BALANCING LIFE, PLAYING GAMES AND MAKING GAMES

I don't balance it well at all, and my life is suffering.

I setup temporary goals each week, this works not only for game dev but also for stuff like school and such. As long as you do something each day (even small as 2 hours) think of what will happen after a year?

There's sadly no such thing as balance if you're serious about it though.

have you thought of being three people

I pretty much stopped playing games. I work 9-5 on weekdays and work on games 4-8 hours when I get home, then I spend most of my weekends working on games.

author=kentona
I don't balance it well at all, and my life is suffering.

Same, but my game is suffering.

I have a well balanced work ethic. Game make 90 minutes a day, have mondays and tuesdays off. Most of the time I work in a bar, so I guess it's a social life if listening to gossip/sob stories counts, right? :S

Thinking about it, I would definitely take up a chance to clone and enslave myself to game make if the opportunity presented itself.

You just need to better balance out your schedule and design a game based on how much time you actually get to work on it if you’re finding it difficult to get a lot of time doing anything at all. I understand. Juggling between life and game making can be a challenge – but it can be done!

Take me, for example: I usually have work from nine to five on the weekdays and I’m usually home around six o’clock with around five or six hours of freetime before bedtime. Depending on the day, there are usually sports on T.V.. But unless it’s an important game, like playoffs, etc., then I’ll usually work on my games as I occasionally check the scoreboard during intermissions (or listen to it on the radio). At night, sometimes, I usually like to use the bike, rower or take an hour trip into our sauna for some much needed exercise. If I have to write anything down that I can add to the game the next time I get a chance to work on it, I usually will write some stuff down before it gets too hot and I start to sweat all over the actual paper (trust me, it’s like you have fifteen minutes before the waterworks come on while you’re in there).

On weekends is when I go full blast. But often some of my friends want me to do things like hang out with them or watch a movie. Unless it’s something I’m going to enjoy and have a lot of fun doing, I usually sometimes cut it short in order to work on my games some more (but the extra relaxation DOES help). I also do play basketball with some guys for around an hour or two, so that factors in.

If I’m a good boy, then I usually get around 15 hours a week to work on these things – which isn’t that bad! And actually, as strange as it sounds, less time working on a game CAN be more good because having too time on your hands can often lead to more frustration and fatigue as your body and mind need to unwind once and a while. And there’s just something’s you can’t figure out until you have a bit of a rest, know what I’m saying?

The important thing is to just balance out the crap that weighs you down and to make the most of your free time. And by that, try your best not to get distracted! You wanna use your free time to the fullest!

If you’re still having trouble finding yourself some more freetime, maybe you might work on a much shorter project, or help other developers out by lending some of your skills, like sprite work, and what not.

If all else fails, you could always try to clone yourself! Nothing wrong in trying that.

I'll take "Things that Seem Monumentally Difficult" for 500, Alex.



It is doable, I think, but it does require a mix of sacrifice and efficient time-management trickery.

There's a lot of things you can sacrifice, but all of them come with a cost:

The consequences of sacrificing work and school are probably obvious enough.

Sacrificing too much of your social life will put you in a bubble that corrodes your mind and saps your motivation, especially if you are generally a social creature. There's only so much you can convince yourself that you don't want to go out and hang out with people - at some point, sacrificing your social life will hurt your productivity instead of help it. This might not be true for everybody, but if you like going out with friends, you should do it. Your happiness is pretty intrinsically linked to how much you can create, and depression can a major stumbling block. Also, social experiences are often great sources of inspiration; sometimes a short break from a project doing something fun is exactly what you need to kickstart that project again.

Sacrificing your free personal free time - playing games, browsing the internet, etc. - always seems like the obvious choice, but people always have the hardest time doing it, and they blame themselves for being lazy (at least, I did). But we need this time to shut our minds off and relax. It helps us reorganize and come back to our work stronger than ever. Of course, if you spend an inordinate amount of time goofing off, it can be a problem, but don't be harsh on yourself for taking some personal time.

Sacrificing sleep might get you an extra day, but sacrificing it on a regular basis will more likely than not put you in a trance that disrupts your concentration and ruins your ability to work.

The human brain only generates so many creative hours a week - rather than trying regularly squeeze it for more, do the best to maximize the ones you have. There's a lot of ways to do this, and how effective each is varies per person, but here some of the typical ways to really stay productive:

• Eat Healthy: Your body and mind get weaker if you eat junk food. You want water, fruits, vegetables and meat. Avoid too much sugar, which spirals your concentration out of control. Caffeine - 1-2 cups of coffee a day - is great for concentration and healthy for you. If caffeine makes you jittery, stick with tea. Both coffee & tea have lots of antioxidants, which prevent disease and reduce inflammation and are generally really good for your health.
• Exercise a little every day: Exercise can work off excess energy and endorphins put you in a good mood that can be very productive. Again, staying healthy makes it easier for your mind and body to work at the highest efficiency. You don't need to work out for an hour - even just 15 minutes of interval training, 200 jump ropes - anything that gets your heart pumping fast will do.
• Make a to-do list: One of my biggest problems in game-making is a lack of noticeable progress. It often can feel like you've done nothing, even if you've been working all day. A checklist of small things (make a map, design 3 encounters, finish a sprite, etc.) will remind yourself that you are making continuous progress.
• Remove distractions: Avoid things that will pull you out of your gamiking zen. FB, Twitter, RMN, internet news, your parents' constant chores, texts, phone calls, etc. will all interrupt your process and it can be hard to jump right back into it. There's programs out there to temporarily block sites you're addicted to, avoid responding to every text you get as soon as you get it, etc.

Note that this list is a mix of scientific stuff and stuff that works for me, personally. What works best for you will probably be a little different, but these things are a great place to start experimenting, I think!