Definitely needed this video. I work full-time and it's definitely tough to balance this budding hobby and having the energy to work on this outside of the full-time job. You really nailed on the head to keep your health in check. You need to develop a sustainable source of energy to keep consistent with any challenging hobby, and exercise and sleep are so important. Your health MUST come first. Staying in shape will definitely fuel that energy to work, even if you're passionate. A technique I developed is documenting my game and code. I use Obsidian to keep track of all of my code, to-do lists, and brainstorming throughout the entire process. Especially when learning programming, I will take a chunk of code or a function and write a blurb underneath to explain what it is doing. This pays it forward incase I hit extremely long gaps of time away from development. I take the time to break down every function I write and document it and even embed links to Godot documentation. This keeps it from becoming overwhelming to pick up the same project in case life gets in the way. Additionally, as I progress through the project and starting thinking of bringing people on to work on it, it makes it easier to possibly introduce people to the game that also want to help develop it. I totally recommend Obsidian for anyone starting out just programming in general. Thanks for the video. It's nice to know there are people out there in my position too.
I'm anchored from a professional game dev trying to make my own personal project, and my biggest personal problem is distraction, so the "ruthless focus" point makes so much sense to me. I'm confident in my skills, but my time management is in the dumps. Watching YT vids with food, finishing vids, getting asked out of the room for a chore, dealing with getting DMS and responding, posting content, distraction by media when looking for music or anything else on the internet. Though I don't play many games in recent years, I watch too much content on YT of people playing games instead. It even leaks into my full time job efforts too. It's brutal. I end up taking out time I could have put from my personal project into job work so the job work is done on time 😅
This is another great video - helpful and inspirational. I've been dabbling with making games with pygame for literally a month now with no real design/coding background, using the "covers" approach you mentioned; it's a great way to learn how certain things are done to then apply and adapt. In my day job I draft a lot of documents and over the years have collected lots of elegant turns of phrase and structural designs that I often refer to for inspiration; I don't see why coding would be any different. I don't have any additions to the list of techniques and approaches to managing time and motivation you've mentioned, though I think keeping hydrated is an important but oft over-looked component to maintaining health (and focus). Also, I like to exercise before sitting down to work, as it relaxes me, making it easier to sink into the task. Very glad to have found your channel, am looking forward to seeing where things go from here :)
Super interesting and inspiring video! I really like the one about finishing what you start, such a good skill to practice. All the best for your journey, I've subscribed to follow along. 😁
this is exactly what im looking for. I'm in a really similar boat. I'm going to try to make a lot of tiny games in Godot to get better at gamedev and eventually make it my living. I'm also just doing it on the side for now! Wow. great to see someone talking about the exact things i've been needing to hear
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
Please share any techniques and approaches that have worked well for you! Would love to learn from ya'.
Definitely needed this video. I work full-time and it's definitely tough to balance this budding hobby and having the energy to work on this outside of the full-time job. You really nailed on the head to keep your health in check. You need to develop a sustainable source of energy to keep consistent with any challenging hobby, and exercise and sleep are so important. Your health MUST come first. Staying in shape will definitely fuel that energy to work, even if you're passionate.
A technique I developed is documenting my game and code. I use Obsidian to keep track of all of my code, to-do lists, and brainstorming throughout the entire process. Especially when learning programming, I will take a chunk of code or a function and write a blurb underneath to explain what it is doing. This pays it forward incase I hit extremely long gaps of time away from development. I take the time to break down every function I write and document it and even embed links to Godot documentation. This keeps it from becoming overwhelming to pick up the same project in case life gets in the way. Additionally, as I progress through the project and starting thinking of bringing people on to work on it, it makes it easier to possibly introduce people to the game that also want to help develop it. I totally recommend Obsidian for anyone starting out just programming in general.
Thanks for the video. It's nice to know there are people out there in my position too.
I wish I had everything as figured out. I'm sure you will succeed if you stick to these rules. "wake up early" already seems impossible to me.
I'm anchored from a professional game dev trying to make my own personal project, and my biggest personal problem is distraction, so the "ruthless focus" point makes so much sense to me.
I'm confident in my skills, but my time management is in the dumps.
Watching YT vids with food, finishing vids, getting asked out of the room for a chore, dealing with getting DMS and responding, posting content, distraction by media when looking for music or anything else on the internet. Though I don't play many games in recent years, I watch too much content on YT of people playing games instead.
It even leaks into my full time job efforts too. It's brutal. I end up taking out time I could have put from my personal project into job work so the job work is done on time 😅
Very inspiring - thank you! And... good luck!
This is another great video - helpful and inspirational.
I've been dabbling with making games with pygame for literally a month now with no real design/coding background, using the "covers" approach you mentioned; it's a great way to learn how certain things are done to then apply and adapt. In my day job I draft a lot of documents and over the years have collected lots of elegant turns of phrase and structural designs that I often refer to for inspiration; I don't see why coding would be any different.
I don't have any additions to the list of techniques and approaches to managing time and motivation you've mentioned, though I think keeping hydrated is an important but oft over-looked component to maintaining health (and focus). Also, I like to exercise before sitting down to work, as it relaxes me, making it easier to sink into the task.
Very glad to have found your channel, am looking forward to seeing where things go from here :)
Really dig the hydration tip and exercising before sitting down to work. I appreciate the kind words and support!
Super interesting and inspiring video! I really like the one about finishing what you start, such a good skill to practice. All the best for your journey, I've subscribed to follow along. 😁
Thanks for the kind words and support!
An inspiring video, thank you!
this is exactly what im looking for. I'm in a really similar boat. I'm going to try to make a lot of tiny games in Godot to get better at gamedev and eventually make it my living. I'm also just doing it on the side for now! Wow. great to see someone talking about the exact things i've been needing to hear
Excited to see your progress, sounds like a good plan! Glad you enjoyed the vid.
i am going to try and adapt to what u said, im a high school student so i barely get time lol
Hope it helps! If I could go back in time to when I was in high school and redo my 20s to instead use my advice, I'd have a lot more finished games. 😂
@@brettmakesgames lol, wish i do too
sonic themed!!! :3