Finishing my first game while working full-time

Here are my side project tips:

1) As the article states, work on your side project first in the morning before your work. You will be too tired after work. Yes, this means your not really giving 100% at work. Hopefully your good enough at your job that this is OK.

2) Create little task lists, with short little tasks... Then knock those tasks out one by one. If you find yourself procrastinating about some task do another little task first, then later make a quick spur of the moment decision to go do the procrastination task.

3) It's OK to dream about the best case scenario, but also have realistic side goals: "worst case scenario, I've built a cool engine for my next project."

4) DO create the right amount of tests (too little and your going to be creating buggy crap code, too many and you're bogged down updating your tests constantly)... get a feel for what your right amount is.

5) Don't type so much, think more... think through designs... use paper, be messy and redraw... all of this is faster than building the wrong thing.

6) I think its OK to be quirky. Make the thing YOU want to make. This is another way to monetize: your mental health is worth a lot and personally I find bringing shit that I want to exist into the world just the way I want them to be is a good trick for staying happy.

Not discussed in the article: You have to have the support of the people in your life this will impact. For example, the 7-9am timeslot for working, as listed in the article, will impact my family, as that is when I'm getting the kids up and off to school. OK, so I could move it to 5am to 7am, but that would mean I'd need to go to bed earlier, which eliminates important evening time with my wife. Similarly, I could do it from 8pm to 10pm, but that also affects my relationship with my wife, and my social life in general.

This isn't to say that people with a family can't do these things, but that you need to acknowledge the impact it will have on other people, and plan with them to make it work. For example, I often make the time for my wife to work on her novels between 7pm and 9pm. I get the kids to bed and do some cleaning, while she writes, and we still get to connect before sleep.

This has been my line of thought for a while. You spend a minimum of 8 hours working, and ideally you get 6-8 hours of sleep. Let’s say you have a couple more daily responsibilities that take 2-4 (could be commute, cleaning, some other maintenance).

There’s almost no time to do anything, and some of the hours you have left may be at non-prime times of the day.

> The true optimization for becoming a more efficient person is to do less of the thing you're doing most of, and do more of the other stuff you do less of.

The problem is this means sleep or work. I’ve opted for the former, and suffer for it. Sacrificing working, at least any notable amount, just means trading time-loss for money-loss which may or may not work depending on person.

Thanks for the write up and congratulations on publishing the game. Looks great and can't wait to give it a try.

One of the keys to your success seemed to be that consistent, early morning routine. I've often find myself trying to hack on side projects in the evening, after much of my energy is already zapped. Even if I do have a highly productive session coding into the wee hours of the night, the next day will be ruined by lack of sleep, and as someone with a family it's too detrimental.

But when I am working in the mornings, once I'm awake and at my keyboard, I'm much more productive. Sometimes, it's hard to stop! But, leaving yourself a cliffhanger is also a great way to build excitement to jump back in the next day.

For many years, I worked at the Park Slope Food Cooperative (https://www.foodcoop.com/) several hours a month, which was a great orthogonal use of my mind. I started as a box-breaker, got promoted to an olive processor and finally became squad leader for Olives & Cheeses. The whole experience was like using a completely different part of my brain.

They tried to get me to join their technology group, which i rejected :-)