My Day Balancing Indie Game Dev + A Full Time Job
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2024
- Thanks for joining me for another "day in the life" style video where I show you how I balance work on Dauphin with my job as a software engineer. Hope you find some inspiration to find that same balance working on your projects!
#indie #gamedev #balance
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This had to be one of my favorite videos so far. Seeing how you balance hobbies, life, and work is interesting as I try to do the same for myself. You're very intentional with your time and commitments. It's something I strive for.
Hey thanks so much! You can definitely get there - in my mind discipline is just like a muscle, anyone can train it and see the results. Appreciate the kind words.
Im 28 with a full time job as Software Engineer, while also trying to have a daily progress in my personal projects, thanks for inspiration and ideas.
Always is a good idea to balance everything because when we are working on our personal projects never feels that the day is done, so is nice to see your take your time for everything else.
Completely agree!
I've been watching your videos since about the same time you started dauphin, and I have to say its always amazed me how much of a well-rounded person you are. keep up the great work man
Hey thank you, appreciate you watching!
Thanks for all your hard work and spreading the good vibes of motivation.
Cheers, thanks for watching!
Loved the vibe of the vid! I feel validated since a lot of your points i have been doing myself for years
Lifting and just guiltless breaks are truly lifesaving
Hey, thanks! Totally agree. Sometimes my breaks aren't as guiltless as I want them to be, but I'm working on it!
Bruh, you have the perfect life. Packing away the work laptops is smart
Nothing makes my day quite like a new DevDuck Video, I can't wait for the next one!
Wow seeing you do corrupted gauntlet had my dying because of how similar our situations are , I also balance a full time job doing AAA game dev, solo indie dev, bouldering, running, and OSRS lmao. I think the main struggle is balancing the amount I want to socialize and spend time with my friends versus solo indie and working out, especially because the marathon training I'm doing right now takes such a chunk. I think it's extra impressive that you balance responsibilities like a dog and fish. I've been avoiding getting a dog because it would add so much responsibility to my already overwhelming schedule. One more note is that I also follow your routine of doing deep work on indie or solo projects early in the morning, around 5 am, as I find it's near impossible post work for me and also I really value that post work time to spend time with friends, as relationships and my girlfriend are so important to me. Nice stuff man, I respect how much you've crafted a high functioning and meaningful life.
I've got to say i really admire your worth ethic! Balancing a full time job and a passion project as big as yours, along with spending time with family and friends isn't an easy feat. Congrats on the progress you've been making and i cant wait to see what the final product will be!
I love seeing how you balance everything. It's a great reminder that not everyone has massive amounts of time to do this and sometimes we can only manage a couple hours at a time with life and other (often more important) commitments. It's easy to feel that you're not doing enough when you can only dedicate a little portion of your day to development, but it's important to remember it's normal.
I love these day in a life videos. Thanks for the great content through the years. I wanted to leave a comment because pretty much all of the other ones were from porn bots.
Hey I appreciate it! Thanks for sticking with me over the years. I dunno what UA-cam is doing these days, they really need to figure that out haha
The porn bots are the youtube developers' AI girlfriends. Show some respect.
Beautiful, good luck with your gamedev journey!
I see OSRS, I subscribe. Looking forward to Dauphin brotha. 🔥🔥
Its inspiring to watch your videos. Establishing a routine and avoiding burnout can be quite difficult.
Thanks for the kind words. I agree, but I think it's worth it!
love seeing these videos, aspirational stuff! I've got a one year old daughter and have been struggling to find any balance whatsoever for personal projects, working on getting back into a routine is tough with a baby but recently been making some headway on my novel for the first time in a year and it feels really good, routine is king, people!
Best day in the life video of all time. Love the music, vibe, cinematography - amazing work.
Found this while having UA-cam on in the background while also up at 5am drinking coffee and coding before dayjob 👊🏼😆 This is the way!
As a full time worker and getting a new computer soon, this video means the world to me! I love the idea of balance and I have very little right now with this being only my second month on the job! Thanks for this journey video this will inspire me when it’s my time to start development again!
Ive been developing an indy game for 4 years now. I love adding features and increasing quality of assets. Its been lot of work but a labour of love
Labor of love is right! Best of luck as you keep going!
@@DevDuck thanks devduck. Been following your progress for dauphin for a while. Love the art and latest features. Keep up the great work 👍
Such a great video! Keep the grind up!
Hi Ben! I love your snoopy themed watch! hahaha Thank you for videos like this oe, they surely give ideas and perspective to fellow Indie Game Devs/Full Time Workers! I do the same, once I finish my shift, everything work related goes off sight in order to disconnect! It is quite important as you said everything happens on the same room, in the same chair haha
2:31 I feel that, LOTR extended edition is a wonderful time. Great video as always and I hope you have an awesome day!
Fellowship is 100% my comfort movie!
This was lovely. Just seeing your day to day and how you manage it all.
Whilst you say "your way isn't the high way" it certainly helps for inspiration on how to manage a routine!
Also has it truly been 3+ years of Dauphin?!
Great video! I feel you on needing two machines for work. A few months ago I started using Anker's KVM switch that allows you to run all your peripherals to both machines and then you can swap between machines with one button. It may not fit your needs, but I've enjoyed it so much I thought I'd pass it along.
I've been noodling on some kind of KVM or maybe just a nice USBC dock so I don't have as many cables to swap around - I'll look into it!
Love the consistency! Thanks for the motivation to get my butt in gear.
Cheers, thanks for watching!
Monday morning motivation that I needed, thank you for the content.
I'm a 3rd year cs undergrad and I hope to be like you one day :). Working on building those positive daily dev habits early
Really cool video, and the timing is great. I just graduated and started a job as a developer. But I also grew more hungry than ever to start my own side project(s). One is a gym app with the goal of learning technical skills and hopefully commercial success. I have started working on the gym app, with a lot of beginner headache 😆. The other project is a low poly horror game, which I intend to make purely for fun. I have always been poor with routine, but I am looking to change that. This video gives me inpsiration, but not in a hyped up way - in my experience hyping myself up *always* falls flat. I'll let this video inspire me and digest in the background of my brain while I work on myself and my discipline.
Good luck with everything, looking forward to your progress.
gl on the bowfa grind
Love seeing someone actually use an Apple Vision Pro as part of their work routine
Such an interesting device - I don't use it everyday, but it honestly is really enjoyable to use for work sometimes.
keep on chugging! you are an inspiration and should be proud of the amount of work you put into your game :-)
Hey man, love the video. I work from home too as a devops engineer and i wish i could wake up that early. I find it's best for me to do my personal dev work before bed after i've spent time with the wife and kid. That being said I admire your morning routine!
Keep it up! I'm in a similar boat, we're even wearing the same watch face haha. It's not easy, but it is rewarding
Great video, thank you for the insight. I'm in a similar position but I'm constantly derailed by responsibilities with the house, pets, my partner. How do you balance things like chores in your schedule?
I'm living a pretty similar life, except the nice home gym part which I am very jealous of. :)
I do my indie game work late in the evening when wife and kids are in bed, the curse of being a night owl.
Thanks for the video, I like how you strive for balance, it's a little underrated in this day and age.
I love watching videos like this, your life is pretty close to the life I want, but I'm finding lately all of my ambition is just... Gone. I'm just so tired, spending my time uselessly, and just consuming instead of creating. It's so frustrating, but videos like this remind me that it's OK to take a break. Maybe soon I'll find some more motivation and ambition.
I feel you, I've struggled with similar stuff from time to time. Unfortunately I don't think it's something you can just "snap out of", but something you have to work towards. I've improved a bit this year so far by seriously scaling back my phone usage - all social apps are deleted (not just blocked or time gated), and I actually leave my phone on the charger as much as I can and just carry around that little notebook with me during the day to capture ideas. Helps me be way more present. Still have a long way to go!
Who does the claning, cooking, shopping and housework in your home? I look forward to achieving something like you've done. Also work in gamedev and have my own side project. But I just don't seem to have the energy and get easily disencouraged. Do you work on your side project on weekends or do you have a no work policy for them? Thanks for the video.
Great video man! Curious how much you climb each week and how you balance that with weight lifting. Something I'm struggling with. Doing one always gets me too tired to do the other the next day lol
Hey thanks Brandon! That's actually something I struggled with as well. Unfortunately, when we moved from our old apartment we ended up further away from our climbing gym, so we no longer have the weekly cadence we used to. I miss it. IIRC my routine back then was 3x week full body (something like a GSLP split) during the week with climbing on the weekend. So definitely skewed more towards lifting than climbing. But I strongly feel this lifting / climbing combo had me in the best shape of my life haha
@@DevDuck Ok great, might have to try something along those lines. Keep up the great work man!
As a youtuber, you could ask people to like the video or you could say you watched the extended LOTR trilogy, it has the same effect.
Always love watching your day in a life videos ❤ This one was extremely inspiring in particular because I'm trying to figure out what kind of routine I should stick to myself, as I've just recently got a full-time job in a bigger game dev studio 😄
Also, I'm just curious - when do you go to sleep that you manage to wake up at 5:00 AM consistently? I couldn't even get into getting up at 6:00 AM myself because I felt constantly tired waking up that early 😴
i wasnt expecting to see DevDuck in a red prison at 2:29, hope that enhanced will come soon
103kc with 1 enh and 1 armor - just need to find time to grind out the rest of those armor seeds!
That's a wonderful video, as always 👌
Hi DevDuck, really enjoy your videos! How did you go about learning pixel art?
2:00 dev duck a skinny little shrimp.... look at him now...SWOLE devdaddy! Consistency is key!
I love Golden Doodles!
>Wake up at 4am
>Clean kitchen and disgusting computer desk so I can film a video at 5am
this dude is so chill
What made you switch from notion? I love your videos. I’m trying to make habits and work on a project thanks to you and your videos!
You inspire me so much
I've seen your game, must have been ages ago, maybe even 2020? But I have to say, I never saw where you live and wow, your life is immaculate. Do you guys even have dust there? Maybe it's Vegas, everything looks so dirty here in my place now after watching this. Anyway, keep up the good work on your game.
Please make a video on how to make a "common" reusable assets! That would be really helpful
I was truly inspired by this video! It motivated me to also start journals to see how short term goals are met! I follow the same indie game dev dream and I actually have a few devlogs. I am currently seeking a remote Software Engineering job! If you don't mind me asking, which company do you work for? I would appreciate it so much if I was able to send a resume of my work! Hope to hear back soon!
Tbh this looks like a life I always wish for
Hi! Thanks for sharing. My routine for game dev + day job as engineer was pretty solid until i became dad recently xD any suggestions?
@2:29
Always down for some CG runs
Man I wish I could get this kind of balance
5 o'clock morning people!! :D I don't use an alarm clock, somehow my body has a good feeling for time haha
Love this!
I have maintained a very similar schedule for the past two years.
I have recently stumbled upon your account and I really enjoy how you express the importance of balance, and not always just going hard.
Especially when you mentioned sometimes you just play games or watch a series/movie. Lots of productivity influencers always neglect to mention the subtly of knowing when to take a break, recharge, and be aware of drainers.
Can you show your night time routine. Love the morning routine but never seen how you cope with the evenings.
Did you draw inspiration from Stardew Valley when making Dauphin? I know that sounds like a silly question, but I couldn't help but notice the two games sharing similar art styles (which is awesome because Stardew Valley is a great game!).
that workstation 👌🏽👌🏽
Been working on my game for 4+ years now. Game dev during the week is difficult, as often I'm exhausted from work. I think I need more exercise and fresh air for balance.
Thanks for the lovely video! At what time do you go to sleep?
10pm!
Love itt!!
Do you need a video editor bro ?
I can do a sample video:)
Thanks for reminding me how I want to live. Consistency, habits, routine and development, exercise and mental health. Recently my life was rather full of laziness and shame for it, so seeing again how I want to live and how I can live helps me want to fight for it.
Don't want to go too intimate, but how did you manage to achieve life where you seem to be free to do anything as if you were single even though you have a relationship? 😄
I'm not him, but I think to have someone who understand you it's the most important part. Also having a nice routine like him help to focus on your thing without neglecting your loved one. Bonus: not having kids I guess ahah.
Married here and can answer your question! My husband and I often do our own thing during the week. We have different work schedules, different friend groups and in some cases different hobbies. But we also share interests like video games, so we do play video games together sometimes, or go out to dinner or the cinema, etc. We have a baby on the way now so things will be different in a few months. But the main thing is, we both understand that we are our own people and we're not required to spend time together 24/7. We respect each other's independence and space. When we first met 7 years ago, we had that "honeymoon phase" where we couldn't bear to be apart from each other. But that wore off and we established a routine where we had equal time together and apart. It's healthy not to be so dependent on another. Hope that helps?
I don't think I could answer that question any better than Freya has in the other reply! I think discipline is something that anyone can train - hope you're back where you want to be soon!
@@glowingrunes Thanks for sharing. It's nice to hear that it works for you. It's probably about how two in the relationship build it and which direction they let it evolve. And if one needs more time for him/her, it needs to be carefully, sensitively communicated and routine and habits gradually rebuilt towards satisfaction of both. I imagine no extreme and fast changes, habits and routines need their time to build. Just sorting out my thoughts. Thank you for inspiration :)
*enjoys watching video
*looks around at the chaotic mess that is my desk and my life
*freaks out
*watches another devduck video
the cycle of disorganized dev life
I always wonder how to do all this when I have a full-time job and a small, wonderful child :) I often get up even at 4, but I still don't have time for all this :D
How you have this balance while playing OSRS on the side is the craziest part about this
Random questions:
1) What table is that?
2) What do you keep your PC tower on?
3) What stands are those for your laptop?(:
What model is the watch, it looks great!
You’re the best ❤
I have that same stand for my avp :D
Man I really need to stop watching these videos and actually get on the game dev grind. I’ve wasted too much time already. Great video tho
Lol the paradox of "productivity UA-cam"
Hey just came across your channel, great stuff! I really look forward to you playing your upcoming project. My wife studied marine biology so I'm sure she would love to check it out!
Many devs I know just neglect physical activity way too much. Even me sometimes xD
A way to never leave your chair.
What goes into your fish equipment on your desk?
THE RETURN OF THE KING!
Sounds like you are working for Collabora :D
How much sleep do you get a night? I'd love to wake up when you do and knock some things out .. but man that's so early lol
Have you noticed any burn in on your LG C1?
what keyboard / switches do you use?
Are those pest or nerite snails in the shrimp enclosure?
you work in both proyects at the same time? I didn't understand everything do you work for a company it has to be with games too or not?
sooo cool cozy life @!! I want this !!##>;) love
the dani of godot but sane
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
What time do you normally go to sleep? I love the idea of your schedule but I normally hit the sack around midnight and can't see me surviving on 5 hours of sleep a day haha
10pm! I've found I definitely need 7 hours.
@@DevDuck thanks! That's what I thought haha
What time fo you go to bed to wake up so early?
I want to start getting up early and working on my projects, what time do you usually go to sleep?
10pm. 7 hours is about right for me!
@@DevDuck nice!!
The real question is, are you happy? Sincerely.
I sincerely can't. I really tried, but it gets to a point where I can do stuff, but I just start hating everything because of tiredness. I am working part time and cutting costs, which seems to work a little better for me.
I'm in needing of any tips or tricks on how to retain the knowledge you get from watching tutorials so I am not stuck in tutorial hell
Not all partners allow for you to be a game dev... your lucky :)
Osrs screen time RAHHH
Hi, whats the ipad stand? You have afflink for it?
A good game takes about 2 weeks to develop in my experience.
Nice video but i personally enjoy dev videos more
A software developer not grinding leetcode and system design 24/7? What kind of wizard are you?