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Finishing my first game while working full-time

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Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#91

Post by mattlondon »

boplicity wrote: post #34

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 d…

Totally agree with this. I am woken by my kid at 6am, then it is 100% go-go-go with work or family until about 7pm when the kid goes to bed, then it is starting to cook and prepare dinner and do housework etc. There might be 2 hours or so between dinner and bed to spend time with my wife before we collapse into bed at 10pm or so - talk, watch a movie, play scrabble or whatever. I don't want to ignore her and just do my own thing - it is important to nurture these sort of relationships.

If I do get some spare time that is entirely mine, the absolute last thing I want to do is more work - one needs to relax! Go for a run, watch a movie, do some coding for fun, play a game, or just waste time on youtube or whatever - I don't want to be "hustling" a side project.

I could stay up later after the wife has gone to bed, but that is going to harm me long-term by trading sleep for side-projects that in reality are not going to change my life as much as long-term sleep deprivation is going to change my life. That said I do occasionally from time-to-time stay up late to have a beer and mess around on the computer - I think that is healthy in the long run :)

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#93

Post by stevofolife »

Zababa wrote: post #54
the_only_law wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 per…

I've heard this called before the "4 hour life", you have 4 hours every day for yourself: https://medium.com/@pskallas/4-hour-life-glossary-4740bca641...

Generally true. The next step of optimization would be automating parts of your job so you can reduce 8 hours of work to like 6 hours of work. Now you have more time for yourself.

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#94

Post by Zababa »

toyg wrote: post #78
Zababa wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's very easy to spend those extra couple of hours in the morning just sipping a coffee, reading HN, catching up with social media. Work is work and it starts because other people will ping you, you'll have to be online on a certain computer, etc etc; but if you are your own boss, it's very easy to let employee #1 (yourself) slack off. It's the same when you get back home after work though. > Also, this works only…

> It's the same when you get back home after work though. I would argue it's even easier in the evening, for sure. The point of doing it in the morning is that your brain is fresher; I'm just saying that might still not be enough to start. > I personally have 5 "free" hours after work Yeah, but it's after work, when you're inevitably more tired. One could push it by going to bed earlier and waking up at 5am, but it r…

> I would argue it's even easier in the evening, for sure. The point of doing it in the morning is that your brain is fresher; I'm just saying that might still not be enough to start.

That's a fair point. I find it easier in the mornings but that may be because the rare times I do wake up early, I have an unusually high energy/willpower.

> I would argue it's even easier in the evening, for sure. The point of doing it in the morning is that your brain is fresher; I'm just saying that might still not be enough to start.

I'm not sure about the unsociable thing, I personally go out once a week usually.

> Also, I expect you (and OP, and a lot of folks in this thread) are 20-somethings with no attachments and no family. Those things tend to suck every bit of spare time you have, for years on end.

I don't really like the way you put it. I have my parents, brothers, grandparents, friends, coworkers, all of those things take time. Sure, probably less than having children, but they still take time. I know people my age that have almost no spare time for themselves, and some older people that seem to have all the time in the world.

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#95

Post by mehphp »

core-utility wrote: post #41
ca6d8815 wrote: post #12

Good tips... but in reality if you're working full-time (especially in a software related role), you may find yourself depleted before you get to the keyboard. It took us 5 years to finish our game (everyone started from 0 knowledge on how to make games, so it was a rocky road), and for the last 1.5-2 years my life was absolute hell. I'd push hard at work for 9 hours a day, eat, then push hard on the side project for…

This book Finish by Jon Acuff is a great book on practicing finishing. He also has Start for the very opposite. https://www.amazon.com/Finish-Give-Yourself-Gift-Done/dp/052...

I've ironically only read about half of Finish

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#96

Post by parksy »

The way I did it was I was writing music and doing pixel art since the 90's and learning to write games on the side. One day I decided to take all the assets I'd built up over 30 years and condense them into the simplest game I could complete on the side and that's how I made Space Strafer. I think if I had to start from scratch with all the music, art, and concepts it would have been impossible, what with having kids and all.

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#97

Post by Zababa »

stevofolife wrote: post #93
Zababa wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this called before the "4 hour life", you have 4 hours every day for yourself: https://medium.com/@pskallas/4-hour-life-glossary-4740bca641...

Generally true. The next step of optimization would be automating parts of your job so you can reduce 8 hours of work to like 6 hours of work. Now you have more time for yourself.

Well, unless your job requires you to be present for 8 hours, in which case it's harder to use those 2 new hours.

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#98

Post by thn-gap »

I feel this also represents my situation quite well. Here's personal experience:

What worked the best for me to deal with a full-time job and a side project of gamedev (or programming in general) was to move the side project development time in the morning before my full time job, and just put a bit less effort into work overall (remote work helped here as well). Moreover, while I tried to have a consistent routine for my personal dev time, I tried not to force it when I was really not feeling like it, to avoid burnout.

I sometimes did additional gamedev in some evening (or moved the morning one), but otherwise, tried to do non-computer stuff in the afternoons/evenings.

Another key insight, is that this also helped me getting an earlier sleeping schedule. Previously I would procrastinate until late, even if tired, because whenever I went to sleep, I would then wake up and have go to work immediately. Instead, now I rather go to sleep early, because I know I'll have more energy to do the things I like in the morning, rather than full-time work.

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#99

Post by mediaman »

learc83 wrote: post #85
vikingerik wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth mentioning the common advice here though: do not use company time or equipment to work on a side project, since that may give them a legal claim to ownership of the work if they ever find out. The specifics will vary greatly depending on your employment agreements and legal jurisdiction, so make your own decisions regarding your own situation (doing it on company time might be the lesser risk compared to n…

If you’re salaried, there’s no such thing as company time, so that’s not a meaningful distinction.

If you are doing it in a company office, using company property, during hours the company expects you to be working, do not expect to use "well, I'm salaried, so it doesn't matter" as a legal defense and win.

Re: Finishing my first game while working full-time

#100

Post by oneearedrabbit »

Ah, good memories. My tipping point was when I watched Krystian’s video “We Are All Game Beginners” [0]. It helped me embrace and acknowledge difficulties that one has to overcome to begin and finish a game, no matter how big or small it is. It took me about three months through a turbulence phase to finish my first game [1]. Also, taking this chance, any Pico-8 enthusiasts?

Before I wrote the first line of code, I had an honest conversation with myself about why I am starting a project and put it on paper as my true motivation and goal. Over the course, I had to remind myself multiple times to be sincere and forgiving. Working on a side means that even the simplest task could stretch over several days, and it is okay.

I particularly enjoyed sharing my work in progress on social media and with my friends. During the darkest moments, I found that a great “hack” is to record a milestone that I am proud of to boost my motivation and push a game a little further. If I may quote Rocky, it goes like:” One step at a time. One punch at a time. One round at a time.”

Another “hack” is to cut it out if something takes longer and drains your energy without any significant progress. Make something even just one person to enjoy. It is already a good milestone.

Ultimately, I took this journey as a self-exploration to get to know my true self better, slay a few dragons on the way in a reasonably safe environment.

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9wztsnmEIw

[1]: https://oneearedrabbit.itch.io/the-pixel-maze

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