Question for #SoloDev #GameDev - What has helped you find the time to develop your own games? Especially relevant for those who have to work a part/full time job. Do grants or funding help you with completing your projects? - ThreadSky

atreyeu.bsky.social • 10 days ago

Question for #SoloDev #GameDev -

What has helped you find the time to develop your own games? Especially relevant for those who have to work a part/full time job.

Do grants or funding help you with completing your projects?

Comments

longielong.bsky.social•10 days ago

I put my wife to bed, then work for a bit. I work from home, too, so when it's slow I can put in some time.

Really, there's just an understanding that this thing will take forever so don't bother trying to grind it out.

danielmilo.bsky.social•10 days ago

Sheer will to sacrifice every moment of free time, prioritizing game dev over most else.

Yes, I recognize its not always healthy, but that's been how I did it while employed.

I also made the questionable decision to quit my job to complete my indie game full time, the results of which we will see.

atreyeu.bsky.social•10 days ago

I'm currently trying to utilise as much time as possible without jeopardising health & relationships 😂

Unfortunately leaving my job isn't an option so this may be more an exercise in patience than anything else

danielmilo.bsky.social•10 days ago

Good luck, it is not easy.
My top advice for this would be to never give yourself any time pressure. The moment I started working with deadlines everything became much harder.

atreyeu.bsky.social•10 days ago

Definitely a smart tip. Thank you 👌

luchalutra.bsky.social•10 days ago

I work full time, am married, and have a house with three dogs and four cats. After work, I carve out time to hang out with my wife and either A) work on some tutorial stuff while she works on some stuff or B) wait until before bed to spend a couple hours. It's not ideal, but it works for us.

luchalutra.bsky.social•10 days ago

I am over simplifying due to character limitations but it's important to make time for other things as well. I still cook, housekeep, make time to play games, workout, play with the dogs and cats, etc. It's possible, but it might just be you only ever get 1-2 hours to work on it, and that is ok.

atreyeu.bsky.social•10 days ago

That's about what I've been achieving so far. Some nights I can't manage any due to all similar responsibilities you listed.

I won't let those fall off in favour of my projects

luchalutra.bsky.social•10 days ago

Yeah, it can breed a lot of resentment in yourself if you neglect your own pursuits beyond the dream. I learned this from very painful experience. But it does add up, I promise. "greasing the groove" as it were. There will be days you maybe just open the program and click around a bit. That's ok too

atreyeu.bsky.social•10 days ago

Have also been down that road before as well as suffering complete burnout through work. Not something I'd ever like to go through again 🤞

procerand.bsky.social•10 days ago

I'm in a local game dev group that meets up monthly, so whenever the meeting draws near I get motivated to work on my game so I have some progress to show at the next meeting. Other than that, very little progress gets done.

atreyeu.bsky.social•10 days ago

I didn't think of local groups! Though being in a small town that may be rare without some travel involved 😂

procerand.bsky.social•10 days ago

You'd be surprised! There's another group in my state that's in a town with only 6,292 people.

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