I think people underestimate just how much life can get in your way to releasing a game! I work 40+ hours at my regular job, while raising my son, running my UA-cam channel, spending time with my wife and then trying to find time outside of that to try and make a game. Sometimes something has to give and game dev (for me) is unfortunately the least damaging to take a break from. Anyways best of luck!
First of all, I feel like you have similar appreciation of your family as I do, and you probably heard it from many people already, but yes, I recommend to focus on your child and family. Looking back myself, all other things were really secondary even if I did not realized that at the time. Also thank you very much for this kind of reality check videos, you put here from time to time. A lot of UA-cam gamedevs are often painting a picture of flawless or almost idyllic process they go through, when making games. But as much as it is in some way aesthetically pleasing for a viewer, I would bet (not just based on my experience) it is far from truth. And I believe this is actually important factor into why so many indie devs never finish a game, in two ways actually. First because they cant despite their best efforts, and second because they had their expectations warped if it is their first project. Also fan pressure to actually deliver something and within some predictable timeline is real. And the balance between ignoring that and actually engaging with fans gets harder with larger audience. And I would say it is mostly impossible to explain without lived experience. I mean how many people have a job where hundreds or even thousands of people are giving them feedback, to be able to even imagine how it feels. Bit long winded, but I wanted to share with you. Be well, and be sure you are appreciated even when things are getting slow.
thanks LostRelic. I"m been making my first game starting out in the arcade genre to get my feet fresh with for a beginner. On it now for my third month now. Been a fun journey though learning basic python for it though. Not giving up yet. right now I'm having problems on getting my homemade font to read for my first level before I move forward with the lessons on the udemy course I'm following.
Totally understand where you're coming from. I was full time indie from 2003 - 2012 but once the kids started arriving I ended up getting a corporate job for the stability. Sometimes you just have to do what's right for the family but be careful not to give up on your dreams entirely because you still need to be you. It's only now that the youngest is getting a bit older that I'm trying to get back into game dev before it's too late for me. It's definitely a balance that you have to manage!
I always like to think of it this way .... Making a game is like rebuilding the great pyramids, to most it looks like a pile of stones . To those that attempt it, it seems like a never ending path filled with compromises ,struggles and piles of hardships. But for the few that see past the impossibilities, they find their dreams, happiness and the freedom. Game development is a passion and an art form that takes its toll on a person's life . It challenges a person's creativity, knowledge and commitment and often will push a person's mental , physical and emotional state to the brink. But it's in times like that which we must stand back and look at the road we walked and the goals we achieved , and most importantly even through the darkest times when we feel lost, we must remember what the end goals are. Game development is a journey with no bounds and a challenge that must be defeated . Stay strong and remember you are not alone and that each challenge that comes your way, is just another bump in the road . Even if the challenge grows bigger remember that we grow bigger with every challenge that's been overcome. The next one will always just sty another bump .
Glad you're still up and running! My daughter was born a few months after yours, so basically 8 weeks off the dev there until she was sleeping better, but who wants to miss that quality time and not support your partner just to say your game hit the store 2 months sooner? It'd be madness.
Good job. Seriously. You have to recognize when to sacrifice work for key family times. Only then can you feel comfortable when you do choose work over family time.
I totally get it! As a newish indie dev (2019), I've chosen to resist the temptation to commit to YT content creation as long as possible to keep focused on my own project. For me, as much as there's value in early promotion, completing or at least reaching near completion of the product before beginning YT churning makes more sense for me personally. I do watch a lot of YT content while I work and one common thread among them all is splitting time between development and feeding YT is a beast. At 56, patience is my friend.
Congrats on the new family member! Loved your point about entrepreneurship- how the end goal is to truly enjoy our life and relationships. I've been thinking about that balance lately with my own dev work so that really resonated with me. Thank you!
Glad to hear I'm not the only one struggling with competing priorities. Good on you recognizing the situation before it became problematic, and good on you for prioritizing the things of clear importance! Thanks for the honest update, I hope you have a wonderful holiday, best of luck with Blood and Mead, and best of health to you and your growing family.
Family first, mate! Congratulations on your little one! I'm in a similar situation - our daughter was born 9 weeks ago :) All the best and may you find time for both your family AND game dev! Greetings from Central coast!
Setting boundaries are very important! Thanks for that reminder and congrats on the baby :) don’t worry about us so much, here to support your dev journey no matter the outcome
Great video and update John! And I agree with what you said - GRIND IT OUT BOYS! "Do or do not. There is no try". I'm not at your level with game design reviews, but I can't wait to make one for Blood and Mead!!! Good seeing you on here again!
As a full time in indie dev I'm amazed that you can find time to make any UA-cam content at all. But you've got a good following and we certainly appreciate your vids!
Ever since I was hired in my development job, I became more procastinated to do gamedev activities. This is when you have to check emails every morning just to avoid doing overworked tasks. I had to do this until I was moved to nightshift and forgot doing my hobby stuff because of not enough sleep. I am so grateful I found this video; I can now finally have some time to myself and start my gamedev journey again. Thank you.. keep uploading more inspiring videos 👍
Hey, I was one of these people in your mail adding to your stress, I see this as a response even though I didn't need one. I hope you get to work on Blood and Mead more soon, and looking forward to your next videos!
I feel you on this one... haven't made a new devlog myself in months... I haven't even updated my Twitter since September. All my time and energy is just put into my game's development.
Completely understand this and I definitely think you're making the right choice. There's only so much time in a day and further than that, there's only so much free time in a day to actually work on stuff. I've been finding myself pretty stretched for all the things I want to do between family, life events, and other random obligations. I think I definitely need a refocusing with certain things if I want to get anything done by the end. Good luck with everything going forward, John! Looking forward to seeing whatever you're able to put out.
great hearing from you and to get an Update on the state of Blood an Mead =) Have a great time with your Kid too thats pretty important. I wish you all the energy to get those things done!
Love how realistic you are about time management and what it's like working a job, doing indi Dev work, being a father and husband. It may not be the case for everyone but, no matter how inconsistent your UA-cam uploads are, I'll be looking out for them.
Self care is very important, do what you have to do…That being said your kickstarter and game reviews are awesome to watch. I hope to see more in the future.
Humbling message on prioritizing what's important. Definitely dev > videos if the goal is to make games for a living. Also, seeing your game it looks good but I think it needs more of a 'hook'.
I was wondering how much progress you'd made on Blood and Mead and checked the channel. A lot of the things you said absolutely resonates with me. I've always liked your content a lot. Though, I was always more of a passive appreciator but ever since I started my own channel, I've realized how much community feedback can mean to a content creator. So, I just wanted to let you know that I really like your videos and more so, your personality. Keep spreading your positivity into the world. I'm sure many others appreciate it as well ♥
Happy for you and I agree with your advice. I'm moving forward, thinking less about the time I've wasted and more on the time I still have; even if it was just today and there was no tomorrow for me.
Congratulations on the baby! =D Family has to be your First Priority, for sure, especially during this period. And sleep is a close second, lol. I asked about your progress on BAM about.. 6 months ago? 8? Not sure. Didn't mean to pressure you at all. I'm so envious of the people asking you how it's going. I would love to have people periodically asking me how my personal game dev project is going! But I'm not envious enough to become a content creator or even promote my game before it's finished, so. (I know failing to do that is marketing suicide, but I'm not really in it for the money. I think it'll probably just go up on Itch. If it ever goes anywhere.)
You could always add a minute of some recent progress or interesting detail about your own game into each video. A short snippet. Keeping the exposure up.
Always appreciate it when you keep it real. This is definitely one of the more unspoken less glamourous side of development: time management! As you always say, it's a journey and as long as you're taking steps forward no matter how small or incremental then we're making progress. Take good care of your family man and see you in the next one!
Good for you! I've avoided doing any of the other peripheral things to self promotion so as to solely focus on the game dev. You only have so much time in the day :)
One thing I love about your channel is you’re someone who is realistic and has their priorities right. I love this. Most blogs skip over how long it takes to do things making it appear a lot easier than it is. If books take years to write, it’s understandable games do too. One step at a time will get you up Everest eventually. Looking forward to the new content when you’re ready.
I totally relate to this video. I had to slow down on UA-cam content production to focus on my game. This video is probably a great way to sneak in some content. :D
Game Dev is a unique challenge, indie game dev... going alone 100% is especially unique in this regard. Thanks for your motivational video! Oh, and I almost forgot: Congratulations on the wee one!
It is funny that you mentioned that your ‘family’ update came in the way of your dev work. In my case it was the opposite, I restarted game work because of that change (and others like moving down under), maybe as a way to regain some ‘me’ time.
first of all, congrants for becoming a new dad :^D now, about the other people's campains, to be honest I'm surprised you even did it for free, so this conclusion is completely fair. it's nice to want to help people, but it is not good to do so at the expense of your own life goals, even more now that you have children, and no one should have any rights to criticize you for making the right decision, since life is short, you only life yours and it's only once. I'm just glad you are still around, have a great day and wish you success :^)
CONGRATULATIONS BRO, so happy to know your wife and you had a baby, truly a miracle of life. Dont worry about keeping us updated on the game, im sure we all understand your current position.
Hi mate, been watching your game progress for a while now and have it wish listed on Steam, was just wondering if you had a price point in mind for when you do feel the game is ready to release? If not thats all good, just curious. Also I think the game is looking great right now and look forward to playing it, been watching your tutorials and actually working on learning unity and C# ^_^. Fellow Aussie myself btw ;)
Oh just a little suggestion, you should consider having an option to play as a female Viking, this might draw in female players as female vikings were said to be quite fierce back in the day, "Shield Maidens" they were called! I dont think it would take TOO much work in terms of adding to the game, mainly just animations and character models. Anyway just a suggestion, totally not scope creep LOL
yes, I gave up game programming because there just wasn't enough time since I have to care for my partner. So now I'm a writer. Congratulations on the new baby!
Life is terribly unfair. When we're young, we have a lot of time, energy, but not the skill or experience to get things done. When we're older, we lack time/energy as much as the younger days, but we have the skill and experience to get things done. This is why we need a time machine. So I can transfer all this knowledge to my younger self from 15 years ago. Time is the villain of all our lives.
I did not want to put like on this video to reward you and keep you in the cycle, but I had to! Maybe a short videos 5-6 minutes instead of longer videos, and not so often that you get distracted :) Greetings from Sweden bro
Why can't you have a expected release date or atleast release year. For me I have missed many release dates but it helped me push myself and procrastinate less
4:45 so true man.. I'm kind of the opposite(?) of you. I have a successful YT channel (6m subs and counting) and am trying to make a game/gamedev career on the side. It's tough doing both, along with all the other things life brings (kids, volunteer work, etc). You really need to separate your time, DEDICATE yourself, or it won't get done. I'm a recent sub, and just watched your Have Something To Say video.. in some ways I hope you don't even read this comment since I know exactly where your thoughts come from. I get hundreds of YT comments a day. There's just no time to read them all and do everything else, let alone respond to them. You want to, but you have to be realistic if you want to spend time for yourself. I really enjoyed your vid, and for what it's worth, I'll be following your journey.
I don’t like the idea of a dev vlog for this reason. The approach of building marketing materials all at once and then trickling them out fits the way I work best. Focusing on just one thing at a time makes everything easier.
10 per week? Wow. Hmm. What if people were willing to pay you up front for an honest review of their game or their KickStarter? What if it became an income stream that was more than sufficient to replace your job? I guess the problem is, you would have to charge a lot, and you might not have a lot of takers at the rate you'd have to charge, and there would be problems with clients not appreciating your honesty, lol. You might have to be kind of hard nosed. I'm not sure I would be able to manage it very well. I have found that I cannot be a Landlord, for example, because I just can't be hard nosed enough with people to make it work. "I charge $120 / hr, with a minimum of 4 hours. You pay for 4 hours up front, and agree (in writing) to pay the rest (up to 12 hours) after it's done. I absolutely will not promise any kind of favorable review at all. I might or I might not like your material. You agree to indemnify me against any and all damages arising from my review. A typical review is 20 to 30 minutes long and takes me 6 to 10 hours to complete." If you did 1,000 hours of that in a year, that's making $120,000 per year working half time. Then you'd have more time than you currently do for family and game dev time. But you'd need to set up an LLC, get rid of all debt except your house, save up an emergency fund of 6 to 8 months of expenses, get the right kind of insurance, figure out how to deal with taxes, blah blah.. Just a thought! Don't you just love armchair quarterbacks? =D "Hey, you could ___!" Omigod. They (and I) have No Clue.
About your kid, congratulations. And i see what you mean. It's not easy with all the responsibilities you have. And i personally feel that's where I'm stuck in limbo. I'm unemployed but i occasionally get some web development or graphic design gigs once in a little while, but my older brother has been the one handling the grunt of all the responsibilities. And the fact that i haven't made a commercial game yet further makes my family skeptical about my endeavor. Since game development is something majorly considered a waste of time here. Which makes me wonder every day, should i pause it to have a jib of some kind that may leave me with just a few hours at night to continue working on my game's demo which is 70 percent complete? The huge risk there is that i may never finish it, which would be a huge bummer to me. Or Should i continue working on the game and let my brother be burdened just a little while longer until i make a breakthrough, which i already have planned out? Thay's the limbo moment I'm currently stuck at. Anyways, sorry for bogging you down with my long speech when you already have a lot on your plate. Looking forward to more game dev advice and tutorials from you. Cheers.
Always great to hear how things have been going on your side, and I fully agree with you: focusing on yourself and family at the moment is such an important thing. Like you said, life is a balancing act, and I'm glad that you're managing to find a good balance between everything. Definitely understand what you mean about game development taking a toll on your normal work. I'm working in a smaller startup (one senior dev, and myself and one other junior dev), and for the first half of the year I was focused on learning game development after hours, but these past few months have been much more hectic on the work front (start of a new season for customers), leading to many more later nights, and the game development has had to take a backseat for a bit. Definitely haven't given up on it though! Just means the priorities need to shift for a while. Hope you have a great festive season though! I'm sure once the normal work quietens down, your personal game development and content creation urges will be back in full force!
Do what you gotta do, I got your game on my steam wishlist and plan to get it as soon as it hits. If that's a year from now, if it's ten years from now, if I'm still around, it's the least I can do for all the great content you've put out. I definitely agree about priorities, things have to go a certain way sometimes and it's just how it is. Personally I understand completely, and I hope most everyone else here does as well.
Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 wow that's great. You should take care of yourself and your own projects. I hope I get to play your game some day. I had to stop working on my own game in the past two months because I live in Iran and I don't know if you've heard about the situation here but between working and protesting, all I can do to keep myself for going insane is to watch UA-cam and make cakes and cookies... No mental energy for making a game 😔
Hey stay safe, I've been following the updates from Tehran. I hope the people get the respect and dignity they deserve. Cakes and cookies sounds like a great creative outlet! I hope you get back to your game soon
I also became a husband 5 years ago, and a father 3 years ago. I am constantly booked out, I long for that free time to work on my own stuff.. And even if there is finally some time available, you still need some energy left to capitalize on these rare moments.
Or than you cant open your unity project because something internally screwed up and you have to delete your library folder and let it recreate.. there is your free time gone.. Its one of these moments like... just "thank you" => sarcastically
Great update video Your game looked amazing 6 months or so ago so we can only imagine the progress you've been making. Finish it when you finish it and don't burn yourself out. You've been a big inspiration to a lot of us who are just starting out and learning the ropes. Thanks for the content as always and personally looking forward to buying and reviewing the game on release whenever it comes out. ;-)
I can totally relate to what you are saying. Real life has been so hectic lately, I had to rearrange my schedule big time to get back into working on my world. And Congratulations on the new arrival. Mine is 6 now so I know how precious your free time will be now. Keep up the fight on all fronts
I'm following another UA-cam. He does one video per month with the progress on the game. That way the focus remains on the product and you still deliver content in the process. Don't worry too much about the videos. Just have fun making your game, that's all!
Such a great video. You are absolutely correct about taking advantage of the freedom you have when you're young and unattached. A great book I recommend to all younger folks is Do Hard Things. Chuck Norris wrote the foreword, so you know it's good. For other older folks, like me, I wonder how you manage. I work, and I have a family. I find it really hard to carve out time for gamedev.
Man, I can relate to the whole "ever get it finished at all" challenge. (Let alone, like, "soon.") Toward that end, I think, today, I"m going to *try* to say to myself "No entertainment (no movies, shows, podcasts, UA-cam or Rumble videos, video games, etc) until I get this next (smallish? I hope) piece done." We'll see how it goes..
Gotta say mate, after being out of the hobby (for me) for almost a decade, seeing a fellow Australian inspired me to pick up the tablet and get back into it...slow and steady and I have realised how long it takes me to code, draw, make a prototype blah, blah, blah...your video's have been a massive help. On top of that, I also had a kid!....congrats to you! Ive wish listed B&M and look forward to playing and finishing. In the meantime, enjoy the bubs and enjoy the Xmas break!
hmm perhaps it's far easier to do a live review on a few kickstarters and choose 1 day a month to do that if you still have interest in doing so. Otherwise a shoutout to a game devs ks at the end of a video is easier than a complete review if something you receive something that interests you. Perhaps having a giveaway of a steam key of your game and some type of merch like a shirt or poster could be given away for those who join your discord might encourage more interaction and help boost wishlists or sales of your game down the road. I look forward to your next dev vlog. I saw something where indie devs were making a game together using a certain asset pack but they couldn't collaborate directly, just add to one another's ideas for a final product. Maybe that would take up too much time away from your project but instead perhaps you could ask some devs in the youtube community to play your game and you will play theirs and provide helpful feedback and explain the features you like about the games you play and have a recorded discussion about their process and things that they had to overcome to be a indie dev and what projects they never finished. It could be very motivating hearing other stories of how others may have failed at first but kept trying until they found the theme or idea that they could actually flesh out. There are so many topics such as whether or not to prototype, self publish or publisher, kickstarter, steam wishlists, itch.o or mobile and why they made the decision verses the alernatives. Just throwing out ideas and I just find it interesting to see or hear different prospective and it's always great to see the dev community supporting one another. I am a member of Wannibe Manisha's discord and she may be a person who you could interview or converse with. If the game devs you reach out to have a discord they could agree to cross promote the video and it would help everyone involved.
This was a really wise decision Jon. Good to know you're taking care of yourself by being flexible about shifting your priorities around when needed. Being a new dad AND a dev AND a UA-camr is a lot. Glad to know dev is going well on Blood and Mead! Wishin you the best my man!
The part about pushing while you're young is so true. I started my first big project when I was around the age of 18. Started working 7 days a week up until today really (Just turned 23). And yeah, the game's still not done, but I have achieved something I could've only dreamed of before. First of all I learned so much about programming, art and game design. On top of that, I managed to get both a publisher and an investor for the game. Starting next year, I'll be able to tune down my working hours, hire actual full-time people for the studio, and get this thing done :)
Hey man good to hear your doing well, time will always moving things around in life and you just need to adapt to it all and some of the things your where doing change to new things as there really is only so much time in a day. Though can't wait to see progress on your game as it's very inspiring to me so thanks.
I really dislike these excuse video's and the supporting padding on the back we feel so sorry from the community as a reaction. God first than family and you owe UA-cam nothing.
Ay, yeah i have a game coming out on the 9th (Sue Shi Survival) and have been working on it for 5-6 months now with my programmer friend. Getting to the finish line feels amazing bro. You're gunna get there too I can just tell by how dedicated you are to YT. Good luck bro and i've wishlisted it
Wishing you the best on your own dev journey! The beast must be slain!!
I think people underestimate just how much life can get in your way to releasing a game! I work 40+ hours at my regular job, while raising my son, running my UA-cam channel, spending time with my wife and then trying to find time outside of that to try and make a game. Sometimes something has to give and game dev (for me) is unfortunately the least damaging to take a break from.
Anyways best of luck!
First of all, I feel like you have similar appreciation of your family as I do, and you probably heard it from many people already, but yes, I recommend to focus on your child and family. Looking back myself, all other things were really secondary even if I did not realized that at the time.
Also thank you very much for this kind of reality check videos, you put here from time to time. A lot of UA-cam gamedevs are often painting a picture of flawless or almost idyllic process they go through, when making games. But as much as it is in some way aesthetically pleasing for a viewer, I would bet (not just based on my experience) it is far from truth. And I believe this is actually important factor into why so many indie devs never finish a game, in two ways actually. First because they cant despite their best efforts, and second because they had their expectations warped if it is their first project.
Also fan pressure to actually deliver something and within some predictable timeline is real. And the balance between ignoring that and actually engaging with fans gets harder with larger audience. And I would say it is mostly impossible to explain without lived experience. I mean how many people have a job where hundreds or even thousands of people are giving them feedback, to be able to even imagine how it feels.
Bit long winded, but I wanted to share with you. Be well, and be sure you are appreciated even when things are getting slow.
thanks LostRelic. I"m been making my first game starting out in the arcade genre to get my feet fresh with for a beginner. On it now for my third month now. Been a fun journey though learning basic python for it though. Not giving up yet. right now I'm having problems on getting my homemade font to read for my first level before I move forward with the lessons on the udemy course I'm following.
Totally understand where you're coming from. I was full time indie from 2003 - 2012 but once the kids started arriving I ended up getting a corporate job for the stability.
Sometimes you just have to do what's right for the family but be careful not to give up on your dreams entirely because you still need to be you.
It's only now that the youngest is getting a bit older that I'm trying to get back into game dev before it's too late for me.
It's definitely a balance that you have to manage!
I always like to think of it this way ....
Making a game is like rebuilding the great pyramids, to most it looks like a pile of stones .
To those that attempt it, it seems like a never ending path filled with compromises ,struggles and piles of hardships.
But for the few that see past the impossibilities, they find their dreams, happiness and the freedom.
Game development is a passion and an art form that takes its toll on a person's life .
It challenges a person's creativity, knowledge and commitment and often will push a person's mental , physical and emotional state to the brink.
But it's in times like that which we must stand back and look at the road we walked and the goals we achieved ,
and most importantly even through the darkest times when we feel lost, we must remember what the end goals are.
Game development is a journey with no bounds and a challenge that must be defeated .
Stay strong and remember you are not alone and that each challenge that comes your way, is just another bump in the road .
Even if the challenge grows bigger remember that we grow bigger with every challenge that's been overcome.
The next one will always just sty another bump .
Glad you're still up and running! My daughter was born a few months after yours, so basically 8 weeks off the dev there until she was sleeping better, but who wants to miss that quality time and not support your partner just to say your game hit the store 2 months sooner? It'd be madness.
Sigma male grindset rule #341: Ignore family. Get paid.
@@dale2283 I am whatever kind of wolf wandered into early Italian villages, tried the pizza, curled up in front of the oven, and refused to leave.
Good job. Seriously. You have to recognize when to sacrifice work for key family times. Only then can you feel comfortable when you do choose work over family time.
I really like the way you look at real life, work and everything else surrounding you. Feels really down to earth.
I totally get it! As a newish indie dev (2019), I've chosen to resist the temptation to commit to YT content creation as long as possible to keep focused on my own project. For me, as much as there's value in early promotion, completing or at least reaching near completion of the product before beginning YT churning makes more sense for me personally. I do watch a lot of YT content while I work and one common thread among them all is splitting time between development and feeding YT is a beast. At 56, patience is my friend.
"Let's hope I even get this thing done" That one hits home! Good on you for slaying the beast, good luck!
Congrats on the new family member!
Loved your point about entrepreneurship- how the end goal is to truly enjoy our life and relationships. I've been thinking about that balance lately with my own dev work so that really resonated with me. Thank you!
Glad to hear I'm not the only one struggling with competing priorities. Good on you recognizing the situation before it became problematic, and good on you for prioritizing the things of clear importance! Thanks for the honest update, I hope you have a wonderful holiday, best of luck with Blood and Mead, and best of health to you and your growing family.
Family first, mate! Congratulations on your little one! I'm in a similar situation - our daughter was born 9 weeks ago :) All the best and may you find time for both your family AND game dev! Greetings from Central coast!
Setting boundaries are very important! Thanks for that reminder and congrats on the baby :) don’t worry about us so much, here to support your dev journey no matter the outcome
Great video and update John! And I agree with what you said - GRIND IT OUT BOYS! "Do or do not. There is no try". I'm not at your level with game design reviews, but I can't wait to make one for Blood and Mead!!! Good seeing you on here again!
Argh, procrastination is killing me at the moment so I am watching this now lol
Take all the time you need! The community will always want more than you can afford, I appreciate/respect your being honest with personal limitations.
As a full time in indie dev I'm amazed that you can find time to make any UA-cam content at all. But you've got a good following and we certainly appreciate your vids!
It's always great to hear from you, good luck!
Congrats on the family and happy holidays 🖤Thank you John as always for the content
Ever since I was hired in my development job, I became more procastinated to do gamedev activities. This is when you have to check emails every morning just to avoid doing overworked tasks. I had to do this until I was moved to nightshift and forgot doing my hobby stuff because of not enough sleep. I am so grateful I found this video; I can now finally have some time to myself and start my gamedev journey again. Thank you.. keep uploading more inspiring videos 👍
Hey, I was one of these people in your mail adding to your stress, I see this as a response even though I didn't need one. I hope you get to work on Blood and Mead more soon, and looking forward to your next videos!
Best wishes brother, always great hearing from you. Enjoy that family time the most because it truly is priceless
I feel you on this one... haven't made a new devlog myself in months... I haven't even updated my Twitter since September. All my time and energy is just put into my game's development.
Completely understand this and I definitely think you're making the right choice. There's only so much time in a day and further than that, there's only so much free time in a day to actually work on stuff. I've been finding myself pretty stretched for all the things I want to do between family, life events, and other random obligations. I think I definitely need a refocusing with certain things if I want to get anything done by the end. Good luck with everything going forward, John! Looking forward to seeing whatever you're able to put out.
great hearing from you and to get an Update on the state of Blood an Mead =)
Have a great time with your Kid too thats pretty important.
I wish you all the energy to get those things done!
Love how realistic you are about time management and what it's like working a job, doing indi Dev work, being a father and husband. It may not be the case for everyone but, no matter how inconsistent your UA-cam uploads are, I'll be looking out for them.
Self care is very important, do what you have to do…That being said your kickstarter and game reviews are awesome to watch. I hope to see more in the future.
Humbling message on prioritizing what's important. Definitely dev > videos if the goal is to make games for a living. Also, seeing your game it looks good but I think it needs more of a 'hook'.
I was wondering how much progress you'd made on Blood and Mead and checked the channel. A lot of the things you said absolutely resonates with me. I've always liked your content a lot. Though, I was always more of a passive appreciator but ever since I started my own channel, I've realized how much community feedback can mean to a content creator. So, I just wanted to let you know that I really like your videos and more so, your personality. Keep spreading your positivity into the world. I'm sure many others appreciate it as well ♥
Hey thank you so much Cupid, really appreciate your message.
Thank you for the update and for your openness!
Happy for you and I agree with your advice. I'm moving forward, thinking less about the time I've wasted and more on the time I still have; even if it was just today and there was no tomorrow for me.
Glad you choose your priorities! Keep your consistency and your game will finish!
Congratulations on the baby! =D
Family has to be your First Priority, for sure, especially during this period. And sleep is a close second, lol.
I asked about your progress on BAM about.. 6 months ago? 8? Not sure. Didn't mean to pressure you at all. I'm so envious of the people asking you how it's going. I would love to have people periodically asking me how my personal game dev project is going! But I'm not envious enough to become a content creator or even promote my game before it's finished, so. (I know failing to do that is marketing suicide, but I'm not really in it for the money. I think it'll probably just go up on Itch. If it ever goes anywhere.)
Your videos are always helpful, interesting and relatable. Thanks buddy!
You could always add a minute of some recent progress or interesting detail about your own game into each video. A short snippet. Keeping the exposure up.
Thank you for taking the time to take care of yourself and your family :)! 100% in favor of anyone doing this!
“I didn’t have no baby” 😂
Good to hear from you again! Glad you got some quality work done.
As someone who develops games too - there is so much work!
Hey, Good on you man! Enjoy life, Enjoy Making stuff.
Always appreciate it when you keep it real. This is definitely one of the more unspoken less glamourous side of development: time management! As you always say, it's a journey and as long as you're taking steps forward no matter how small or incremental then we're making progress. Take good care of your family man and see you in the next one!
Good for you! I've avoided doing any of the other peripheral things to self promotion so as to solely focus on the game dev. You only have so much time in the day :)
One thing I love about your channel is you’re someone who is realistic and has their priorities right. I love this. Most blogs skip over how long it takes to do things making it appear a lot easier than it is. If books take years to write, it’s understandable games do too. One step at a time will get you up Everest eventually. Looking forward to the new content when you’re ready.
Something I'd be interested in hearing is what languages or engines you've used and what you liked/disliked about them.
Congrats with a baby! This is a big thing in your life! health and steel nerves to you and your wife :)
I totally relate to this video. I had to slow down on UA-cam content production to focus on my game. This video is probably a great way to sneak in some content. :D
You do an awesome job man! Take care of yourself.
Congratulations on the baby mate!
Hey thanks Mike!
Game Dev is a unique challenge, indie game dev... going alone 100% is especially unique in this regard. Thanks for your motivational video! Oh, and I almost forgot: Congratulations on the wee one!
It is funny that you mentioned that your ‘family’ update came in the way of your dev work. In my case it was the opposite, I restarted game work because of that change (and others like moving down under), maybe as a way to regain some ‘me’ time.
good luck my guy, you are an inspiration.
Man, take your time with your family and you son, we will be here when you have some time ;)
first of all, congrants for becoming a new dad :^D
now, about the other people's campains, to be honest I'm surprised you even did it for free, so this conclusion is completely fair.
it's nice to want to help people, but it is not good to do so at the expense of your own life goals, even more now that you have children, and no one should have any rights to criticize you for making the right decision, since life is short, you only life yours and it's only once.
I'm just glad you are still around, have a great day and wish you success :^)
CONGRATULATIONS BRO, so happy to know your wife and you had a baby, truly a miracle of life. Dont worry about keeping us updated on the game, im sure we all understand your current position.
Nice to see you again :D
Hi mate, been watching your game progress for a while now and have it wish listed on Steam, was just wondering if you had a price point in mind for when you do feel the game is ready to release?
If not thats all good, just curious.
Also I think the game is looking great right now and look forward to playing it, been watching your tutorials and actually working on learning unity and C# ^_^.
Fellow Aussie myself btw ;)
Oh just a little suggestion, you should consider having an option to play as a female Viking, this might draw in female players as female vikings were said to be quite fierce back in the day, "Shield Maidens" they were called!
I dont think it would take TOO much work in terms of adding to the game, mainly just animations and character models.
Anyway just a suggestion, totally not scope creep LOL
I have actually considered this!
@@LostRelicGames Ahh great to hear!
Keep going 👍
yes, I gave up game programming because there just wasn't enough time since I have to care for my partner. So now I'm a writer. Congratulations on the new baby!
Life is terribly unfair. When we're young, we have a lot of time, energy, but not the skill or experience to get things done. When we're older, we lack time/energy as much as the younger days, but we have the skill and experience to get things done. This is why we need a time machine. So I can transfer all this knowledge to my younger self from 15 years ago. Time is the villain of all our lives.
I did not want to put like on this video to reward you and keep you in the cycle, but I had to! Maybe a short videos 5-6 minutes instead of longer videos, and not so often that you get distracted :) Greetings from Sweden bro
Why can't you have a expected release date or atleast release year. For me I have missed many release dates but it helped me push myself and procrastinate less
See making youtube videos as a marketing campaign for your own project. So its not lost time.
Congratulations on the new son
4:45 so true man.. I'm kind of the opposite(?) of you. I have a successful YT channel (6m subs and counting) and am trying to make a game/gamedev career on the side. It's tough doing both, along with all the other things life brings (kids, volunteer work, etc). You really need to separate your time, DEDICATE yourself, or it won't get done. I'm a recent sub, and just watched your Have Something To Say video.. in some ways I hope you don't even read this comment since I know exactly where your thoughts come from. I get hundreds of YT comments a day. There's just no time to read them all and do everything else, let alone respond to them. You want to, but you have to be realistic if you want to spend time for yourself. I really enjoyed your vid, and for what it's worth, I'll be following your journey.
Congrats on the new baby, btw!
hey, why game dev salaries are less than that of software engineers. We do so much more than writing algorithms.
Not that you care what I think, but I follow you for your experience developing Blood and Mead, not analysis videos
I don’t like the idea of a dev vlog for this reason. The approach of building marketing materials all at once and then trickling them out fits the way I work best. Focusing on just one thing at a time makes everything easier.
10 per week? Wow. Hmm. What if people were willing to pay you up front for an honest review of their game or their KickStarter? What if it became an income stream that was more than sufficient to replace your job? I guess the problem is, you would have to charge a lot, and you might not have a lot of takers at the rate you'd have to charge, and there would be problems with clients not appreciating your honesty, lol. You might have to be kind of hard nosed. I'm not sure I would be able to manage it very well. I have found that I cannot be a Landlord, for example, because I just can't be hard nosed enough with people to make it work.
"I charge $120 / hr, with a minimum of 4 hours. You pay for 4 hours up front, and agree (in writing) to pay the rest (up to 12 hours) after it's done. I absolutely will not promise any kind of favorable review at all. I might or I might not like your material. You agree to indemnify me against any and all damages arising from my review. A typical review is 20 to 30 minutes long and takes me 6 to 10 hours to complete."
If you did 1,000 hours of that in a year, that's making $120,000 per year working half time. Then you'd have more time than you currently do for family and game dev time. But you'd need to set up an LLC, get rid of all debt except your house, save up an emergency fund of 6 to 8 months of expenses, get the right kind of insurance, figure out how to deal with taxes, blah blah..
Just a thought! Don't you just love armchair quarterbacks? =D "Hey, you could ___!" Omigod. They (and I) have No Clue.
You should put yourself first! Just realized I wasn't subbed, fixed that real quick!
Family takes alot of time, that's why I choose not to have one. I'm glad that you got your priorities figured out.
The bachelor years were very productive for sure, glory dev sessions
About your kid, congratulations. And i see what you mean. It's not easy with all the responsibilities you have.
And i personally feel that's where I'm stuck in limbo.
I'm unemployed but i occasionally get some web development or graphic design gigs once in a little while, but my older brother has been the one handling the grunt of all the responsibilities. And the fact that i haven't made a commercial game yet further makes my family skeptical about my endeavor. Since game development is something majorly considered a waste of time here.
Which makes me wonder every day, should i pause it to have a jib of some kind that may leave me with just a few hours at night to continue working on my game's demo which is 70 percent complete? The huge risk there is that i may never finish it, which would be a huge bummer to me.
Or
Should i continue working on the game and let my brother be burdened just a little while longer until i make a breakthrough, which i already have planned out?
Thay's the limbo moment I'm currently stuck at.
Anyways, sorry for bogging you down with my long speech when you already have a lot on your plate. Looking forward to more game dev advice and tutorials from you.
Cheers.
Always great to hear how things have been going on your side, and I fully agree with you: focusing on yourself and family at the moment is such an important thing. Like you said, life is a balancing act, and I'm glad that you're managing to find a good balance between everything.
Definitely understand what you mean about game development taking a toll on your normal work. I'm working in a smaller startup (one senior dev, and myself and one other junior dev), and for the first half of the year I was focused on learning game development after hours, but these past few months have been much more hectic on the work front (start of a new season for customers), leading to many more later nights, and the game development has had to take a backseat for a bit. Definitely haven't given up on it though! Just means the priorities need to shift for a while.
Hope you have a great festive season though! I'm sure once the normal work quietens down, your personal game development and content creation urges will be back in full force!
Congratulations on the birth of your new baby! Great to hear you're focusing on what matters now.
Do what you gotta do, I got your game on my steam wishlist and plan to get it as soon as it hits. If that's a year from now, if it's ten years from now, if I'm still around, it's the least I can do for all the great content you've put out. I definitely agree about priorities, things have to go a certain way sometimes and it's just how it is. Personally I understand completely, and I hope most everyone else here does as well.
Keeping it real as always
Congratulations 🎉🎉🎉 wow that's great.
You should take care of yourself and your own projects. I hope I get to play your game some day.
I had to stop working on my own game in the past two months because I live in Iran and I don't know if you've heard about the situation here but between working and protesting, all I can do to keep myself for going insane is to watch UA-cam and make cakes and cookies... No mental energy for making a game 😔
Hey stay safe, I've been following the updates from Tehran. I hope the people get the respect and dignity they deserve. Cakes and cookies sounds like a great creative outlet! I hope you get back to your game soon
@@LostRelicGames thank you so much 🤍
Ty for sharing
I also became a husband 5 years ago, and a father 3 years ago. I am constantly booked out, I long for that free time to work on my own stuff.. And even if there is finally some time available, you still need some energy left to capitalize on these rare moments.
Or than you cant open your unity project because something internally screwed up and you have to delete your library folder and let it recreate.. there is your free time gone.. Its one of these moments like... just "thank you" => sarcastically
Great update video
Your game looked amazing 6 months or so ago so we can only imagine the progress you've been making.
Finish it when you finish it and don't burn yourself out. You've been a big inspiration to a lot of us who are just starting out and learning the ropes.
Thanks for the content as always and personally looking forward to buying and reviewing the game on release whenever it comes out. ;-)
I can totally relate to what you are saying. Real life has been so hectic lately, I had to rearrange my schedule big time to get back into working on my world. And Congratulations on the new arrival. Mine is 6 now so I know how precious your free time will be now. Keep up the fight on all fronts
I'm following another UA-cam. He does one video per month with the progress on the game. That way the focus remains on the product and you still deliver content in the process. Don't worry too much about the videos. Just have fun making your game, that's all!
Wishing you the best. Wishlisted your game! Looks really fun. I understand this struggle all too well, and I don't even run a YT channel!
Such a great video. You are absolutely correct about taking advantage of the freedom you have when you're young and unattached. A great book I recommend to all younger folks is Do Hard Things. Chuck Norris wrote the foreword, so you know it's good.
For other older folks, like me, I wonder how you manage. I work, and I have a family. I find it really hard to carve out time for gamedev.
I agree that doing development as well as doing the whole youtube combined sits eachother in the way some time..
I too just had a baby and find it incredibly hard to work on my game. Can you make a video on how you balance your day?
cheers !
Man, I can relate to the whole "ever get it finished at all" challenge. (Let alone, like, "soon.")
Toward that end, I think, today, I"m going to *try* to say to myself "No entertainment (no movies, shows, podcasts, UA-cam or Rumble videos, video games, etc) until I get this next (smallish? I hope) piece done."
We'll see how it goes..
Gotta say mate, after being out of the hobby (for me) for almost a decade, seeing a fellow Australian inspired me to pick up the tablet and get back into it...slow and steady and I have realised how long it takes me to code, draw, make a prototype blah, blah, blah...your video's have been a massive help.
On top of that, I also had a kid!....congrats to you!
Ive wish listed B&M and look forward to playing and finishing. In the meantime, enjoy the bubs and enjoy the Xmas break!
Congrats on your daughter. Regarding the rest. Concentrate on stuff that will support your family and yourself. At the end you need to pay some bills.
hmm perhaps it's far easier to do a live review on a few kickstarters and choose 1 day a month to do that if you still have interest in doing so. Otherwise a shoutout to a game devs ks at the end of a video is easier than a complete review if something you receive something that interests you. Perhaps having a giveaway of a steam key of your game and some type of merch like a shirt or poster could be given away for those who join your discord might encourage more interaction and help boost wishlists or sales of your game down the road. I look forward to your next dev vlog. I saw something where indie devs were making a game together using a certain asset pack but they couldn't collaborate directly, just add to one another's ideas for a final product. Maybe that would take up too much time away from your project but instead perhaps you could ask some devs in the youtube community to play your game and you will play theirs and provide helpful feedback and explain the features you like about the games you play and have a recorded discussion about their process and things that they had to overcome to be a indie dev and what projects they never finished. It could be very motivating hearing other stories of how others may have failed at first but kept trying until they found the theme or idea that they could actually flesh out. There are so many topics such as whether or not to prototype, self publish or publisher, kickstarter, steam wishlists, itch.o or mobile and why they made the decision verses the alernatives. Just throwing out ideas and I just find it interesting to see or hear different prospective and it's always great to see the dev community supporting one another. I am a member of Wannibe Manisha's discord and she may be a person who you could interview or converse with. If the game devs you reach out to have a discord they could agree to cross promote the video and it would help everyone involved.
This was a really wise decision Jon. Good to know you're taking care of yourself by being flexible about shifting your priorities around when needed. Being a new dad AND a dev AND a UA-camr is a lot. Glad to know dev is going well on Blood and Mead! Wishin you the best my man!
Good to hear from you dude, can imagine having a kid probably changes you priorities a bit! Take care
Thanks for all your hard work. I enjoy your videos and I have learned a lot. I look forward to more of your work, and Blood and Mead.
Even working 30min a day is 30min in the right direction.
i learn a lot from your kickstarter reviews, even i dont see them until after the campaigns are over, its still valuable to me
Good luck with your project. Hope you get the time you need to work on it.
you're the best !!
The part about pushing while you're young is so true. I started my first big project when I was around the age of 18. Started working 7 days a week up until today really (Just turned 23). And yeah, the game's still not done, but I have achieved something I could've only dreamed of before. First of all I learned so much about programming, art and game design. On top of that, I managed to get both a publisher and an investor for the game. Starting next year, I'll be able to tune down my working hours, hire actual full-time people for the studio, and get this thing done :)
Hey man good to hear your doing well, time will always moving things around in life and you just need to adapt to it all and some of the things your where doing change to new things as there really is only so much time in a day. Though can't wait to see progress on your game as it's very inspiring to me so thanks.
I really dislike these excuse video's and the supporting padding on the back we feel so sorry from the community as a reaction. God first than family and you owe UA-cam nothing.
Wrapping up a game can take longer than making it.
Ay, yeah i have a game coming out on the 9th (Sue Shi Survival) and have been working on it for 5-6 months now with my programmer friend. Getting to the finish line feels amazing bro. You're gunna get there too I can just tell by how dedicated you are to YT. Good luck bro and i've wishlisted it