. Go to bed 2. Do exercise 3. Prepare meal 4. Push chore in a blocked set period of time 5. Condition yourself to saying "No" with no excuses 6. Go autopilot on decisions 7. Cut distractions like social media 8. Take shorter breaks 9. Parksinson's law, work expands the more you limit yourself game dev related 10. one project at a time, grab one, ginish 11. invest in scalable system (aka components, inheritance) 12. Recycle assets 13. delegate other tasks that you can't do quickly when possible 14. Take better programming notes 15. Passive and Active feedback, get a survey and playtest (make it in google forms) 16. large chunks of blocked periods = focused work 17. small chunks of blocked periods = quick tasks 18. use critical tools. not all of them 19. drilling : engaging in exercises that challenge you go apply concepts in various contexts. 20. Internal steam: Be quiet avout new features that you have to force yourself to remain motivated 21. Ensure incremental progress, learn to get better
the thing about making new assets, i acknowledge that as a massive time sink and i just consider it worth it in most cases. that's the kind of time investment that players will really feel, i think they really appreciate having lots of genuinely new things to look at. i pour tons of time into that, but the way i see it, every minute spent creating new assets is a good investment.
@@adog3129 Nothing wrong with assets, especially since it’s what makes your game charming/unique. It just happens that if you have a team or someone to delegate that type of work to, you could save a huge chunk of time. Regardless, it is important to have your own “signature” when making your assets too. Thanks for your words!
Great talk and video you obviously put a lot of time into. I like how you start with general productive lifestyle habits before going into game dev specific habits. Setting an alarm to go to sleep is probably what will help me the most as I usually need an hour to fall asleep anyway and I rarely budget for that time and It's really hard to have a good day when you start out tired. I'm definitely not nearly as routined and organized as you are as I have pretty intense ADHD but managing ADHD is a lot of habit building and habit breaking like anything else. Looking forward to more of your talks/videos in the future!
@@Matt_Sorensen Bro, THANK YOU for your words and especially that last point-all of life’s difficulties can be mitigated by managing habits. Beautifully stated and more importantly, it highlights your level of accountability. Mad respect goes to you for saying that. I’m glad this video helped but am happier to see you share your thoughts! Good luck with your development journey!
This video is fantastic! I fell into most of these habits just by chance, and have been very productive since I did. This concisely explained what I was doing so that I could send it over to my partner for game dev so he can see what he might need to do to hit my levels of productivity. Thank you!
@@DreamsInShades Super glad to hear this helped! Also really grateful to hear that you share many of these habits and are sharing the same results. I hope this information helps your partner out and clarifies why we develop the way we do. 😎
Great video, i am going to focus on drilling, Parkinson's law, commiting to 1 project(for the big blocks of time), Alarm before sleep(already set if half way through the video) Taking smaller breaks and being more specific like 15 min not just ima chill for a bit 2 hours later Also adding these to the spread sheet comparing my daily productive time already. Great video, now i gotta go drill through a school project
I cannot express how much I appreciate you for taking the time to comment and prove the point on why focusing is key to being quick and consistent. Absolute King behaviour - Thank you for sharing and I hope you prosper in your development journey!
Oh yeah it can sound like a lie from me man, but I’m not kidding. Of course it took me a lot of time to learn that. Just now I can see that focus is key. Along with that comes the automation. Being well organized and patient also helped me to deal with the fact that a simple app requires an insane amount of code even if you use the frameworks available. And finally: Do it! No matter what. Do it.
I like how the beginning of the video is actually just general life advice, and implementing various forms of minimalism to cut the unwanted fat out of your life and fill it with the things you actually want. It makes for an excellent lifestyle guide video that rivals most real lifestyle guide videos, hehe
I very much appreciate this comment as it helps contextualize that sometimes we focus too much on the actual project rather than what you do to even properly perform for the project. Thank you for your words!
Thank you so much for investing your time in creating this insightful video and sharing your invaluable experience on how to become more efficient in game development. After watching, I feel inspired and re-energized to continue working on my own game. It's always motivating to learn from passionate individuals like yourself. Wishing you continued success in your game development journey!
@@harryworner1990 It brings me joy to hear you get revamped on tackling the game development journey, Harry. I’m stoked to hear how this helped and can’t wait to share more of my insights soon - for now, practice some of those habits and you’ll see how development becomes a different game of itself.
My problem is that I have depression, and (despite being well medicated) it fucks up my internal clock. I would sleep 16 hours a day if it wasn't for alarms
Hey Aeolian, thanks for sharing your situation. Sorry to hear about your personal circumstances. I think that the power of multi-layered habits is that you can create an assortment of them that best fits your needs. If you are (unfortunately) suffering from factors that hold you down, optimize for the habits that give you the best benefit/ROI. For example, if the Internal clock is too much of a struggle, do not fret - ignore this habit and focus on building the other ones that suit you. That being said, if you require an alarm - absolutely hold onto it! I really hope this video helps you paint a picture on other steps and approaches you can take to continue 'faster' development - remember that your health comes first no matter what!
31:05 Such a great video, so many cool insights, especially the Masahiro tip, it makes so much sense. I made a trailer of my game in the very early days, shared it, everyone liked and then the development stalled for MONTHS because I had a false sense of completion.
Thank you so much for sharing this and exactly - it's rough when we have that false sense, but we need to learn how to put our heads down and keep working silently. It takes time to learn this and I know we're capable of doing so. Really hope this helped you!
When you delegate any work, are there legal concerns or you have to make a contract even when they are simply a friend? It seems like such a stressful thing to do to delegat. What's the right way to do this?
Great question! Allow me to provide clarity: (I'm going to cover the safety-net of using and making contract + the importance of teammates) ⚠All parties involved need to document and sign an agreement form to avoid any legal issues. ⚠ This is better done with people who offer professional services as it supoprts their business, builds their rapport + portofolio and/or already provides a system of invoicing (which are paid contracts.) - similar to how running a studio/team would work, you should exchange value (money) for respecting a pre-determined contract you've generated so that you may get their tangible content creation and project contributions. Example 1: Using Services for Delegation @punpunartz is a great friend of mine and foremost is professional graphic designer. As a result, we had to discuss how we wanted to delegate. Upon proposing my idea to her, both of us agreed to sign a contract that clearly states the rules of what, who, and how the intellectual property would be used. Her Service: Make Professional Art - I asked her to take my design and upscale it to a higher-quality version of it that meets the Steam’s standards for all Capsule Sizes and then made an extra request to make each art element separate for the purpose of modifiny it and/or using it as separate assets for other media. For @punpunartz, I paid her for her work, asset separate agreement, and this was all documented in a contract we both agreed to. You can see the contract here: imgur.com/a/OdhZ1AZ (I hid sensatve information on this screenshot) + We also have email proof discussing how I'm able to use her work. Example 2: Using Friends for Delegation Now, let's say you have a friend who doesn't have a way to distribute professional services and/or is just helping you for fun: ❗Write a simple document and make your friends sign it ❗ Then save it as a .pdf or unmodifyable document that establishes clearly what properites are shared, what is allowed and how it can be used. It is critical to have a track record of agreements to avoid getting into legal trouble should conflict occur in the future. This information should detail what you and your friend would work on and how the value (money) gets distributed before, during, and after the project's production cycle. End of the day, while this isn't necessarily required, it's simply for your safety. Personally, I haven't had informal experience of working with friends/not paying collaborators, and I intentionally do this to protect property I've established and property that is shared with professional collaborators + I truly want to respect people's talents (If I can't pay you to work with me or cannot generate revenue that is advantagous for a potential team, then I shouldn't be in the position to ask for it). The only informal relations when developing that are completely fine are those regarding feedback, play-testing, idea-sharing, etc. - not those involved in the actual tangible content creation. For those who want to help/offer favors, I reject their offer because I personally believe in exchanging value. I know this can be improved and that there are other developers that have a system to establish this, however, it's easy to hear a friend offer you a 'favor' and you need to know when to draw the line / assert the boundary that if this is truly a favor, you'd reward them under the conditions of a favor. Lastly, I'm a firm believer that teams are the absolute best way to develop. It may be paradoxical to state this because if you can gather a team earlier and delegate a million things to them in exchange for sharing revenue, profit, or paying them later - as long as the team member(s) agree, then totally go for it. Talent and delegation is one of the largest levers you can use to become hyper-productive in the game industry - you just need to absolutely ensure that you put your integrity first to 1. protect your property, 2. respect and protect your teammate(s)'s values, skills, + contributions, and 3. avoid miscommunication/conflict in a professional environment that could get you in trouble.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Brilliant response! Very comprehensive. I also agree that exchanging value is the right thing to do. The biggest mental hurdle for me is what the project's owner must do to have other people work together on a project, like making agreement papers with full confidence that it's perfect. Or researching how much value a chunk of work should be compensated for. But this may come down to first-hand experience.
@@Cameo221 Also as a standby witness, I've seen this happen countless time - Teaming-up for Game Jams. I can tell you that it's common for individuals to meet-up and agree to working with each other for the end goal of completing a project for a game-jam. It's free and the value the get is to make a game within a weekend, polish their skills + add more to their portfolio. Typically, if the game jam final results are good enough, then the team would re-negociate their terms on "Hey, let's make this a full game" and then that contract part is introduced (this is because most common and informal agreements for game jams is to share everything being contributed within the project they make.) A great example of this is Peglin - it started as a game jam idea, popped-off due to its innovation, and then Dylan Gedig (founder of Red Nexus Games and creator of Peglin) organized his team to work on the game full time while clearly establishing the working conditions of how his team would get compensated. Note: this involved the legal creaiton of Red Nexus Games Inc. - which is the formal buisness/service they use to reallocate revenue the team and produce their next game, Foul Damage.
@@MarioCola I can agree with you because yes - time working on your craft is better spent than consuming media. (unless it helps you attain new knowledge to execute your craft more efficiently) However, I would like to share that I am still currently operating with a 9-5 job. I mention this primarily because even with all the extensive responsibilities we must do, we can still find opportunities in our limited time to continue creating our projects. I really hope this video helps you understand that any habit that positively enforces your efforts can go a long way. End of the day, you choose where you allocate your time. Thank you for the comment and I hope your game development journey goes smooth, bro!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev man i appreciate the answer, but a 9-5 job without a morning alarm is not doable for most real people Reality is I work on my game from 6pm to 2am almost everyday I can and I do take some days off here and then to get my mind clear, also I do take pauses every 2 hours so I can get back to the engine with a better mind, specially when I'm stuck I obviously don't hate your channel, but mainly this extenuating need for simplifying everything in a recipe that definitely won't work for most people I would take a more human approach and show the best practices everyone can adapt, independently from their personal situation etc I would say for example a good practice is to look for feedback more than you look for check boxes and graphs in your project, that's a big start P.s. Sorry I've responsabilities as you mentioned and they can't wait for me to wake up, most of these habits simply cannot marry everyone.. maybe state these are your habits and these cannot apply to everyone, this created way less expectations on the content
@@MarioCola Hey man, we’re super chill - I’m happy to see you share your point of view and am cheering for you on what you’re doing through. Grateful for the points you’ve mentioned and for elaborating on your position. If your system works for you - great! I just hope that if there’s anything you could take away its to reflect and implement habits that would benefit you and your style of development. I really hope you reach your goals and keep making progress!
Fantastic video and really great advice. This is the difference between someone working on a game as a hobby versus doing this as a job. One thing I would add is don't work on your own IP for your first games (at least 3). This might seem like a strange statement for an indie. How can you work with someone else's IP if you have to pay for a license. What I mean is find a game that you loved (or 2 games for a mashup), and make your own version of that game. The reason I say this Is because the competition in the game space gets larger every year so you can't expect your IP to be one of the shooting stars that hits the big time. Expect failure, and mitigate for it. So rather than making an original IP, if you make your own version of an abandoned PSOne game (I'm doing this right now) or something like that, then you've got a built in audience to work with and you're going to get noticed by way more people. I worked on two of my own IP projects before I realized you need to make a name for yourself before anyone will care. Also, avoid public domain IPs because most of them are forgotten. Unless you want to start really early on a James Bond game or Batman or Superman knowing that it'll take you a while to finish and the timing might be perfect for when a popular IP goes into public domain.
Fire advice! 🔥 I can see your point regarding how IPs need a name attached to it before it goes big - however I'd like to think that this is a double-edged sword because some of the most popular Indie IPs were crafted without virality in mind. I do agree with your point and would like to highlight the fact that failure and account for mistakes are gareenteed to occur when you're getting into the industry and that experience/sharpening your skills helps you migiate risk. Also, out of pure curosity, what PSOne game is your game based on?
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Yeah, it's just something I wish I learned sooner, because prior to releasing my games, I came from the modding scene where everything was 100% original and I loved that. But that's the difference between doing it as a hobby or a career. At least if you're working on a spiritual successor you can still be working on something you love to start with, but you're just giving yourself a much better chance of success. Not to say you can't make it without tapping into an existing market, it's just a safer strategy. The game I'm working on is a spiritual successor to Future Cop LAPD. The alternative though to working on a spiritual successor is actually just to crank out as many good quality simple games as you can because it really increases your chances of catching the interest of a publisher. Although honestly I think this is a much harder way to make it as an indie, especially in the current market which is only going to get worse in terms of competition. My first game only made me about $800 and it was a 6 month project so having the drive to keep going after that is a lot more difficult. Again, I know not all indies want to work with a publisher - myself included, but it's a good way to get a boost to your career especially if you get one interested enough to invest during development (most try to mitigate risk by waiting until your game is almost finished).
food should not be treated as an engineering problem lol. May as well just chug soylent at that point and skip meals completely. more time i guess. I dont understand the motivation for _wanting_ to make a game in a short amount of time, outside of contractual obligations. I liked to hear about how to be effective with the time you do have while developing (like what you mentioned with distractions) by limiting scope, focusing on a MVP, setting up a roadmap for yourself (roadmap of features/milestones instead of hard time deadlines is better imo). These seem great for someone whos completey focused on pumping out games for commercial reasons and not just as a hobby/learning experience.
@@100timezcooler Absolutely. This content is geared towards developers who want to prevent over-scoping, create habits to min-max game production time and finish their game(s) in a timely fashion. I would guess that the “motivation” behind doing this comes from a place of being frustrated on how/why games take a long time to make. You have valid points - and l do agree that meals should be cooked correctly, (this doesn’t dismiss that meal preparing saves cooking time) however you have the complete freedom to pick and choose what best works for you or not. Regardless, l really hope this video helped you in any way shape or form. Huge thanks for pointing this out and l really hope you have a smooth development cycle!
just a random thing to nitpick in your example code: "float var", "var" is a terrible variable name to use, and you should never use it as variable name for real purpose. in many languages it's usually a reserve keyword. Avoid using language reserve keyword in general. “int f = 1" as well since it's not a loop index, just give it a meaningful name so you immediately know what it's doing without the need to read through the whole code and guess its purpose. That might massively reduce the amount of comments you need inside your code. Verbose variable naming might be ugly, but it can make your code self-explanatory, which might solve your "what line did what" problems. During code review, when I notice obscure variable name (like key, index) from params or declaration without seeing the direct usage of that variable below to understand what it does. I immediately question my colleagues what it does. 90% the times, they either can't give me an answer or have to look though the code they just created recently. Then I asked why no just change that variable name to whatever they explain it to me, like x_index, y_position. z_key, even z_dict_key, z_dict_entry. Just make it explicitly. This always works and surprisingly 100% of the time they agree to make the change as they got stuck by their own code.
Yup! That's exactly why I decided to demonstrate that block of code in the "Do Less of This" section because of what you said - having variable names (and the lack of notes of what the variable/block is supposed to do) can fundamentally cause time loss because of all of the reverse engineering you would need to perform to understand how the function is actually designed to behave. And as you stated, code reviews exist for this reason too; if another development is reviewing your code and struggles to read the digestablity of your syntax, naming conventions, and notes, you've created more obstacles in the long run which leads to time loss. Huge thanks for clarifying this and for even pointing out the critical importance of being clear in a code review!
It's cool that this worked for you, but it sounds like the sort of monkish lifestyle that Jon Blow has, and I have honestly never seen a man more miserable with his life and in denial about it.
@@turnkey_hole Huge thanks for the warning! Prolonged sprints aren’t healthy long term, but sometimes we need to throw balance out the window to achieve the goals we set. If you don’t have an end point, you’ll crunch and burden yourself for nothing. Keep your endpoint in mind at all times and take a good break after a sprint to stay sane.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev I definitely agree that it's reasonable and okay to carve out time to make sacrifices to achieve goals. Most of us would probably be on board with that. The issue, I think is more a question of what a goal should be. It's weirdly fashionable these days to "set goals" instead of "cultivate hobbies." I couldn't tell you why, but I would guess it's because a goal feels like it should have a product, whereas a hobby doesn't *feel* like it has a product. A hobby, like making games, can be a pursuit you do forever if you take ego out of it. But like, "make a game a month" or "do four jams a year" are two very achievable goals that end up creating a sort of self demand that ruins people. I dunno though. I guess that's just the difference between a hobbyist and somebody who wants to pay the bills with their games. I've never put my social life on hold for productivity's sake. Though I can understand how that might be helpful a month or two out from release. Although, if you're crunching that close to deadline, seems like a fuckup in planning.
I honestly think I should learn from this video because it can help me finish my games much faster. Also, you finished your new game in the same amount of time it took mega man 7 to be finished. Also, can practicing game dev by making multiple games within time limits help? I thought so because you could get more used to making games faster.
I adore this comment - few things I'd like to address: Correct, MM7 was made in exactly 3 months - however at that precise time in Capcom, the company allocated over 180+ developers to create and ship Mega Man 7 for SNES. There is evidence that more content was created than originally intended which is why you can access a mini-scale 2-Player battle mode using cheat codes, and many unused sprites can be found in original game files. This is to say the following: Megaman 7 Development Lessons: 1. Cutting Corners - Cutting content to meet deadlines is appropiate and very practical. (10:00) 2. Focus always wins - If 180+ developers are in the same room, you need to imagine and understand that each developer had a specific role. As an indie developer, you would need to wear all 180+ hats to achieve this task. How can you delegate/outsource enough hats so that you only focus on what actually matters while receiving support on "lighter tasks" from other resources, assets, developers, etc. (4:35) and (22:59) 3. If games back in the 1990s could be created within 3 months WITHOUT the tools we have access today, what excuse do we have to underperform? Exactly - thanks to the internet, we have a plethora of ways to access assets/resources/delegate, etc. Use this to your advantage! (23:43) Regarding your multi-game question: Refer to (11:30) - Yes, you can make multiple games IF you are only doing one at a time. Its better to make 1 micro game in 1 month so that you can make 3+ games in 3 months than attempting to do all of it at the same time. Focus and deadlines are the key to getting projects done. Also, if you take the approach where you do one game at a time, you indirectly create a larger pool of assets you've made overtime. This means that after making 3 micro-games, no one is stopping you to make your 4th game a combination of all three previous games provided that you are able to recycle your systems/assets/content (14:39) You're absolutely on the right track thought because your goal is to establish a habit of making games quicker - which if done correctly, leads to a bigger pool of assets, deeper understanding of what works/what doesn't, and ultimately, sharpens your ability as a game developer. tl;dr - MM7 used a focused-based approach to deliver their deadline, and you should always do one project at a time no matter how tempting it is to do more than one. It's the secret to getting things done. You got this! I'm rooting for you and hope to hear more from you and your games soon! Huge thank you for your comment and insights!
Thanks for replying. I still remember during school while I was in 8th grade, 2023-2024, I was working on, at least 10 games all at once. It was a huge mess and I wasn’t getting much significant progress done. So I decided to stop working on those games, I deleted all of them, and stick to just one. I wanted to finish my game Energy Bots, mainly because I had a tribute in it about my Ela teacher’s mother who unfortunately passed away. Making this decision of staying in one game per time, really helped me and I should stick to it, and I’ll try to do that even better now that you made this comment. Also, when you mention assets, do you mean game content like programming, art, ect? I also I want to keep looking back at this comment to try to learn better from it. And also, if you’re curious, I’m on Scratch and have a couple of games there. I’m XBanana_CoderX.
@@BananaMan6763 Assets refers to any piece of content that can accelerate your developement journey. This includes Art (Sprites, UI, textures, meshes, shaders), Programming (Prefabs, Scriptable Objects, Systems, Files, Scripts), Audio (SFX, Music), Branding (Game logo, Game Art, Trailers, Screenshots, Website(s), Gifs, Posts, Videos), etc. Took a quick look at Saw Blader Survial & Energy Bots - (and your catelogue) and you have lots of micro-games which is good for learning/understanding how game design truly works. I challenge you to pick up a Game Engine that has more depth/complexity such as Unity, Godot, and/or Unreal Engine - it may appear ot be difficulty and even overwhelming at first, but it appears that you have the habit of experimenting and creating a handful of mini-games which is absolutely great since it builds your skills. Keep working on making more - you're on the path of learning and building great things!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev So, about using other things like game engines, I was thinking maybe using frameworks. If you don't know what they wre they're kind of like game engines but you need to write more code for them, and do more work to acomplish things, for example making physics. I know a benefit I can get from working with them is working more with making my own systems which can help me if I want to be a part of a the computer science industry. I also wanted to just stick with Scratch for quite a while, probably a few years, and then move on to using frameworks and learning proper programming languages. Should I participate in your challenge to make a game with a framework when I’m comfortable? Also, for some reason I'm afraid of downloading things, that’s mostly because of storage space.
@@ComputingCode Absolutely true-you’ve listed the fundamentals of scalability in coding. There are more tricks to discuss in this section going forward. Those are the main terms to research when starting out/learning your coding skills.
Thanks this is pretty helpfull, I learn a lot by watching ur video, I repeatedly stuck on making prototype not continuing it or stop working on it, change other ideas. now I also stuck in working on my game for a few months and I feel this is taking too long.
@@noodle-eater Thank you for your comment - the hack that you need (this is the most necessary requirement all developers need) is to set a deadline. Parkison’s law does WONDERS for finishing projects. Take your experience (and assets) between your past prototypes and your current project, apply a deadline, start play testing early and launch within the next two months. It sounds crazy and impossible until you realize its’s not and you’re more than ready to accomplish this. You got this!
Grad School is tough - I'm personally seeing the effects of just how of a time sink getting a Master's/Ph.D - mad respect for your attempt at it and the sheer dedication/commitment needed is a lot. Regardless, I really hope any one of these (or multiple of these) tips truly helps you. Remember your priorities, rest well, and if you're in the intro stage of Game Dev, please consider Game Jams / Micro-games. Small steps at your stage of life are extremely recommended as it'll help you grasp game design concepts more rapidly while integrating positive habits into your journey. No shame in taking your time now, but once you get the hang of it, that's when the accelerated process can truly kick in.
Not me watching this video instead of developing. Like I HAVE the time, I just need to get the motivation to use it. Its like you either have too much time and nothing to do with it or not enough and you need to make sacrifices to make time.
@@AndrewS-vu4ji Great assessment; set the deadline! I promise everything fundamentally changes when you chase a deadline. You start to zone-in / tune-out everything that doesn’t help you meet that deadline and suddenly all the habits l’ve mentioned become second-nature. I really really like how you recognize you have time. The allocation of it comes down to how you prioritize it which is why when you set a deadline, you’d force yourself to use it towards that direction. Love this comment, you can do this! Good luck on your development journey!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev I meant it more like, I'm young and it's summer, and I have nothing to do besides get ready for school, yet I'm infinitely more productive when I'm in the middle of school, club, and work. I do agree that deadlines help, as would the frustration of not revealing your plans to others, it's just those bear a lot more of the weight of continuing work on a project. But idk, it's all useful info either way.
Dude. I ain't never heard of you before or anything you've ever done until this day of commenting. But I love the way you think. Awesome lecture dude. So it looked like you were using C# for scripting. Well. I love the intellectual side of UA-cam and I like your art style. I think it will be entertaining to observe. .
@@jordanjackson6151 You made my day with this comment. Thank you for writing this and more importantly, l really hoped that any/all of these tips helped you in any way shape or form. I have more videos coming out soon so l promise to get you more of this type of content soon. Good luck with your game dev journey!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Thanks. My thing is mostly a hobbyist pastime. I don’t see enough vids on UA-cam depicting 90’s style spaceship shooter style games. Though they are apparently more linear in design and less exploratory in the level department. As a result I’m getting busy with Lua using the Love 2D framework.
The greater the development time of a game project the more likely that games development will move from the forefront to the developers back burner. Keeping motivation up for a project, requires a level of self discipline that is very underrated! We all tend to have a glut of ideas, but limited amounts of focus. Understanding that.. I actively try to stay away from coding projects that require more than a few months of time at once. Preferring to ship at smaller internals, so each project migrates between where it was and where I want it to be... This can be frustrating for users to some point, who tend to want big changes all at once, but I've rarely found that beneficial to the overall project. Keep Coding .. Keep Making Games ...
We can't satisfy everyone and that's absolutely okay. Staying focused, learning from your mistakes, and constantly improving are generally the greatest return of investment you could possibly get as a developer. Super glad to hear that you're constantly working on small-scope projects as the requirements to complete them necessitate pure focus for a short perioid of time. Thanks for the comment!
Just watched for 5 minutes I think I need to leave a comment Yes! Those problems are what I'm experiencing! Everyday! And you are teaching me how to enhance it!
@@gameboardgames Thank you, King. I want to continue sharing the mistakes and corrections I’ve made to help you avoid the pitfalls I’ve taken. I truly hope this helped you.
The idea of creating a "skeletal system" takes experience. Imo if you try to do that before you have the experience you end up wasting a lot of time versus just having some duplicated code.
@@timjen3 You’re right! It may not be the most beginner friendly skill, but one way or another, regardless of what level you are as a developer, you should experiment with it and see what happens. Thanks for pointing this out as l did not consider the level-of-entry of the developer when compiling this list. I’ll pay more attention next time. 🫡
@@EdwardLabarcaDev You got me to drill deep into something that blocked me this full week (JSON serialization and C#...), and ended up kinda solving it, on a Sunday morning after quiet a busy Saturday night.. so really, you have strong arguments 😁
All the time you spend not working on the PC is time you spend thinking about the project: this is the goal if you're doing production. R&D always requires desk time, there's just no way around it. If your game is taking too long then you're doing R&D; unless you're producing 100GB of content, then any game should take about 6 months to produce, including triple A games. For production you should know everything about the process and know the game you want to make. If you have to test things and try out solutions for more than 1 day then you're still not ready for production. /// The other advice you should consider is working towards finishing systems, not the game. The deadlines should be set for a system's prototype, not the game. This way you can expand the prototypes as much as you want to, while at the same time already have a finished game that you can ship when needed. Eventually you'll have all your core systems, and again, you can expand them as you desire. /// About multiple projects, I disagree. I personally need to shuffle from one project to another or else I get burnt out. I don't produce them all at the same time: I focus on producing one while R&D the others until they're ready for production. /// Ultimately it depends on what's your goal. This video is for developers who want to make money. I'm an artist, and though I understand my resources are limited, I'm committed to producing my vision regardless of the consequences.
YOOO this is great! I want to address some extra comments regarding your point: 1. I agree - you're in R&D if you're not actually implementing production-based tasks. You point is amazing because it emphasizes that there's no excuse to delay a game for that long (unless there's a reasonable content development milestone) - I would also include general game balance and other testing factors too. 2. Yes - systems typically should be established in your prototype, thus allowing you to implement generated content to build your game. I would also add to avoid scope-creep since that is the #1 reason why production gets delayed; you make more systems without an end-goal or deadline, and for each system you create, you are exponentially introducing a new amount of test cases, possible bugs, and overall complexity that will require more time to resolve possible issues. 3. This is where we disagree - and to be fair, yes, burn out is a terrible thing. What I wanted to point out is the more you graze within the bounds of nearly burning out, the more resistance and growth you build when handling these frustrating problems which consequently creates the skill to handle boring/annoying/difficult tasks. You're absolutely right on taking breaks and resting when arriving to these circumstances, but shifting that task entirely to a different project, area, or another task simply delays your project and subconsiously trains you to avoid these "hard moments." This is why I'm exaggerating the point that you must stay in this area until it is resolved, otherwise you're teaching yourself how to passively quit. As you wrapped up, this is all dependent on what you want to do with your time, development, project, etc. There are no rules to follow nor is anyone forcing you to take this specific route. I'm only suggesting advice that works for me and hopefully by trying some of these habits out, you may be able to see a difference in your development journey. Regardless, huge thanks on your well-thought out comment! I really appreciate seeing your perpsective on this!
Thanks for the video! I've had a lot of issues during my game's development and this video is very helpful at understanding how to solve them. You deserve more subscribers, keep up the good work!
@@tudypie I appreciate the comment a lot and am enthralled to help! Sometimes the solutions we seek truly are outside of the scope we operate at which is why l had to mention the personal side. Sure, you could be amazing at technical game dev areas, but are you taking care of your health, min-maxing your time, and working with a fully rested brain? Again, huge thanks for letting me know how you felt!
the notes thing is so real. I coded this dynamic movement system in like one sitting thinking oh ill remember why this argument is here etc etc. By the next day I woke and was just like bruh wait why is there 3 arguments for this one action wait wait. It works as intended and there is no bugs to it that I don't intend to be there but eventually im gonna have to practically reverse engineer the shi and rewrite it so I can actually understand wtf I was doing LOOL. Honestly whatever names you give something. idc if its like 20 characters if the name can tell you everything you need to know from the name use it. Practice proper naming OFF RIP from files to game objects to everything you have to type a name.
@@lufuoena Once again, thank you for sharing your story on how notes are critical to prevent time loss and confusion. While l do not know what are the Pros/Cons of long letter words, l’d rather use an extremely long variable that explicitly states what it does than to guess for days on end and performing extra debugging for something that could’ve been delegated to a singular word. And as you also pointed out - it’s easy to fix a bug when the compiler tells you what error occurred. It’s a nightmare when it works fine and you can’t locate what the function does hahaha
@@timmygilbert4102 Not going to lie, not having a fridge is rough - meal prepping might be more challenging because your ability to save your batched meals heavily depends using a fridge to store them. No fridge simply meals that perishable food expires/grows sour. But there’s no excuse; if there’s a will there’s a way. That being said: Fridge-less meal prep requires non-perishable ingredients. This includes dry goods, canned meats, pantry must-haves such as: • Canned Tuna, Spam Ham, Canned Chicken, Beans, Corn Beef, Peanut Butter, Bread, Powdered Milk, Canned fruits, Nuts/Seeds, Instant potatoes/Instant Noodles, Oats, Taco Shells, Tortillas, Crackers, Canned Soups, Instant oatmeal packs, cereal, pancake mix, etc. You can still use spices (Salt, Pepper, Garlic/Onion powder, paprika, olive oil, vegetable oil), to cook and flavor your meals. There are also a handful of snacks you can consider such as Pretzels, Popcorn, Jerky, Granola bars, etc. Now, you may still need a way to reheat your meals such as a microwave or stove (gas stoves are also good because they do not depend on electricity but PLEASE do not be careless around them since one wrong move can cause explosive flames (speaking from experience here)) So here are meals you can prepare/batch ahead of time without a fridge: • Cereal See, this is why it’s hard because you can’t meal prep much. HOWEVER, Here are meals you can meal quickly on the spot that does not require a fridge: • Sandwiches • Cereal • Microwavable’s • Instant Ramen • Soups • Tacos • Burritos • Wraps • Rice Packets + Canned Meat Lastly, I’m firm on nutrition - the problem with a lot of processed foods and instant meals are the lack of nutrition + spike of unnatural amounts of sodium, sugars, etc. It is not a good habit to rely on these and create a diet around these items. The best alternative for this situation, which may be a bit expensive, is simply ordering food (specifically using delivery such as Door Dash) to keep you engaged with your work while getting a meal that has been cooked with the necessary nutrients (order local not fast food/junk food) - and again, this is expensive long term. If you theoretically can invest in delivery, it would be more efficient to just get a fridge for long term cost reduction. End of the day, I urge you to get a fridge because my personal hack is getting Rotisserie Chicken, cooking rice, and just distributing that as much as possible + Eggs for breakfast. Lastly, if you simply cannot prepare but recognize that you meed to cook daily, then that’s okay too. There are technically other tips/actions you can take to create more time for your project. I really hope this helps one way or another and pardon for the limited response in advance.
How do you currently survive without a fridge? I would seriously consider buyjng a used mini fridge for cheap. Prepped food doesnt require much space and if it can hold 3 meals, then you will seriously save precious time.
@@TheIndieAccord Huge thanks! An update is coming out end of the month. You can wishlist it to get notified on the update (which launches on August 30th, 2024) or simply get version 1.0.0 before the update goes out. store.steampowered.com/app/2086270/DodgeKing/
Maybe it's my ADHD but trying to focus on one project at a time seems like it has a worse impact on my productivity. I find that I get stuck and rather than the focus helping me find the answer, it just demotivates me from engaging with the task until I miss whatever deadline I set for myself. Taking mental time away from a particular project and working on other things usually helps me approach the project with a new perspective when I come back. I guess the trick is to be intentional about the break, know that whatever you're working on is non-commital and, make sure you schedule when you're going to come back to the main project.
Hey, no pressure, but could you tell me more about how you handle multi-tasking versus just doing one project at a time? From experience, starting and finishing one project at a time is the most effective way to finish a project - yet I'm curious to hear how juggling many projects seems to be more effective for you. It'd be really cool to hear your POV on that!
My heart goes out to you since ADHD indeed causes a lot of suffering - especially in the capabilities of performing tasks that require prolonged timeframe of focus. I cannot speak on this topic extensive due to having limited experiences with how one manages or goes about with ADHD, which is why I'd end the comment here. However, part of the reason why this video was made in the first place was because there were lessons that I learned on productivity FROM an talented individual who happens suffers from ADHD. I do not want to approach this in an inconsiderate, dismissive, down-playing, or comparative way with what I am about to say, but instead, inspire you to partake in building a few of these habits with your circumstance. This is because I do want to share that one of the most amazing individuals I've had the pleasure to meet juggles working with creating extremely-high LOD (level of detail) maps on their daily 9-5, then afterwards dedicates the next 2-4 hours going to school/class to pursue their Architecture Master's degree, deals with very intense project-based assignments with short deadlines (with only about 8 free hours per week to get it done) and still is fully capable of dealing with life's responsiblities (such as attending and checking in on parent's health, pets, outings, etc.). This individual too suffers from ADHD and has elaborated multiple times that their personal hack on overcoming an overwhelming amount of work is by using Parkison's Law to their advantage - a.k.a. forcing yourself to meet deadlines as discussed here: 10:00 - because of this person, I learned how to hack my time by applying the same law which is why I urgently needed to share it in this video. Additionally: Attaining the level to reach focus with ADHD may feel uncontrollable/volatile, and it may even "feel like the door is on the other side of an infinite hallway that continues to stretch out the more you walk towards it." (according to said friend) - For the individual that suffers from ADHD, they've also described that what they can control the most (to drive better results) are the external environmental distractions. This includes cutting phone notifications, hunger, stressing on the aforementioned deadline, and front-loading other tasks/chores ahead of time.
Finally, there is no "one-way-solution" to solve this or any major issue. Everyone has their own way of going about life and I'm aware that this plagues a lot of talented people. I geninely hope you find ways to super-charge your game development journey and reach the results you're seeking. Thank you for the comment - and I want to highlight that this is not in any way shape or form a way to attack or argue against the struggles of ADHD, but inform and inspire you that there might be just a few ideas that can combat some obstacles you may face.
It might help to actually remove the expectations you have in regards to progress. Just set aside a time block and work, lock your phone in a time safe, unplug your internet, and lock your door. You can't be distracted if there is nothing to be distracted by. With these steps you might still be "all over the place" but that's actually OK if all the places you can go still contribute to the completion of your game. In other words: Embrace your ADHD by setting up your workspace to force it into tasks that accomplish your goals. The only other option you get should be staring at the wall. 👍
Don't usually comment but I have to say this video was a Godsent. Well structured, well presented, well explained. These are lessons that could've only come from experience and you've indirectly saved alot of people suffering by trial and error to learn these.
I noticed some people might misinterpret the drilling part so I'll put it like this. The value of drilling is it's effect on "your mindset" and "mental fortitude". Once you have the habit of enduring on difficult problems without skipping to sth else, you build confidence bcos you have created a backlog of evidence of yourself overcoming challenges by persistence.
Where the objections might come is in "taking breaks" bcos in truth, staying too long on a problem without diverting your mind to sth else can be counterproductive & lead to diminishing returns. So yes, if you're too stuck, you may have to do sth else to allow your subconscious find a solution for you. The best strategy I've seen is to do sth "UNRELATED" to your current field. If you're a game dev and stuck, rather than taking a break with another game dev project, your breaks will be better taken by doing sth outside game dev and when you return to game dev, you are solely returning to tackle the problem again.
The Disadvantage of taking a break from a difficult game dev problem with "another" game dev project is that you might end up running into "another" game dev problem. And since you don't have a track record of solving your previous problem, the brain autopilots and you end up repeating the pattern of avoidance and skipping to yet another project. This leads to a deteriorating cycle of abandoned projects and leaves you mentally and emotionally stuck with low self-esteem in your ability as a developer due to your history of unfinished projects.
So back to my original thoughts on the value of Drilling and how it affects time management in game development - it's hard to finish games quickly with low self-esteem in your ability as a developer, it's hard to finish games at all if your brain sets you off on an automated pattern/cycle of skipping ships when things get hard.
It is easier to finish games quickly when you have confidence in your ability to handle whatever roadblocks come in your way. It is easier to maintain motivation when you have a history to overcoming challenges through persistence when things get hard. Drilling is a "mental exercise" that builds your mental fortitude, confidence, persistence muscles. The effect will spill over to not just your game development habits, but in your life in general as you become more mentally prepared to handle life challenges.
Overall. This was a goldmine of a video. Learnt alot and will be rewatching for the third time😂🤌🏾. You've earned yourself a sub.
EDIT: Grammar
@@treasureimpact Goated, Elaborated perfectly, and you landed a critical hit with this one! This is exactly is mostly what I wanted to articulate with the drilling section. I’ll ensure to prepare vague sections way better for the next video and this comment genuinely synthesizes what I wanted to say in the drilling section. Godsent comment! Thank you for organizing this, for your comment, and your support! Glad to have you here and remember that you’re warmly welcomed here. I wish you the best in your game development journey!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Welcome man.
Don't allow finding the perfect non-vague explanation stop you from sharing your knowledge.
Even if the idea is still vague, earnestly explain as best as you can in your own words. Everyone might not pick it up immediately, but definitely someone out there will pick it up and find massive value in it.
Hopefully, like this comment, they might even try to re-articulate it in their own way. But even if they don't, we usually get clarity by sharing. So you might even get more insight when rewatching the video in future and dump your new insights in the comments or in another video🤌🏾❤️
Keep creating man, we're rooting for you🙌🏾🔥
I would argue against "Drilling". When I encounter a hard problem, I drop it for a couple of days. This allows the mind to take a step back and invent solutions out of nowhere or realize that the problem doesn't need solving and can be completely removed. On the contrary, focusing on a thing and methodically hacking at it only stresses me out and bears no fruit.
Glad to hear your approach on it - I can see why its frustrating to hack at something with no avail. I should've communicated this better, but the main concept of drilling is to stay in the area of frustration when hacking away because that's what would build your tolerance to deal with those "Impossible" problems until a solution is reached. However, like you stated, taking breaks/letting go of the problem definitely allows you to think about it from other angles and provides clearer solutions.
I strongly suggest drilling primarily because of the following three benefits:
1. It tends to give you the benefits of tolerance building
2. Is less expensive on time when you "take a break" and
3. It reliable keeps you engaged on said task.
You're not wrong and if you are not shifting into other tasks duirng that break process, then you've absolutely hammered it and are completely right. I'm voicing this for the sake of not losing production time and/or getting distracted by other "smaller" tasks that take away from actually solving the big problem.
Great insight and Iovely comment. Thank you for your advice!
@@EdwardLabarcaDevmany thanks for the reply
i hate to agree with this because i have spent days at a time on a single problem only to realize that the solution was mad simple, and this has happened multiple times, blah blah blah, sunk cost fallacy, blah
Really impressed with how graciously you've responded to some of these comments man, let alone some great advice. You rock.
Hahaha, if there's an opportunity to keep learning from each other by simply reading the comments, then we need to make that happen! I appreciate your words!
I was you 15years ago, what you are talking about will eventually lead down a road of being alone, overworked and depressed. Games are a black hole of time consumption, each time you plan a vacation some deal will show up "xbox license if you can finish in X months" and the crunsh goes on.
@@vikingfabian Hey man, huge thanks for the warning. I can see how this methodology forces you to dedicate a ton of time and resources to projects. The future in this industry is unpredictable; however I’m suggesting these tips to get games done in shorter amounts of time in order to avoid the “blackhole” effect. Regardless, I completely understand where you’re coming from and I’m grateful for your forewarning. Thanks for the heads up!
tbh if you making indie games you can softer some of these advices so it dont bite out big chunk of your personal life
Oh hey! VikingFabian! I know of you because my friend was a huge fan of your XBLIG stuff. I really liked BGL back in the day. It's really funny to see you here.
Small world 😊
Eventually sounds a bit hyperbolic. More like possibly, not everyone is you. Some people can manage stress better than others.
i think its most important to be kind to yourself and structure your life in a way that's sustainable in the long term. I have been making games for the better part of a decade and i feel like I'm just at the beginning of my journey. I heard an anecdote in school that the average career span of a game developer was around 3-4 years before they switched jobs/ burnt out. whether you're working on small games or a big project, focus on doing what you love, take breaks, find others to help in areas that you lack interest in and measure success in stuff you learn and will still benefit from for many years.
This is a very kind and endearing comment. Everyone has different stages in their lives and what seems to be appropiate can only be determined by your current intentions and path you seek. I can't deny that the statistics are true - long-term game development is difficult mainly due to the lack of ROI, overcomplication of tasks that lead to burn-out, and the sheer underwhelming support that many developers simply do not receive. Not to mention a plethora of other reasons that can easily discourage many developers from taking extreme steps. Taking development from a hobbyist perspective does imply more room for passiveness - regardless, it truly comes down to how you want to handle the circumstances of your life, how to balance your time/efforts, and what you're willing to do with yourself.
Taking a step back to recognize what matters most to you is crucial to one's peace; I just hope that for anyone who reads this understands that habits play a key role for longetivty.
You are correct this will push a game out really fast but if i do this i will burn out and become depressed and my social life will be non existent.
During the work week i follow your exact schedule, i exercise, i stay efficiënt and keep the focus on the project. However i do need relaxation!!! In the weekend i need to see my friends and do fun stuff otherwise I'm going mental
@@timvandeneng4724 Correct! Please make sure of two things: 1. You set an endpoint because if you endlessly do these routines without a termination point, you will burn out and 2. Take breaks when necessary. Regardless, thanks for pointing this out and just want to make sure you’re not burning out! Thanks for the comment!
GameDevMaxxing 101
@@DBaluev-b7w can’t believe we got DevMaxxing before gta6
Good advice overall. My advise would be a LOD approach (level of detail) start with super simple idea, super simple graphics with the goal of finishing fast the game and add detail later on. This way you can make your game as complex you want but you will also always have a finished game. Thus finishing becomes super easy too. Working linearly, from point A to B , is for people who love pain and wasting time.
I agree - this is a very strong prototype advice. I've failed to mention ways to quickly prototype your game, this'll be an interesting topic to cover in the near future - so huge thank you for your input here. In addition to keeping your LOD simple, it's also critical to keep your scope small especially when you're starting off and/or are truly solo / without a team. You have a great approach and great advice; I appreciate it!
This is a good general advice. But I know many developers and small studios that see this be too slow. To get funding and to make game marketable fast u need splice. U need polished assets, mechanics and it needs to look like full game altho it's just one level or 15min of gameplay. And if u just have some blocks it is hard to get wishlists on steam, funding from publishers, interaction on socials or support from kickstarter. Ur method is perfect for person/team that is making one of their first games and still learning stuff or if they aren't sure what the endproduct will look like or if they have funding already covered and don't have tight time-limit. But teams/devs that need money and/or don'-t have time (and know what they are doing) need to have something to show quick.
@@samamies88 Absolutely agree with everything you said. Unfortunately there is always a price to pay. If you do it your way obviously a nice vertical slice will make it much easier to sell to a publisher and general public (kickstarter, early access etc) but then you may get plagued by missed deadline, scope creep plus extra time needed to get to the marketing phase of the game. If you do it my way, that back and forth will waste you some time and make it much less likely to promote to a publisher or to impress gamers without a polished end result that also affect how marketable the game can be but it will secure it from scope creeep (always a huge issue in game dev and dev in general), make sure the game is always fun to play, avoid the negative publicity of an unfinished , buggy and rushed game etc. You also can do both approaches, work a tiny part of the game as a vertical very polished slice if you aim for a publisher or getting some extra eye balls and then do the rest in a LOD approach. Also my approach works better for sandboxy game with a lot of replaybility value instead of games with beginning and end like story based linear games.
I am so torn by how the tips in this vid are both incredibly helpful in achieving set goals while simultaneously they seem so artificial and robotic. It all feels like a highway to achieving your dreams and reaching burnout by the way. Becoming a perfectly tuned factory that looses its' humanity somewhere along the way, minmaxing your life so you have time to create, limiting the time you spend with other people unless it's necessary - it all works but I'm wondering at what price from a future-you point of view
This is what hard looks like.
The strategies I'm sharing are meant for short-term sprints, not a permanent way of life. To achieve something truly remarkable, balance often gets sacrificed - whether it's missing out on social events or setting aside other interests. These are the prices we pay to reach challenging goals.
Your comment made me reflect deeply, and I genuinely appreciate your words. You’re right: "GameDevMaxxing" isn’t a sustainable lifestyle. Too much of anything can be harmful, and burnout is real. Moreover, even with intense effort, there's no guarantee of financial success or any tangible results beyond finishing the project. The so-called "powerful habits" I've mentioned are just a fraction of what it takes to speed up development. There’s also marketing, community management, team leadership, ideation, post-launch support, and more - each adding its own layer of complexity. This has made me question whether these habits are truly humanizing. I do want to share the lessons I’ve learned and why I believe it's sometimes okay to commit to these intense bursts of effort:
Retrospectivelty reflecting, here’s what this journey has taught me:
1. You can accomplish more in less time than you think, freeing up time for other life pursuits.
Every moment counts because it's time you'll never get back. If this project had taken me a year, I might have spent nine months on tasks and systems that may or may not have succeeded. The outcomes from three months of intense effort are often similar to what you'd achieve over a longer period. So, investing three tough months instead of twelve gives me more time for other things in life. I’ve realized that adhering to Parkinson's Law (10:00) - where work expands to fill the time available - can help avoid unnecessarily prolonged challenges.
2. Your priorities, habits, and worldview shape who you are.
If you're willing to push yourself, take on challenges, and explore unconventional methods, that’s a reflection of who you are. It’s perfectly fine if that's not for you. But if you build your identity around embracing challenges and prioritizing the unexpected or difficult, you'll set yourself apart. You may even become a source of guidance for others facing similar struggles. This shift in perspective changes how you approach various aspects of life.
3. The bigger the challenge, the deeper the reward.
Even if the reward isn’t something tangible like money, reaching milestones is something to be proud of. It builds confidence, helps you assess your capabilities, and encourages you to take on even greater challenges. That’s why I emphasize the importance of completing difficult tasks - not just for the sake of completion, but for the personal growth that comes from pushing through. (26:37) I should've articulated this a better, but that's the point of drilling - doing the hard to build tolerance to do harder tasks.
4. Self-imposed limits are often untested beliefs.
I never thought making a full commercial game in three months was possible until I asked, "Why not?" By setting ambitious goals and adjusting my approach, I discovered that even if you don’t hit every target, you achieve far more than you would have without that pressure. Yes, it involves making tough choices, like saying no to social events or optimizing every minute of your day. While this might sound robotic or inhumane, I believe there's always a way to make it more manageable. Each of us has the ability to adapt these methods to make them more human and sustainable.
Most importantly,
5. Life doesn’t stop for your projects.
No matter how focused you are, life will keep happening. During this intense period, I still had to participate in family celebrations, play in a pickleball tournament, have difficult conversations with coworkers, fulfill church duties, and handle other personal responsibilities. Life teaches you that you can’t become a robot, even if you try.
Ultimately, only you can decide what matters most to you. We all have different backgrounds, beliefs, goals, and limits. The most important thing is to choose what aligns best with your values and circumstances. If you’re ready to take on something hard and sacrificial without guaranteed outcomes-go for it! If that’s not for you, that’s okay too. Prioritizing friends and family is incredibly admirable, and pushing them aside for a project without guaranteed success can feel like a questionable move. These are the hard decisions that go beyond the scope of actual game development, but they are essential if you want to achieve difficult goals.
Regardless, I genuinely wish you the best to your development journey. Your comment is amazing and addresses real concerns, which again really got me reflecting and I appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time for stating your words and for checking out the video! Cheers!
The social life stuff and others about refusing, minmaxing and sacrificing other activities to get more time to work on the game sounds like an excellent way to ensure that when you get the game released, you won't have friends, family or the mental health to celebrate it with.
Crunch is extremely harmful, but you're basically advocating for it. People in the know will realise that and will temper the suggestions in this video, but new, young and naive game devs might take the advice at face value and cause major harm to their mental health and relationships over the course of months or years. Crunch might be good for the short term, but your example of releasing 4 games in a year will cause burnout eventually, and then they won't be releasing any games anymore. At that point they might not even be able to work on games ever again.
And about the mealprepping and other minmaxing: Cooking and doing chores can be an important point in the day where you get to let your mind rest, while mindlessly cooking or doing laundry or whatever. Trimming all that out and just sitting at a computer doing the same stuff all day (apart from breaks) will mentally exhaust you. There's a reason why some countries and/or companies have even started trying out 4 day work weeks or 6 hour work days. Because there comes a point after which the human brain doesn't do effective labor anymore, and it's more efficient to let it rest instead.
Man, the part about "if you want the game to be done in a month then the work adjusts to that timeframe" is so true. I've been working on a game for over a year now, mostly took so long as I was learning new tools & a new language, but then I took a break from that to work on a commission project and since that had an actual deadline I was able to put out the project in a few months.
@@GurkisDev This. Deadlines are requirements to get things done. As developers it’s common to dismiss this due to over-polishing our project while forgetting how events like Game Jams can generate results over a weekend. In addition, we need to stay focused and avoid distractions in order to maximize said timeframe before deadline.
Thanks for sharing your proof for leaving an excellent comment!
Hey Gurkis, fancy seeing you here. I feel this, I have had the same exactly thing happening. We will take as long as we give ourselves to do something.
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A tip from Jim Kwik is to take breaks to move yourself for like 30s every 20 minutes, but it works for me every half hours too. Its important to stretch my back so I just stretch my hands up and bend back and also move my legs.
Great advice - will look forward implementing this more often. Thank you for the comment!
Iv been making games for 5 months now. Iv got a finished project and iv learnt alot!
Working alone on a project is hard and sooner or later u run out of steam/motivation and focus, right?
Iv come to learn tho that we all have a motivation bar. Taking too much hits to our motivation bar eventually makes us stop working on our project.
What do i do? I plan well BUT not well enough. Plan what you going to do, but dont plan too well. If you fall behind your schedule, you take massive hits to your M bar.
And by planning i mean plan to protecc your M Bar. So i back up my game after each hige feature i finish. Otherwise if i lose my progress? Massive blow to the M bar.
Have a list, fill it with small tasks and scratch it off. Dont put "create inventory system" to your list. Add "create way to store items" "add a way to count item quantity to database" "add a way to display quantity". Break it down.
Planning includes the bitch ass game doc. Keeps you grounded. Once you start writing the idea down, you get to see if the game works or not. And then stick to it. Itll help u keep out the feature creep.
Refilling that bar includes short breaks, eating healthy, gyming, friends(even if you are anti social like me)
2 most important ways to refill your m bar? SLEEP and consuming content of the media you making. Watch devlogs, browse indie reddit subs. Keep ur brain thinking and focussed on what you wana do. You do that, not only do you learn from others. But your brain wont forget what its current objective is.
This is my wisdom after 5 months and i dont see myself stopping any time soon.
Oh and lastly, sometimes ull take a 3 day break. Life gets messy. Maybe u cant finish the things you wana do in time. Its ok. Shit happens, you will get burnt out and beating urself up on it gets you nowhere. Rest, reset and recover. And get back to it when you ready. Just dont leave it too long ❤ that part im still figuring out.
Edit: Be the boss you've allways wanted and be the employee that you as a boss would want. So pay your employee the right pay, dont over work him and as an employee, work hard for your boss
First of all - Huge congratulations on finishing your project and I'm proud to hear your consistency on your journey - keep it up! 🎊 I love the vigor you're demonstrating by saying that you don't plan on giving up anytime soon - we need more developers with this mindset.
Also, excellent insight and advice! I love the Motivation Bar idea; really keeps your comment gamedev-based which is super fitting for this topic. I do want to point out something and this isn't to counter argue your point, however, we all have different approaches and I purposely abstained/avoided using the word 'motivation' at all costs in this video.
I think motivation creates emotional dependency.
You're not wrong in using motivation to keep you on track to do work - as you've stated it's definitely a part of your system and keeping it high on energy will allow you to keep trudging forwards. The point that I do want to highlight is that habits create discipline which outweigh the benefits of motivation. What this bascially means is "Hey, even if I feel tired, bad, or not in the mood to perform hard work, I will still do it regardless of how I feel" and this is why a lot of these talking points may appear to be "extreme" or "hardcore."
Now this isn't to say that your system is wrong - if you need rest, breaks, socilaizing, that's absolutely great and necessary too! Work with what works the best to you. I really enjoy your last statement "Be the boss you've always wanted and be the employee that you as a boss would want" because in practicality, we're all human and we need to focus on other parts of our lives too.
Regardless, thank you a million for sharing your journey and for sharing what works for you. This is excellent advice + insight and I'm very confident a lot of developers are going to appreciate your words. Again, keep up the hard work and don't give up - keep making us proud!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev 100% everyone is different. I call it a motivation bar but its more like your gas tank. Or the burn out tank, similar to the internal steam method. Telling people your ideas could knock that M bar down. Motivation does eventually run dry. And like you said, the habits are more important. But if you dont watch that tank, eventually even your routines will suffer or suffer effectiveness at the very least.
But yea my brains abit different when it comes to routine, which is why i dont talk to others about it. Eventually my brain gets bored of a routine/habit. So iv learnt to change my routine every now and then. Every month or so, so i try and keep it as flexible as possible. Nothing wrong with it, everyone is different. Find what works for you and dont beat urself up if something doesnt work you. Just for anyone else who is reading this.
If this is what you need to do to make a game quick, I dont mind taking my time.
I appreciate your comment and absolutely understand - there are a lot of talking points that require more attention than the actual development process and it can be very overwhelming if one were to adapt to all of these tips overnight. Feel free to try out one or two of these ideas and see if it works. Regardless, you're absolutely free to do what you want with your time.
uh. what was so controversial that made you leave this comment? this is all just solid advice
@@xkoan-yy7lg Dont go to partys, every waking minute you must work on your game or it’ll take years to finish
In my opinion. Both development styles are valid. Specially when one got their time to enjoy developing. Or need to meet the end in a narrow time span.
Bruh cooking? Working out?
Basic lifestyle skills ???? There’s no way you are grinding so hard that you can’t do these things
Next game, make a game that shows how to make a game fast. Update it when comments suggest other ways. Eventually, it becomes the go-to game about making games.
@@softsofasoftsofa This is a really neat idea… ✍️
There is a game that teachers you hoe to code in Assembly, it'd called Human Resource Machine
@@softsofasoftsofa Sounds like that project from Gamers Toolkit where the guy made a game about platformers game-feel.
This is the best video I’ve seen on practical productivity advice. Especially the tips in the beginning. I think it can apply to anyone in any field.
I was surprised to see disagreements in the comments on this kind of mindset. It is a grind mindset, and that probably doesn’t work for everyone. If game development is simply a hobby of yours, then sure, you can spend your time however you’d like. But if the intention is to turn it into a career, then it’ll take a lot of effort and intention to get to that point. That doesn’t mean having a casual mindset is always bad, but you can’t put in casual effort if you want to turn something into a professional career.
Godsent comment, Gianni. Thank you for your input and for synthesizing the approach of career versus hobby. There's a whole set of ways we tackle our work/career, why not apply that to the same degree in Game Development? I really hope this video helped you in one way shape or form and there's more advice I'm about to launch.
Thank you for this video! I wish I could've seen this video 7 years ago, when I started my game dev journey.
If I can help out and add more advices, here they are:
1) the Pomo Doro method helped me a lot : tho my version is 50 mins of work, then 10 mins of rest.
2) I use a website blocker like Forest on browser. I block Twitter and UA-cam (especially UA-cam Shorts) to stay away from doom scrolling.
3) I write my ideas down in a physical booklog. It's not perfect and looks like a scrap book on some parts but I keep it as clear as possible so future me can still understand what I've wrote ages ago and remember quickly how to do or change things.
4) If you have more than one project in mind and don't know which one to begin with, make a list of the features, places, characters, etc... of each project. Then pick the one that is going to be done the quickest. You'll get rewarded sooner and will get the experience you need for your bigger projects.
Good luck fellow game dev, never lose the spark and don't burn yourself out.
This is honestly such goated advice, huge thanks for delivering this list on what you do to increase your productivity, Ardonie. The best part about these tips is how you can customize them to best suit your needs and habits. Also adding to point #4:
Asset Pooling - once you complete a project and if you've designed your systems to be modular/felxible for porting to others, you've essentially created an asset that can be used for other project. Intrinsically, your reward for speedrunning a game is the ability to make another game faster provided it uses the same type of system(s) you've created.
Thanks for dropping those tips - goodluck with your game development journey!
Great video, lots of good points but be careful to not make game development all you do ever. It's important to not shut out your social life or you'll end up feeling lonely and depressed, and this damage your game dev speed a lot more than doing social things occasionally ever could
I found this video a bit presumptuous. But one of the tips is really important: drilling. Not getting past major hurdles and showing off all the small achievements are real killers on the long run.
Thanks for the comment and I appreciate the feedback!
It's important to share info based on direct evidence/experience, that way the source is reliable for all developers who want to engage in trying out these habits. It's also why I had to double down on lots of these points, especially the drilling aspect. Its something most of us struggle with and my solution to it is to remain grazing on it.
Regardless, I really hope that this video helps you in any way shape or form!
The pointers and discussions mentioned are really good, it feels these notes are really good for people who are new to game dev and are a nice reminders for game developers with experience and trying to make their own game out of their main job(Yes I'm being very specific :d).
Hey, great comment, and thank you for pointing this out - you're right: this is tailored more to those who want to create more time for development (whether hobbyist or professional) - you do not need to take all tips, however, they do compound together. I really hope this was helpful for you!
I can respect this attitude to rocket jump your way to success. When you're young, you probably have enough health to do it.
Young or old - it's a choice you make and everyone has a different path. My perspective may be a bit different given my personal context, but I really hope this video can help you adapt a handful of habits that can kickstart or accelerate your development journey. Thank you for the comment and for your support!
Just really got into game dev and would want to add some things to the beginning of the video.
When I first started working on my game I went all gung ho and dove directly into it, from building the game or following massive tutorials and easily putting in 12 - 16 hour days putting the work into it, and massive burnout happened. A schedule is something that is required to avoid this, and knowing how you work best. I just started going back to the gym as much as I would like, life can't just be game dev all of the time. Then how I feel after the gym placed it in a part of the day that I normally wouldn't go to it as I will often be worn, tired, and sluggish where it isn't uncommon for me to take a nap shortly after words. As and example my schedule looks something like this.
5am: wake up (my alarm is set to 6 but waking up naturally)
5:30 am: start on the game (snacks through out)
12pm: at the gym (home gym so that makes things simple)
2pm: extra work on the game, nap if need be
5pm: get things done around the house, make dinner
8pm: relax time
10pm: in bed.
This is great! Thank you for highlighting the importance of a scheudle, deadlines, resting, appropiating relax-time, and working out. Also great optimization tip - if you have a home gym, you can save time on the commute to the gym. Thank you for sharing your schedule since this is a great example to follow for those who agree with your habits.
This is without a doubt the most helpful advice I've heard for being an indie game developer. By far the most useful stuff. Amazing!
@@damori3604 Thank you for your kind words, l’m glad to help and can’t wait to share more. Good luck on your development journey!
I think the final advice here is the only one that's important. If you're just naturally slow and bad no tips and tricks can help you. Getting good is the hardest part. Workout can be a great analogy here where some people despite working out for years can't build the amount of muscle they desire.
@@stickguy9109 You’re right - its the conscious decision to improve that leads you where you want. You can “workout everyday” but muscle mass won’t increase if you don’t increase your weights, consume more protein, and optimize your routine. Reflectively, none of these habits work if you are not consciously improving. Thanks for pointing this out!
Interesting points in the video. I am developing my first project, and it is a 2D horror Shadow Pulse (btw, the game already has a page on Steam). And the development has been going on for three years, which is crazy.
In my experience, the most destructive distractions for work productivity were crunches. Yes, before a gamedev event I managed to make a lot of progress in a short time, added a completely new location, removed bugs. But at the same time, I had to quickly introduce systems that did not work, forget about documentation, and most importantly, for a full month, or even two, after severe crunches I could not return to work. Burnout is a terrible enemy.
After looking at Shadow Pulse and re-reading your situation multiple times, this is what I have to say:
Performing to Crunch without an endpoint (establishing a terminal "once I'm here, we're done" point of your development) is extremely unsustainable because you're essentially running towards a finish line without actually reaching the end. The amount of stamina you end up using to not finish is what causes burnout.
From experience, I would say it's not the actual crunch but where the crunch ends. Again, if you did a massive crunch only to find out you're still at 50% of development, or you simply realized you need even more work to do, you end up forfeiting the purpose of crunching by prematurely completing the crunch period with an unfulfilled state. It's viable to crunch [so-that] you finish your game, not crunch [so-that] you have more work to do.
Shadow Pulse has a lot of strong art which implies a sheer amount of detail/lots of hours of creating those artistic assets. For each new level, enemy, background, area, etc. anything that uses art, I can imagine you're spending tons of time just making sure that the art looks clean only to then start the process to implement it in-game which is a whole other procedure. If you haven't already, try to host playtest sessions to gather audience reactions to see how this is preceive the game - because your art may appear great for many, but it's important to scope it to see how others react to it too.
Also, for a development cycle that has taken 3 years, do you think this timeframe justifies all of the features, content, and things you can do in-game? If so, great! Otherwise, I really recommend you launching soon so that you can use your systems/features and port them into your next project to further speedrun your next game. I want to bring this to your awareness becase 3 years of game development time roughly translates to ~6,480 hours of possible project time (if you work, sleep, and deal with other responsibilites life throws at you). While Game Development demands a ton of time to create, test, and polish your work, you need to account how much 6.4k hours is really worth relative to your endevour.
Regardless of everything I've stated, I want you to know that your comment is heavily appreciated and that I really hope anything I've stated in this comment + video helps further your steps to completing and launcing Shadow Pulse. Keep up your endurance, do not burn-out, and let Sneaky Gremlin Games succeed because of the smart choices you make. Cheers!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Thanks for the reply!
Definitely agree with the point that crunch leading to no meaningful output in the middle of a development cycle is a major part of the crunch problem for me.
As for the duration of development - this is a direct consequence of the fact that I did not really understand the scope of the game I was taking on, given that I had literally never done a single project before. And how stubbornly I refuse to change my development plans (drop a project and take on a new one, for example).
In my background, I am an artist, so yes, for me art was the main part of development, but now I see a very large number of problems associated with planning, a complete lack of a work schedule, and the resulting cases when I can forget about, for example, why the location I had in mind is needed at all.
Now I am experiencing the consequences of scope creep, and I am learning my lessons from this, in short.
And yes, I have already come to the conclusion that in the best case, the game will be ready for the spring Steam Next Fest, not by the end of this year, as I previously thought. Yes, I have a lot of finished art, debugged mechanics, several variants of monsters, even blanks for water levels! But all this is still not collected even in the demo, due to problems with planning and game design, for which I did not have enough time. I think, soon, I will have to postpone all work on art, sound, characters and other things. And deal exclusively with gameplay until I have a ready story campaign for each chapter of the game. Locations full of placeholders from the beginning to the very end. And then polish.
Let's hope that this will be the last postponement of the release date 😅
I don't usually leave comments, but this video was incredibly informative and had such great practical advice for getting sh*t done.
I know a lot of people aren't going to like hearing some of these points but if you want to produce more in a shorter time listen to everything this man has to say.
Thank you for the upload
@@blakefpierson Blake, you’re a real one for this. Thank you for standing firm for the information provided in this video. I will continue to share deeper advice in the next ones and this comment really backs up what I believe in. Thank you for your comment and remember that you’re welcomed here.
Appreciate the motivation! I made some deadlines for myself that I set a few months out yet, in an effort to not put to much stress on the project. You had a great point with "the amount of time you give to finish the game is how long it takes to make it." (completely butchered in paraphrase, but I liked that quote) A bit of healthy stress is needed to finish projects.
@@homethatisdome There you go - Deadlines are requirements to finishing any project. Thanks for sharing this and l’m glad you took action like this!
The drilling section is complicated. Sometimes you could drill into a difficult problem that isn't necessary to be fully solved for a demo, and a week later you cut the feature entirely so it was a waste of time to drill.
It really depends how critical this task is right now. If it is a critical task that you will need for your next milestone then I think your advice is solid, but if it isn't then sometimes ideal to do "good enough" for today.
@@MaximumAxiom Great catch! - I see your point and I’m glad you’re able to articulate it in this fashion. However, what I wanted to say (which may be controversial) is that when you can’t fully solve it and redirect the problem into doing something else/cutting the feature, you’re introducing the ability to avoid difficult problems.
Now, I completely understand and get it if you truly don’t need said feature or if said feature is dependent on other systems. I really like how you used the word “critical” because that would raise its significance to the point where if this does NOT get resolved soon, you’re not executing your time in a manner that pushes progression towards your game.
There are many exceptions and cases to this but the tl;dr is “Hey, stay on that difficult path as long as you can to grow.” Regardless, you’re completely valid in your statement too.
(Also completely irrelevant but you have such a cool profile pic)
This video was perfect for what I needed right now.
I was trouble applying Game Dev to my life the right way.
This is a good framework / set of habits that I can work with them.
Now I can finally focus on THE F_ING GAME. No more beating around the bush...
Eactly - focus on the actual game and you'll get results. Apply some basic lifestlye changes and you'll get results too. Now mix them both and...? 👀 Good luck on your devleopment journey! I'm glad this helped!
Make skeleton systems. Make one game object with all the enemy features and use that objects code to reference the other enemies so they all function the same. Very useful advice. I didn't think of it that way.
Thank you for understanding this - if you can create scale - take full advantage of it; it will speedrun your development cycle.
Amazing video, I agree with other comments that this video is so well explained.
Few things I'd add I learned from many people:
Exercise:
- you should do moderate exercise when doing breaks between work if possible. Moderate exercise boosts brainpower, so do that during breaks instead of scrolling social media. By moderate I mean that it's comfortable but you feel blood pumping a bit (source: The Extended Mind by Annie Murphy Paul)
- walking is amazing, especially after meals, especially if you eat high glycemic index food, you will feel a lot better (source same as above)
Food:
- make sure you eat carbs during meal last, so if you have some veggies, chicken and pasta then eat veggies first, chicken second and pasta last (order: fiber, protein, fat, carbs) (source: The Glucose Goddess)
- green leafy stuff is AMAZING, it has most nutrients per kcal, so try to eat more spinach, rucola/arugula, kale and similar. Throw in some mushrooms like portobellos too (they do have nutrients and quite a lot per kcal), and if you can spend some money try out chlorella or spirulina (they taste awful but very healthy and nutrient dense) (source: niche book from Poland, but you can calculate that based on nutrient tables for products, or take data from NHS or other local sources and calculate by hand)
Breaks:
- it takes around 15-30 minutes to go back to flow of things (at least that's what science shows regarding code writing), so do short breaks where you move (even better if surrounded by nature in park or something) but not overly often because then you spend half the time going back to flow (1 break every hour = 15-30 minutes every hour to go back) (source: Felienne Hermanns book "Programmers Brain")
@@doktoracula7017 This is super amazing information and the sources attached to it will definitely help provide even deeper insights for anyone else who wants to further investigate ways to optimize lifestyle to improve your project’s performance. Great comment; thank you for taking the time to share your notes, sources, and for your support!
nice tips. For 'passive' playtest I would request friends to record a video of their playthrough with videocam so they can comment while they are playing, also you can see their emotional reactions and this is unvaluable.
@@luckyknot Great point and absolutely agreed - your feedback survey will be based on how you design your play-test.
One example I can share that l did in my first few play tests was that I added an intro scene that says “Press the Space Bar once you started recording your play test” and that way l have a screen-wide notification that prevents players from progressing until their OBS is actively recording the screen.
As you mentioned, it’s critical to communicate that you need their reaction. Super invaluable tactic.
Bro this has to be the most helpful video I ever watched that covers stuff like that , sometimes it takes ages to figure out many of the things you've been talking about and sometimes you can't even identify them even after a long time , definitely very helpful thank you a lot for making this video.
@@KebeMaro Extremely happy to be the person that has provided that insight for you! Regardless, just as you said, sometimes we need to take a huge step out and think out of the box to really catch ourselves in bigger problems we won’t see in our day-to-day operations. Thank you a million for your comment and I can’t wait to share more information that will continue to solve these types of problems.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev I can't wait to get to listen to them thank you so much for this I hope you keep it up and also wish you best of luck on your game dev journey !
The "drilling" point really resonated with me. I am almost obsessive with problem solving and once I have a problem where I know the best solution I cannot do anything until I can fix it. I feel like sometimes it might be a hinderance because I work on things too long, but at the same time this very thorough approach leads me to be able to learn the optimal way first and foremost and carry good habits through my development which I think is going to pay off long term because I'm building things in a way that will scale.
Exactly - it may _feel_ unproductive in the heat of the moment because the delay that it currently causes does indeed prevent you from progressing - but what we tend to ignore or forget is that the very same delay that is causing all obstacles 9/10 times is going to be part of the game's core making it absolutely necessary to resolve with all the focus possible. It's not a delay - it's the difficult challenge that make you grow and stops other future delays. It's also where the biggest temptation that occurs: "Do I work on something else or do I finish my game?"
Great comment - I appreciate your insight a lot!
Thanks for the tips. I didn't know that I do many things you mentioned. But, when it's time to actually create the game, I just get stuck at planning. Really, what's matter is to work and work in a big chunk of time at a time. And, yes, ban social media. I mean, I need to reduce my UA-cam watch time that doesn't help me progress my work. Like, don't just watch hundreds of tutorials, just follow one.
Thank you for your comment - I agree that social media is a time sink and this also includes UA-cam. I do think there is a time and space to use it, especially as leanring tools. Afterall, I need to use UA-cam as a platform to share my process and engage with developers like yourself to continue learning and avoiding large mistakes going forward. That being said, just like tutorial-hell, there is planning-hell and the best way to avoid that is to:
1. Apply a deadline (Seriously, I talked about Parkison's Law (10:00) and this is the key ingredient developers are missing)
2. Lower your scope
3. [Controversial] and if you're early in development, planning should be 10% - 25%. If you're already in it, it should be 1% - 5% :: the reason why I'm telling you to lower planning by a significant amount is because unless you're in-charge of a HUGE project, chances are that the planning phase should be delegated into really small chunks as discussed in (22:59) + (23:43) - this is primarily because overtime, you'll learn how to drill/tackle your planning methods to the point where plans can be drafted, made, and executed much more rapidly - it is a skill that requires time to develop; therefore, you can learn how to speedrun planning.
Roadmapping is critical and important, but 90% of the time it will prove to be ineffective if you cannot iterate directly on your game and see what actually works. This is why small scope/scale, projects with deadlines, and a focus on core gameplay will always trump your process because even if you ended up making a "bad game" you've effectively created something you can learn from and avoid in a small amount of time. Repeat this process 50 times and you literally get 50 Games within a decade. Imagine how powerful your development would be a whole decade from now.
The long-term projection conversation will be reserved for another time - but really ponder about that for a moment and when it clicks you'll see why it's critical to just act with deadlines in mind.
Regardless - thank you for your support!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Thanks for such a very personal advice. I know it also applies to others, but you directly talk about my problems here. I started to plan only roughly and keep pushing myself to spend more time creating. And one tip I learned about making small game is that, a short story is enough to make a short game. I write some short stories as a hobby, and have some friends doing the same, so I chose one story to make a game about it. And it doesn't matter if the game deviates from the story, the point is to not think too much of what it should be and just follow the idea of the story.
I know you probably know this but I just want to leave it here for someone else as an example of a small change in strategy.
I think most of the advice is good, except the one about learning to "Say No". Ive done that before, friendships will slowly to rot away if you keep choosing gamedev over spending time with them. From their perspective it's shitty, you are choosing speculative time-risky business venture over hanging out.
@@wildrosegamedev Thank you for the comment and l understand your point of view. Ultimately it comes down to what you’re willing to/what you prioritize in your life. l personally admire those who value the strength of relationships and do not/cannot judge their situation because of their values. However if you have supportive friends, that’s even better. I understand neglect/abandoning those around you who deeply care for you is generally a wrong choice, but like l’ve stated in this particular video, none of these habits are good for long term practices. Always establish an end-goal to ensure you don’t waste your time doing endless work.
I really hope this helped you in one way shape or form. Regardless, l hope you have a wonderful game development journey.
Reusing objects is common for me, shooting systems, UI management, player moviment and input are some of the programming side that saves a significant amount of time. Reusing art, music and even documentation is also very useful.
The more projects you make, the bigger is your pool of assets.
@@nasfoda_gamerbrbigproducti5375You pointed out critical information - “The more projects you do, the bigger pool of assets you’ll have.” THIS. This is exactly why it’s more important to do one project at a time, finish it, and before you know it, you have an entire project you can reference, reuse and/or recycle.
@@EdwardLabarcaDevAnd learning that your designs and code weren't good after two years can crush all your motivation.
Even if you have to re-make many systems for your next game you will have learned from your previous projects to make those systems quicker and better.
Wow ! Thank you very much for your Awesome Advice !! Im a new Game Developer and have been self learning for the past 2-3 years, and a lot of the Points you made are natural conclusions I was coming too recently. Your whole Package of knowledge presented here has really helped me solidify these Ideas for myself. I aspire to be so skilled at Game Development that I can create any Game I dream of with ease, in short, a Master Game Dev.
Mauri Ora and thankyou for your aid on my journey, many blessings your way my friend
⭐⛰
I'm thrilled to hear that this video helped you out, King! You're warmly welcomed here and I can't wait to keep uploading more deep advice soon. You will be able to reach your goal with time, patience, and as long as you're learning, you will get closer to where you want to be. Keep having that open mind and you'll be very impressed with how far you can go! Good luck on your journey and feel free to stop by whenever you want. 🎊
@@EdwardLabarcaDev many blessings ! You too keep up the good work, may the future be bright, Mauri Ora
Thanks for this vid mate! The more I know!
Thank you for your support - glad I could help!
When I saw the game I sense some MMBN flair, and then you mention it on how they recycled assets on MMBN. Good call.
Also, the Sakurai one, and many other tips.
I do a living from this line of work for more than 15 years, and I support what you said.
Good one. Kudos!
Your comment is gold, recognizing MMBN is based, and hearing you do this as a living while agreeing with my points is the icing on top. Huge thank you for your comment! I really appreciate your words and wish nothing but success for you.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Same to you, best of wishes and success in your journey too!
Mike Mentzer's routine will save you a lot of time for those who are into lifting. You go as hard as you can with only 1 set for each lift, straight to failure. Im usually only in the gym 3hrs a week and I'm still making massive strength gains with this after 3+ years.
Important: Mike Mentzer has an excellent routine. I also reccommend Polarity Fitness for he too proves that as a lifter, you can make gains by only hitting the gym 2 times a week with high interval intensity training that focuses on compound movements until failure. Both sources are optimal for both time and results. I appreciate you sharing this tidbit!
i feel like if you can afford it set unrealistic time frames with Parkinson's law. I made a checklist for aug of stuff I needed to be done. All of it did not get done but a significant amount of work was done to the point I was ahead of schedule in reality of what realistically could be done on average the trick is staying ahead and not getting comfortable with your extra time but it really depends on what you're doing. I'd say only do this for a myriad set of simple tasks you need to be done, really simple design stuff nothing major.
@@lufuoena This is EXACTLY what happens when you use the law. You’re going to be way better off reaching your goals with it rather than without out. Huge thanks for sharing this insight!
Saying "No I dont feel like going" is so satisfying 😂
@@DoctorMario606 lmao such a power move when you put it like that. 😂
Man this video came at the EXACT right time for me, I love these long form videos where I actually learn. Subbed.
You are warmly welcomed here - Thank you for making my day and I can't wait to share more of my insights. I really hope this helped you in your journey!
Do you have discord?
@@SecretZoneGames
Hey man, the Discord is almost ready to go public. I'd love to have a community to bounce ideas with.
In the meantime feel free to join the newsletter where you can get exclsuvie updates and advice from me such as when I launch the discord hehe:
mailchi.mp/18769141c5f2/kick-ass-game-development
The drilling bit I don't agree fully because whenever I encounter something hard I try until I've explored most of my options and then do something else or just finish for the day because I'm probably tired already and can't focus on it. Whenever I sleep on it, I can usually resolve it by the time I wake up because when you sleep, your brain processes the issue in the background.
Usually I do tasks one at a time and do drill like you've described but on the really persistent problems I don't stress out too much otherwise I get burned out and lose momentum which is way worse than just working on something else
@@finesseandstyle You’re right - Breaks are important are allow you to think about solutions passively. Sometimes we can stress ourselves for no reason and are required to take a step back. What I wanted to communicate is that you shouldn’t switch the task you’re working on until the task at hand is fully resolved. Regardless, really glad to hear your POV on this matter and I’ll make sure to keep your words in mind next time l speak about drilling! Goodluck with your development journey!
Really helpful and comprehensive insights. From sleep, focus, coding, reuse, delegating, drilling and more. You have a really solid system and your games look like fun mechanics and a lot of juice.
Hey - I appreciate your words a lot and thank you for complimenting my system and my game too! Great job on listing the topics covered too. I really hope this helped you in one way or another.
The "Get Better" really is kicking good, I can relate to it so much.
Also it was also a grid-based movement like in pokemon Emerald.
@@maheryrazafindralambo9679 More skills = less friction, and yeah -gotta love grid-based systems after you experiment with them hehe. Glad this helped and l hope you excel in your game development journey!
1. Go to bed
2. Do exercise
3. Prepare meal
4. Push chore in a blocked set period of time
5. Condition yourself to saying "No" with no excuses
6. Go autopilot on decisions
7. Cut distractions like social media
8. Take shorter breaks
9. Parksinson's law, work expands the more you limit yourself
game dev related
10. one project at a time, grab one, ginish
11. invest in scalable system (aka components, inheritance)
12. Recycle assets
13. delegate other tasks that you can't do quickly when possible
14. Take better programming notes
15. Passive and Active feedback, get a survey and playtest (make it in google forms)
16. large chunks of blocked periods = focused work
17. small chunks of blocked periods = quick tasks
18. use critical tools. not all of them
19. drilling : engaging in exercises that challenge you go apply concepts in various contexts.
20. Internal steam: Be quiet avout new features that you have to force yourself to remain motivated
21. Ensure incremental progress, learn to get better
@@kloa4219 Thank you for the summary!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev thank you! I remember stuff when I take notes on them
the thing about making new assets, i acknowledge that as a massive time sink and i just consider it worth it in most cases. that's the kind of time investment that players will really feel, i think they really appreciate having lots of genuinely new things to look at. i pour tons of time into that, but the way i see it, every minute spent creating new assets is a good investment.
@@adog3129 Nothing wrong with assets, especially since it’s what makes your game charming/unique. It just happens that if you have a team or someone to delegate that type of work to, you could save a huge chunk of time. Regardless, it is important to have your own “signature” when making your assets too. Thanks for your words!
It’s worthy to watch the whole content. Thx!
Thank you for your recommendation! Goodluck with your development journey!
Great talk and video you obviously put a lot of time into. I like how you start with general productive lifestyle habits before going into game dev specific habits. Setting an alarm to go to sleep is probably what will help me the most as I usually need an hour to fall asleep anyway and I rarely budget for that time and It's really hard to have a good day when you start out tired. I'm definitely not nearly as routined and organized as you are as I have pretty intense ADHD but managing ADHD is a lot of habit building and habit breaking like anything else. Looking forward to more of your talks/videos in the future!
@@Matt_Sorensen Bro, THANK YOU for your words and especially that last point-all of life’s difficulties can be mitigated by managing habits. Beautifully stated and more importantly, it highlights your level of accountability. Mad respect goes to you for saying that. I’m glad this video helped but am happier to see you share your thoughts! Good luck with your development journey!
Laser accurate. Excellent advice and excellent knowledge to share. We got ya back! Keep going bruh! Respect!😎
@@SquarePurple-wp4pv More videos like this to come - this is for you at the end of the day, l really hope this helps you in your development journey!
This video is fantastic! I fell into most of these habits just by chance, and have been very productive since I did. This concisely explained what I was doing so that I could send it over to my partner for game dev so he can see what he might need to do to hit my levels of productivity.
Thank you!
@@DreamsInShades Super glad to hear this helped! Also really grateful to hear that you share many of these habits and are sharing the same results. I hope this information helps your partner out and clarifies why we develop the way we do. 😎
Blessed video
Blessed commentor
Great video, i am going to focus on drilling,
Parkinson's law,
commiting to 1 project(for the big blocks of time),
Alarm before sleep(already set if half way through the video)
Taking smaller breaks and being more specific like 15 min not just ima chill for a bit 2 hours later
Also adding these to the spread sheet comparing my daily productive time already.
Great video, now i gotta go drill through a school project
@@Flamewolf14 Make sure you have a deadline for the entire project so that you don’t burn out. Besides that, you’re set! Goodluck!!
I have made 5 complete apps with front and backend in 3 months . That’s all a matter of focus indeed.
I cannot express how much I appreciate you for taking the time to comment and prove the point on why focusing is key to being quick and consistent. Absolute King behaviour - Thank you for sharing and I hope you prosper in your development journey!
Oh yeah it can sound like a lie from me man, but I’m not kidding.
Of course it took me a lot of time to learn that. Just now I can see that focus is key. Along with that comes the automation. Being well organized and patient also helped me to deal with the fact that a simple app requires an insane amount of code even if you use the frameworks available. And finally: Do it! No matter what. Do it.
I like how the beginning of the video is actually just general life advice, and implementing various forms of minimalism to cut the unwanted fat out of your life and fill it with the things you actually want. It makes for an excellent lifestyle guide video that rivals most real lifestyle guide videos, hehe
I very much appreciate this comment as it helps contextualize that sometimes we focus too much on the actual project rather than what you do to even properly perform for the project. Thank you for your words!
I love this video, some things you talked about I already knew but hearing them again reminded me to refocus on the habits I once had. Thanks so much!
Super glad to hear your comment - thanks for your support and I'm thrilled to help! I have more advice just like this that'll come out soon!
Thank you so much for investing your time in creating this insightful video and sharing your invaluable experience on how to become more efficient in game development. After watching, I feel inspired and re-energized to continue working on my own game. It's always motivating to learn from passionate individuals like yourself. Wishing you continued success in your game development journey!
@@harryworner1990 It brings me joy to hear you get revamped on tackling the game development journey, Harry. I’m stoked to hear how this helped and can’t wait to share more of my insights soon - for now, practice some of those habits and you’ll see how development becomes a different game of itself.
I found this extremely helpful to be honest. Subscribed and belld
My problem is that I have depression, and (despite being well medicated) it fucks up my internal clock. I would sleep 16 hours a day if it wasn't for alarms
Hey Aeolian, thanks for sharing your situation.
Sorry to hear about your personal circumstances. I think that the power of multi-layered habits is that you can create an assortment of them that best fits your needs. If you are (unfortunately) suffering from factors that hold you down, optimize for the habits that give you the best benefit/ROI. For example, if the Internal clock is too much of a struggle, do not fret - ignore this habit and focus on building the other ones that suit you. That being said, if you require an alarm - absolutely hold onto it!
I really hope this video helps you paint a picture on other steps and approaches you can take to continue 'faster' development - remember that your health comes first no matter what!
31:05 Such a great video, so many cool insights, especially the Masahiro tip, it makes so much sense. I made a trailer of my game in the very early days, shared it, everyone liked and then the development stalled for MONTHS because I had a false sense of completion.
Thank you so much for sharing this and exactly - it's rough when we have that false sense, but we need to learn how to put our heads down and keep working silently. It takes time to learn this and I know we're capable of doing so. Really hope this helped you!
When you delegate any work, are there legal concerns or you have to make a contract even when they are simply a friend? It seems like such a stressful thing to do to delegat. What's the right way to do this?
Great question! Allow me to provide clarity:
(I'm going to cover the safety-net of using and making contract + the importance of teammates)
⚠All parties involved need to document and sign an agreement form to avoid any legal issues. ⚠
This is better done with people who offer professional services as it supoprts their business, builds their rapport + portofolio and/or already provides a system of invoicing (which are paid contracts.) - similar to how running a studio/team would work, you should exchange value (money) for respecting a pre-determined contract you've generated so that you may get their tangible content creation and project contributions.
Example 1: Using Services for Delegation
@punpunartz is a great friend of mine and foremost is professional graphic designer. As a result, we had to discuss how we wanted to delegate. Upon proposing my idea to her, both of us agreed to sign a contract that clearly states the rules of what, who, and how the intellectual property would be used.
Her Service: Make Professional Art - I asked her to take my design and upscale it to a higher-quality version of it that meets the Steam’s standards for all Capsule Sizes and then made an extra request to make each art element separate for the purpose of modifiny it and/or using it as separate assets for other media.
For @punpunartz, I paid her for her work, asset separate agreement, and this was all documented in a contract we both agreed to.
You can see the contract here: imgur.com/a/OdhZ1AZ (I hid sensatve information on this screenshot) + We also have email proof discussing how I'm able to use her work.
Example 2: Using Friends for Delegation
Now, let's say you have a friend who doesn't have a way to distribute professional services and/or is just helping you for fun:
❗Write a simple document and make your friends sign it ❗
Then save it as a .pdf or unmodifyable document that establishes clearly what properites are shared, what is allowed and how it can be used. It is critical to have a track record of agreements to avoid getting into legal trouble should conflict occur in the future. This information should detail what you and your friend would work on and how the value (money) gets distributed before, during, and after the project's production cycle.
End of the day, while this isn't necessarily required, it's simply for your safety.
Personally, I haven't had informal experience of working with friends/not paying collaborators, and I intentionally do this to protect property I've established and property that is shared with professional collaborators + I truly want to respect people's talents (If I can't pay you to work with me or cannot generate revenue that is advantagous for a potential team, then I shouldn't be in the position to ask for it). The only informal relations when developing that are completely fine are those regarding feedback, play-testing, idea-sharing, etc. - not those involved in the actual tangible content creation. For those who want to help/offer favors, I reject their offer because I personally believe in exchanging value.
I know this can be improved and that there are other developers that have a system to establish this, however, it's easy to hear a friend offer you a 'favor' and you need to know when to draw the line / assert the boundary that if this is truly a favor, you'd reward them under the conditions of a favor.
Lastly, I'm a firm believer that teams are the absolute best way to develop.
It may be paradoxical to state this because if you can gather a team earlier and delegate a million things to them in exchange for sharing revenue, profit, or paying them later - as long as the team member(s) agree, then totally go for it. Talent and delegation is one of the largest levers you can use to become hyper-productive in the game industry - you just need to absolutely ensure that you put your integrity first to 1. protect your property, 2. respect and protect your teammate(s)'s values, skills, + contributions, and 3. avoid miscommunication/conflict in a professional environment that could get you in trouble.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Brilliant response! Very comprehensive. I also agree that exchanging value is the right thing to do.
The biggest mental hurdle for me is what the project's owner must do to have other people work together on a project, like making agreement papers with full confidence that it's perfect. Or researching how much value a chunk of work should be compensated for. But this may come down to first-hand experience.
@@Cameo221 Also as a standby witness, I've seen this happen countless time - Teaming-up for Game Jams.
I can tell you that it's common for individuals to meet-up and agree to working with each other for the end goal of completing a project for a game-jam. It's free and the value the get is to make a game within a weekend, polish their skills + add more to their portfolio. Typically, if the game jam final results are good enough, then the team would re-negociate their terms on "Hey, let's make this a full game" and then that contract part is introduced (this is because most common and informal agreements for game jams is to share everything being contributed within the project they make.) A great example of this is Peglin - it started as a game jam idea, popped-off due to its innovation, and then Dylan Gedig (founder of Red Nexus Games and creator of Peglin) organized his team to work on the game full time while clearly establishing the working conditions of how his team would get compensated. Note: this involved the legal creaiton of Red Nexus Games Inc. - which is the formal buisness/service they use to reallocate revenue the team and produce their next game, Foul Damage.
Basically i really need to stop watching videos from people that don't have a fulltime job or even a morning alarm.. 😅
@@MarioCola I can agree with you because yes - time working on your craft is better spent than consuming media. (unless it helps you attain new knowledge to execute your craft more efficiently) However, I would like to share that I am still currently operating with a 9-5 job. I mention this primarily because even with all the extensive responsibilities we must do, we can still find opportunities in our limited time to continue creating our projects. I really hope this video helps you understand that any habit that positively enforces your efforts can go a long way. End of the day, you choose where you allocate your time. Thank you for the comment and I hope your game development journey goes smooth, bro!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev man i appreciate the answer, but a 9-5 job without a morning alarm is not doable for most real people
Reality is I work on my game from 6pm to 2am almost everyday I can and I do take some days off here and then to get my mind clear, also I do take pauses every 2 hours so I can get back to the engine with a better mind, specially when I'm stuck
I obviously don't hate your channel, but mainly this extenuating need for simplifying everything in a recipe that definitely won't work for most people
I would take a more human approach and show the best practices everyone can adapt, independently from their personal situation etc
I would say for example a good practice is to look for feedback more than you look for check boxes and graphs in your project, that's a big start
P.s.
Sorry I've responsabilities as you mentioned and they can't wait for me to wake up, most of these habits simply cannot marry everyone.. maybe state these are your habits and these cannot apply to everyone, this created way less expectations on the content
@@MarioCola Hey man, we’re super chill - I’m happy to see you share your point of view and am cheering for you on what you’re doing through. Grateful for the points you’ve mentioned and for elaborating on your position. If your system works for you - great! I just hope that if there’s anything you could take away its to reflect and implement habits that would benefit you and your style of development. I really hope you reach your goals and keep making progress!
Fantastic video and really great advice. This is the difference between someone working on a game as a hobby versus doing this as a job. One thing I would add is don't work on your own IP for your first games (at least 3). This might seem like a strange statement for an indie. How can you work with someone else's IP if you have to pay for a license. What I mean is find a game that you loved (or 2 games for a mashup), and make your own version of that game. The reason I say this Is because the competition in the game space gets larger every year so you can't expect your IP to be one of the shooting stars that hits the big time. Expect failure, and mitigate for it. So rather than making an original IP, if you make your own version of an abandoned PSOne game (I'm doing this right now) or something like that, then you've got a built in audience to work with and you're going to get noticed by way more people. I worked on two of my own IP projects before I realized you need to make a name for yourself before anyone will care. Also, avoid public domain IPs because most of them are forgotten. Unless you want to start really early on a James Bond game or Batman or Superman knowing that it'll take you a while to finish and the timing might be perfect for when a popular IP goes into public domain.
Fire advice! 🔥 I can see your point regarding how IPs need a name attached to it before it goes big - however I'd like to think that this is a double-edged sword because some of the most popular Indie IPs were crafted without virality in mind. I do agree with your point and would like to highlight the fact that failure and account for mistakes are gareenteed to occur when you're getting into the industry and that experience/sharpening your skills helps you migiate risk.
Also, out of pure curosity, what PSOne game is your game based on?
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Yeah, it's just something I wish I learned sooner, because prior to releasing my games, I came from the modding scene where everything was 100% original and I loved that. But that's the difference between doing it as a hobby or a career. At least if you're working on a spiritual successor you can still be working on something you love to start with, but you're just giving yourself a much better chance of success. Not to say you can't make it without tapping into an existing market, it's just a safer strategy. The game I'm working on is a spiritual successor to Future Cop LAPD. The alternative though to working on a spiritual successor is actually just to crank out as many good quality simple games as you can because it really increases your chances of catching the interest of a publisher. Although honestly I think this is a much harder way to make it as an indie, especially in the current market which is only going to get worse in terms of competition. My first game only made me about $800 and it was a 6 month project so having the drive to keep going after that is a lot more difficult. Again, I know not all indies want to work with a publisher - myself included, but it's a good way to get a boost to your career especially if you get one interested enough to invest during development (most try to mitigate risk by waiting until your game is almost finished).
hey man, amazing video! not only on the info you shared with us but also because it was really motivating for me. Cheers!
Glad you enjoyed it, King!
If you look for video about turning gamedev into speedrun, you watchin good video
Legendary comment - huge thank you! I really hope this video helped you!
GameDev Level increased to 100
💯
food should not be treated as an engineering problem lol. May as well just chug soylent at that point and skip meals completely. more time i guess.
I dont understand the motivation for _wanting_ to make a game in a short amount of time, outside of contractual obligations.
I liked to hear about how to be effective with the time you do have while developing (like what you mentioned with distractions) by limiting scope, focusing on a MVP, setting up a roadmap for yourself (roadmap of features/milestones instead of hard time deadlines is better imo).
These seem great for someone whos completey focused on pumping out games for commercial reasons and not just as a hobby/learning experience.
@@100timezcooler Absolutely. This content is geared towards developers who want to prevent over-scoping, create habits to min-max game production time and finish their game(s) in a timely fashion. I would guess that the “motivation” behind doing this comes from a place of being frustrated on how/why games take a long time to make. You have valid points - and l do agree that meals should be cooked correctly, (this doesn’t dismiss that meal preparing saves cooking time) however you have the complete freedom to pick and choose what best works for you or not. Regardless, l really hope this video helped you in any way shape or form. Huge thanks for pointing this out and l really hope you have a smooth development cycle!
just a random thing to nitpick in your example code:
"float var", "var" is a terrible variable name to use, and you should never use it as variable name for real purpose. in many languages it's usually a reserve keyword. Avoid using language reserve keyword in general.
“int f = 1" as well since it's not a loop index, just give it a meaningful name so you immediately know what it's doing without the need to read through the whole code and guess its purpose.
That might massively reduce the amount of comments you need inside your code. Verbose variable naming might be ugly, but it can make your code self-explanatory, which might solve your "what line did what" problems.
During code review, when I notice obscure variable name (like key, index) from params or declaration without seeing the direct usage of that variable below to understand what it does. I immediately question my colleagues what it does. 90% the times, they either can't give me an answer or have to look though the code they just created recently. Then I asked why no just change that variable name to whatever they explain it to me, like x_index, y_position. z_key, even z_dict_key, z_dict_entry. Just make it explicitly.
This always works and surprisingly 100% of the time they agree to make the change as they got stuck by their own code.
Yup! That's exactly why I decided to demonstrate that block of code in the "Do Less of This" section because of what you said - having variable names (and the lack of notes of what the variable/block is supposed to do) can fundamentally cause time loss because of all of the reverse engineering you would need to perform to understand how the function is actually designed to behave. And as you stated, code reviews exist for this reason too; if another development is reviewing your code and struggles to read the digestablity of your syntax, naming conventions, and notes, you've created more obstacles in the long run which leads to time loss.
Huge thanks for clarifying this and for even pointing out the critical importance of being clear in a code review!
It's cool that this worked for you, but it sounds like the sort of monkish lifestyle that Jon Blow has, and I have honestly never seen a man more miserable with his life and in denial about it.
@@turnkey_hole Huge thanks for the warning! Prolonged sprints aren’t healthy long term, but sometimes we need to throw balance out the window to achieve the goals we set. If you don’t have an end point, you’ll crunch and burden yourself for nothing. Keep your endpoint in mind at all times and take a good break after a sprint to stay sane.
@@EdwardLabarcaDev I definitely agree that it's reasonable and okay to carve out time to make sacrifices to achieve goals. Most of us would probably be on board with that. The issue, I think is more a question of what a goal should be. It's weirdly fashionable these days to "set goals" instead of "cultivate hobbies." I couldn't tell you why, but I would guess it's because a goal feels like it should have a product, whereas a hobby doesn't *feel* like it has a product. A hobby, like making games, can be a pursuit you do forever if you take ego out of it. But like, "make a game a month" or "do four jams a year" are two very achievable goals that end up creating a sort of self demand that ruins people.
I dunno though. I guess that's just the difference between a hobbyist and somebody who wants to pay the bills with their games. I've never put my social life on hold for productivity's sake. Though I can understand how that might be helpful a month or two out from release. Although, if you're crunching that close to deadline, seems like a fuckup in planning.
I honestly think I should learn from this video because it can help me finish my games much faster. Also, you finished your new game in the same amount of time it took mega man 7 to be finished.
Also, can practicing game dev by making multiple games within time limits help? I thought so because you could get more used to making games faster.
I adore this comment - few things I'd like to address:
Correct, MM7 was made in exactly 3 months - however at that precise time in Capcom, the company allocated over 180+ developers to create and ship Mega Man 7 for SNES. There is evidence that more content was created than originally intended which is why you can access a mini-scale 2-Player battle mode using cheat codes, and many unused sprites can be found in original game files. This is to say the following:
Megaman 7 Development Lessons:
1. Cutting Corners - Cutting content to meet deadlines is appropiate and very practical. (10:00)
2. Focus always wins - If 180+ developers are in the same room, you need to imagine and understand that each developer had a specific role. As an indie developer, you would need to wear all 180+ hats to achieve this task. How can you delegate/outsource enough hats so that you only focus on what actually matters while receiving support on "lighter tasks" from other resources, assets, developers, etc. (4:35) and (22:59)
3. If games back in the 1990s could be created within 3 months WITHOUT the tools we have access today, what excuse do we have to underperform? Exactly - thanks to the internet, we have a plethora of ways to access assets/resources/delegate, etc. Use this to your advantage! (23:43)
Regarding your multi-game question:
Refer to (11:30) - Yes, you can make multiple games IF you are only doing one at a time. Its better to make 1 micro game in 1 month so that you can make 3+ games in 3 months than attempting to do all of it at the same time. Focus and deadlines are the key to getting projects done. Also, if you take the approach where you do one game at a time, you indirectly create a larger pool of assets you've made overtime. This means that after making 3 micro-games, no one is stopping you to make your 4th game a combination of all three previous games provided that you are able to recycle your systems/assets/content (14:39)
You're absolutely on the right track thought because your goal is to establish a habit of making games quicker - which if done correctly, leads to a bigger pool of assets, deeper understanding of what works/what doesn't, and ultimately, sharpens your ability as a game developer.
tl;dr - MM7 used a focused-based approach to deliver their deadline, and you should always do one project at a time no matter how tempting it is to do more than one. It's the secret to getting things done.
You got this!
I'm rooting for you and hope to hear more from you and your games soon!
Huge thank you for your comment and insights!
Thanks for replying. I still remember during school while I was in 8th grade, 2023-2024, I was working on, at least 10 games all at once. It was a huge mess and I wasn’t getting much significant progress done. So I decided to stop working on those games, I deleted all of them, and stick to just one. I wanted to finish my game Energy Bots, mainly because I had a tribute in it about my Ela teacher’s mother who unfortunately passed away. Making this decision of staying in one game per time, really helped me and I should stick to it, and I’ll try to do that even better now that you made this comment.
Also, when you mention assets, do you mean game content like programming, art, ect? I also I want to keep looking back at this comment to try to learn better from it.
And also, if you’re curious, I’m on Scratch and have a couple of games there. I’m XBanana_CoderX.
@@BananaMan6763 Assets refers to any piece of content that can accelerate your developement journey. This includes Art (Sprites, UI, textures, meshes, shaders), Programming (Prefabs, Scriptable Objects, Systems, Files, Scripts), Audio (SFX, Music), Branding (Game logo, Game Art, Trailers, Screenshots, Website(s), Gifs, Posts, Videos), etc.
Took a quick look at Saw Blader Survial & Energy Bots - (and your catelogue) and you have lots of micro-games which is good for learning/understanding how game design truly works. I challenge you to pick up a Game Engine that has more depth/complexity such as Unity, Godot, and/or Unreal Engine - it may appear ot be difficulty and even overwhelming at first, but it appears that you have the habit of experimenting and creating a handful of mini-games which is absolutely great since it builds your skills.
Keep working on making more - you're on the path of learning and building great things!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev So, about using other things like game engines, I was thinking maybe using frameworks. If you don't know what they wre they're kind of like game engines but you need to write more code for them, and do more work to acomplish things, for example making physics. I know a benefit I can get from working with them is working more with making my own systems which can help me if I want to be a part of a the computer science industry.
I also wanted to just stick with Scratch for quite a while, probably a few years, and then move on to using frameworks and learning proper programming languages. Should I participate in your challenge to make a game with a framework when I’m comfortable? Also, for some reason I'm afraid of downloading things, that’s mostly because of storage space.
In the scalability department, Inheritance, abstraction and interfaces are the core of this. Coupled with ScriptableObjects (unity) or DataAssets(UE)
@@ComputingCode Absolutely true-you’ve listed the fundamentals of scalability in coding. There are more tricks to discuss in this section going forward. Those are the main terms to research when starting out/learning your coding skills.
Thanks this is pretty helpfull, I learn a lot by watching ur video, I repeatedly stuck on making prototype not continuing it or stop working on it, change other ideas. now I also stuck in working on my game for a few months and I feel this is taking too long.
@@noodle-eater Thank you for your comment - the hack that you need (this is the most necessary requirement all developers need) is to set a deadline. Parkison’s law does WONDERS for finishing projects. Take your experience (and assets) between your past prototypes and your current project, apply a deadline, start play testing early and launch within the next two months. It sounds crazy and impossible until you realize its’s not and you’re more than ready to accomplish this. You got this!
thank you so much for making this - keep making similar please
@@PrajwalArtist-p4d Roger! I promise there’s more coming soon.
Highly intelligent presentation this was really well done, can feel the emotion in this presentation, amazing work sir.
@@mouseroot8053 I appreciate your words! I really hope this helped you in any way shape or form!
Thanks man good tips! Trying to get into game dev but am in grad school time management is tuff
Grad School is tough - I'm personally seeing the effects of just how of a time sink getting a Master's/Ph.D - mad respect for your attempt at it and the sheer dedication/commitment needed is a lot. Regardless, I really hope any one of these (or multiple of these) tips truly helps you. Remember your priorities, rest well, and if you're in the intro stage of Game Dev, please consider Game Jams / Micro-games. Small steps at your stage of life are extremely recommended as it'll help you grasp game design concepts more rapidly while integrating positive habits into your journey. No shame in taking your time now, but once you get the hang of it, that's when the accelerated process can truly kick in.
Not me watching this video instead of developing. Like I HAVE the time, I just need to get the motivation to use it. Its like you either have too much time and nothing to do with it or not enough and you need to make sacrifices to make time.
@@AndrewS-vu4ji Great assessment; set the deadline! I promise everything fundamentally changes when you chase a deadline. You start to zone-in / tune-out everything that doesn’t help you meet that deadline and suddenly all the habits l’ve mentioned become second-nature. I really really like how you recognize you have time. The allocation of it comes down to how you prioritize it which is why when you set a deadline, you’d force yourself to use it towards that direction.
Love this comment, you can do this! Good luck on your development journey!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev I meant it more like, I'm young and it's summer, and I have nothing to do besides get ready for school, yet I'm infinitely more productive when I'm in the middle of school, club, and work.
I do agree that deadlines help, as would the frustration of not revealing your plans to others, it's just those bear a lot more of the weight of continuing work on a project.
But idk, it's all useful info either way.
Dude. I ain't never heard of you before or anything you've ever done until this day of commenting. But I love the way you think. Awesome lecture dude. So it looked like you were using C# for scripting. Well. I love the intellectual side of UA-cam and I like your art style. I think it will be entertaining to observe. .
@@jordanjackson6151 You made my day with this comment. Thank you for writing this and more importantly, l really hoped that any/all of these tips helped you in any way shape or form. I have more videos coming out soon so l promise to get you more of this type of content soon. Good luck with your game dev journey!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev Thanks. My thing is mostly a hobbyist pastime. I don’t see enough vids on UA-cam depicting 90’s style spaceship shooter style games. Though they are apparently more linear in design and less exploratory in the level department. As a result I’m getting busy with Lua using the Love 2D framework.
Underrated video! 😔👌
Underrated comment - thank you for your support!
The greater the development time of a game project the more likely that games development will move from the forefront to the developers back burner. Keeping motivation up for a project, requires a level of self discipline that is very underrated! We all tend to have a glut of ideas, but limited amounts of focus.
Understanding that.. I actively try to stay away from coding projects that require more than a few months of time at once. Preferring to ship at smaller internals, so each project migrates between where it was and where I want it to be... This can be frustrating for users to some point, who tend to want big changes all at once, but I've rarely found that beneficial to the overall project.
Keep Coding .. Keep Making Games ...
We can't satisfy everyone and that's absolutely okay. Staying focused, learning from your mistakes, and constantly improving are generally the greatest return of investment you could possibly get as a developer. Super glad to hear that you're constantly working on small-scope projects as the requirements to complete them necessitate pure focus for a short perioid of time. Thanks for the comment!
Just watched for 5 minutes I think I need to leave a comment
Yes! Those problems are what I'm experiencing! Everyday!
And you are teaching me how to enhance it!
@JM9CrazyCode We tend to focus on the technical and forget the soft-skills part too. Extremely glad I could help!
Really fantastic tips man! Hat tip to you for being so accomplished and wise beyond your years.
@@gameboardgames Thank you, King. I want to continue sharing the mistakes and corrections I’ve made to help you avoid the pitfalls I’ve taken. I truly hope this helped you.
The idea of creating a "skeletal system" takes experience. Imo if you try to do that before you have the experience you end up wasting a lot of time versus just having some duplicated code.
@@timjen3 You’re right! It may not be the most beginner friendly skill, but one way or another, regardless of what level you are as a developer, you should experiment with it and see what happens.
Thanks for pointing this out as l did not consider the level-of-entry of the developer when compiling this list. I’ll pay more attention next time. 🫡
Thanks for your words and advices, it helps a lot.
@@MiraBene Thank you for your support!
@@EdwardLabarcaDev You got me to drill deep into something that blocked me this full week (JSON serialization and C#...), and ended up kinda solving it, on a Sunday morning after quiet a busy Saturday night.. so really, you have strong arguments 😁
All the time you spend not working on the PC is time you spend thinking about the project: this is the goal if you're doing production.
R&D always requires desk time, there's just no way around it.
If your game is taking too long then you're doing R&D; unless you're producing 100GB of content, then any game should take about 6 months to produce, including triple A games.
For production you should know everything about the process and know the game you want to make. If you have to test things and try out solutions for more than 1 day then you're still not ready for production.
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The other advice you should consider is working towards finishing systems, not the game. The deadlines should be set for a system's prototype, not the game.
This way you can expand the prototypes as much as you want to, while at the same time already have a finished game that you can ship when needed.
Eventually you'll have all your core systems, and again, you can expand them as you desire.
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About multiple projects, I disagree. I personally need to shuffle from one project to another or else I get burnt out. I don't produce them all at the same time: I focus on producing one while R&D the others until they're ready for production.
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Ultimately it depends on what's your goal. This video is for developers who want to make money.
I'm an artist, and though I understand my resources are limited, I'm committed to producing my vision regardless of the consequences.
YOOO this is great! I want to address some extra comments regarding your point:
1. I agree - you're in R&D if you're not actually implementing production-based tasks. You point is amazing because it emphasizes that there's no excuse to delay a game for that long (unless there's a reasonable content development milestone) - I would also include general game balance and other testing factors too.
2. Yes - systems typically should be established in your prototype, thus allowing you to implement generated content to build your game. I would also add to avoid scope-creep since that is the #1 reason why production gets delayed; you make more systems without an end-goal or deadline, and for each system you create, you are exponentially introducing a new amount of test cases, possible bugs, and overall complexity that will require more time to resolve possible issues.
3. This is where we disagree - and to be fair, yes, burn out is a terrible thing. What I wanted to point out is the more you graze within the bounds of nearly burning out, the more resistance and growth you build when handling these frustrating problems which consequently creates the skill to handle boring/annoying/difficult tasks. You're absolutely right on taking breaks and resting when arriving to these circumstances, but shifting that task entirely to a different project, area, or another task simply delays your project and subconsiously trains you to avoid these "hard moments." This is why I'm exaggerating the point that you must stay in this area until it is resolved, otherwise you're teaching yourself how to passively quit.
As you wrapped up, this is all dependent on what you want to do with your time, development, project, etc. There are no rules to follow nor is anyone forcing you to take this specific route. I'm only suggesting advice that works for me and hopefully by trying some of these habits out, you may be able to see a difference in your development journey.
Regardless, huge thanks on your well-thought out comment! I really appreciate seeing your perpsective on this!
Thanks for the video! I've had a lot of issues during my game's development and this video is very helpful at understanding how to solve them. You deserve more subscribers, keep up the good work!
@@tudypie I appreciate the comment a lot and am enthralled to help! Sometimes the solutions we seek truly are outside of the scope we operate at which is why l had to mention the personal side. Sure, you could be amazing at technical game dev areas, but are you taking care of your health, min-maxing your time, and working with a fully rested brain? Again, huge thanks for letting me know how you felt!
This is great man, especially that steam method. Thanks!
@@Kjhgar12 Glad to help and credit for Internal Steam goes to Masahiro Sakurai the goat himself.
thank you. great talk and great advices
@@cloodheegamedev Thank you for the kind comment! I wish you well in your journey!
Very interesting, maybe i dont gonna apply everything but surely some of them
@@sebastiansossa6834 That’s the spirit! Hope this helps you in any way shape or form!
the notes thing is so real. I coded this dynamic movement system in like one sitting thinking oh ill remember why this argument is here etc etc. By the next day I woke and was just like bruh wait why is there 3 arguments for this one action wait wait. It works as intended and there is no bugs to it that I don't intend to be there but eventually im gonna have to practically reverse engineer the shi and rewrite it so I can actually understand wtf I was doing LOOL. Honestly whatever names you give something. idc if its like 20 characters if the name can tell you everything you need to know from the name use it. Practice proper naming OFF RIP from files to game objects to everything you have to type a name.
@@lufuoena Once again, thank you for sharing your story on how notes are critical to prevent time loss and confusion. While l do not know what are the Pros/Cons of long letter words, l’d rather use an extremely long variable that explicitly states what it does than to guess for days on end and performing extra debugging for something that could’ve been delegated to a singular word.
And as you also pointed out - it’s easy to fix a bug when the compiler tells you what error occurred. It’s a nightmare when it works fine and you can’t locate what the function does hahaha
Is there meal prep for people without a fridge?
@@timmygilbert4102 Not going to lie, not having a fridge is rough - meal prepping might be more challenging because your ability to save your batched meals heavily depends using a fridge to store them. No fridge simply meals that perishable food expires/grows sour.
But there’s no excuse; if there’s a will there’s a way. That being said:
Fridge-less meal prep requires non-perishable ingredients. This includes dry goods, canned meats, pantry must-haves such as:
• Canned Tuna, Spam Ham, Canned Chicken, Beans, Corn Beef, Peanut Butter, Bread, Powdered Milk, Canned fruits, Nuts/Seeds, Instant potatoes/Instant Noodles, Oats, Taco Shells, Tortillas, Crackers, Canned Soups, Instant oatmeal packs, cereal, pancake mix, etc.
You can still use spices (Salt, Pepper, Garlic/Onion powder, paprika, olive oil, vegetable oil), to cook and flavor your meals.
There are also a handful of snacks you can consider such as Pretzels, Popcorn, Jerky, Granola bars, etc.
Now, you may still need a way to reheat your meals such as a microwave or stove (gas stoves are also good because they do not depend on electricity but PLEASE do not be careless around them since one wrong move can cause explosive flames (speaking from experience here))
So here are meals you can prepare/batch ahead of time without a fridge:
• Cereal
See, this is why it’s hard because you can’t meal prep much. HOWEVER,
Here are meals you can meal quickly on the spot that does not require a fridge:
• Sandwiches
• Cereal
• Microwavable’s
• Instant Ramen
• Soups
• Tacos
• Burritos
• Wraps
• Rice Packets + Canned Meat
Lastly, I’m firm on nutrition - the problem with a lot of processed foods and instant meals are the lack of nutrition + spike of unnatural amounts of sodium, sugars, etc. It is not a good habit to rely on these and create a diet around these items.
The best alternative for this situation, which may be a bit expensive, is simply ordering food (specifically using delivery such as Door Dash) to keep you engaged with your work while getting a meal that has been cooked with the necessary nutrients (order local not fast food/junk food) - and again, this is expensive long term. If you theoretically can invest in delivery, it would be more efficient to just get a fridge for long term cost reduction.
End of the day, I urge you to get a fridge because my personal hack is getting Rotisserie Chicken, cooking rice, and just distributing that as much as possible + Eggs for breakfast.
Lastly, if you simply cannot prepare but recognize that you meed to cook daily, then that’s okay too. There are technically other tips/actions you can take to create more time for your project.
I really hope this helps one way or another and pardon for the limited response in advance.
How do you currently survive without a fridge? I would seriously consider buyjng a used mini fridge for cheap. Prepped food doesnt require much space and if it can hold 3 meals, then you will seriously save precious time.
@@LocherYT if I could afford a fridge I would, the cost of local delivery itself is higher than the cheapest fridge I find. I live below poverty line.
Bonus time saving tip: learn to watch youtube videos at 2x play speed
@@DisProveMeWrong 3000 IQ. ✍️
Valuable advice! Thanks for sharing
@@Protocere Thank you for the support! Can’t wait to share more.
thanks for this!
@@NotAlgion Glad to help! I hope you have a wonderful game development journey!
Yo, that game looks sick.
@@TheIndieAccord Huge thanks! An update is coming out end of the month. You can wishlist it to get notified on the update (which launches on August 30th, 2024) or simply get version 1.0.0 before the update goes out.
store.steampowered.com/app/2086270/DodgeKing/
nice video!
thank you.
came just in time
Glad I could help - I wish you a great game development journey!
Maybe it's my ADHD but trying to focus on one project at a time seems like it has a worse impact on my productivity. I find that I get stuck and rather than the focus helping me find the answer, it just demotivates me from engaging with the task until I miss whatever deadline I set for myself. Taking mental time away from a particular project and working on other things usually helps me approach the project with a new perspective when I come back. I guess the trick is to be intentional about the break, know that whatever you're working on is non-commital and, make sure you schedule when you're going to come back to the main project.
Hey, no pressure, but could you tell me more about how you handle multi-tasking versus just doing one project at a time? From experience, starting and finishing one project at a time is the most effective way to finish a project - yet I'm curious to hear how juggling many projects seems to be more effective for you. It'd be really cool to hear your POV on that!
Video summary: don't have ADHD
My heart goes out to you since ADHD indeed causes a lot of suffering - especially in the capabilities of performing tasks that require prolonged timeframe of focus. I cannot speak on this topic extensive due to having limited experiences with how one manages or goes about with ADHD, which is why I'd end the comment here. However, part of the reason why this video was made in the first place was because there were lessons that I learned on productivity FROM an talented individual who happens suffers from ADHD.
I do not want to approach this in an inconsiderate, dismissive, down-playing, or comparative way with what I am about to say, but instead, inspire you to partake in building a few of these habits with your circumstance.
This is because I do want to share that one of the most amazing individuals I've had the pleasure to meet juggles working with creating extremely-high LOD (level of detail) maps on their daily 9-5, then afterwards dedicates the next 2-4 hours going to school/class to pursue their Architecture Master's degree, deals with very intense project-based assignments with short deadlines (with only about 8 free hours per week to get it done) and still is fully capable of dealing with life's responsiblities (such as attending and checking in on parent's health, pets, outings, etc.). This individual too suffers from ADHD and has elaborated multiple times that their personal hack on overcoming an overwhelming amount of work is by using Parkison's Law to their advantage - a.k.a. forcing yourself to meet deadlines as discussed here: 10:00 - because of this person, I learned how to hack my time by applying the same law which is why I urgently needed to share it in this video.
Additionally: Attaining the level to reach focus with ADHD may feel uncontrollable/volatile, and it may even "feel like the door is on the other side of an infinite hallway that continues to stretch out the more you walk towards it." (according to said friend) - For the individual that suffers from ADHD, they've also described that what they can control the most (to drive better results) are the external environmental distractions. This includes cutting phone notifications, hunger, stressing on the aforementioned deadline, and front-loading other tasks/chores ahead of time.
Finally, there is no "one-way-solution" to solve this or any major issue. Everyone has their own way of going about life and I'm aware that this plagues a lot of talented people. I geninely hope you find ways to super-charge your game development journey and reach the results you're seeking. Thank you for the comment - and I want to highlight that this is not in any way shape or form a way to attack or argue against the struggles of ADHD, but inform and inspire you that there might be just a few ideas that can combat some obstacles you may face.
It might help to actually remove the expectations you have in regards to progress. Just set aside a time block and work, lock your phone in a time safe, unplug your internet, and lock your door. You can't be distracted if there is nothing to be distracted by. With these steps you might still be "all over the place" but that's actually OK if all the places you can go still contribute to the completion of your game.
In other words: Embrace your ADHD by setting up your workspace to force it into tasks that accomplish your goals. The only other option you get should be staring at the wall. 👍
Breaks are important. Chores, workouts, cooking are great to use to reset your brain.
@@MAXmillium Absolutely-taking care of yourself is key in this process. You cannot achieve any task without proper rest/breaks.