Conciliating your professionnal life with your game project

[Ostrogradski]

Hello everyone!

I am a newbie here, I actually just created my account so first of all : nice to meet you all! I hope we can get along well!

I had an idea for years and years for a game but never got to do it. Recently, an event in my life finally allowed me to go into the realisation of that game that's been haunting me for so many years and I have to say I have never been so happy to be involved in something.

I have however a real dilemma. I have been able to work on my game because I was on a leave from work but I will probably have to get back to work at some point and I have no idea how to conciliate my work life with the making of my game. I was wondering if some people would be kind enough to share their experience regarding that issue.

Thank you all!

[Valhalla]

I think it's a lot about enjoyment. For me, working on VNs is a hobby I enjoy doing in my spare time. If I didn't enjoy it, I don't think I'd be able to give up so much of my free time to it.

I also think it is important to rest, especially if you are working full time. There are weeks I feel so burnt out I have to take a step back and just spend a day vegging out. When it starts to feel like a chore I can't put my heart into it.

The real trial for me is not getting sidetracked. I try to set reasonable goals I know I can achieve, i.e. Write and edit one scene a day, finish one GUI screen etc.

That's my take on it, although I'm also interested to see if other people have good tips.

[Mammon]

Well, the first thing you'll need to determine is: How long will you have until you'll need to go back to work, how long will you need to finish your project, and are these two deadlines compatible in any way? If you f.e. need at least half a year and you'll get back to work in a month, it's obviously not possible to do yourself. If this is indeed the case:
1) Can you shorten the project, remove the unneccesary parts and trim it down? And more importantly, can you do it without destroying your own ideal of your project? Assuming you're just as devoted to your project as the rest, I assume not so this is the least likely option.
2) Can you work on your project in your spare time, as little as you might have? If you can work about an hour per day or in the weekends it can still be finished eventually even if you have a job. One may always be able to find some hole in their schedule somewhere for their hobby. I can assume this might be much more difficult if you have a family to take care of though, to the point of impossible after all. And off course if you have the energy to actually be creative and willing to work in what little free time you may have.
3) Can you outsource parts of it? F.e. if you're the writer, can you use Creative Commons art and find a coder willing to work for free? If there's something you'll need a lot of time for due to inexperience, this might be a good solution to really bring back the project length to be within the time limit you have. Probably the best solution considering the situation.

[Ostrogradski]

Thank you for your answers, that was pretty insightful already!

I guess from what you say that as crazy as it might be, it is not impossible in the end. I would say that the most important things to keep in mind would be :
- confidence in yourself and your project
- deep involvement
- keeping it fun/not forgetting to take care of yourself
- getting support from others
- organisation/setting realistic goals

Maybe I am forgetting something?

[Mammon]

Thank you for your answers, that was pretty insightful already!

I guess from what you say that as crazy as it might be, it is not impossible in the end. I would say that the most important things to keep in mind would be :
- confidence in yourself and your project
- deep involvement
- keeping it fun/not forgetting to take care of yourself
- getting support from others
- organisation/setting realistic goals

Organisation may not even be neccesary depending on whether you work alone on a passion project during sparse free time. Assuming you already started your project, lumbering on is the best choice once your real life job begins again. Now that you still have some free time however, trying to organise your project, goals and ideas would be a very good idea. Spending one hour figuring out which scenes you don't need is a lot more efficient than spending 10 hours writing them out. But you can't be bothered with such preplanning once you have very little time, it would ruin your passion for the project.

The paragraph above may sound a bit as a paradox so let me rephrase it: Organising is a good way to maximise the project, minimise the development time and preventing the feeling that you're working on an endless project that will never finish. Do try to do this when you still have the time of day to really sit down for it. However, once your job begins again (and you do actually have time to work on your project) it's best to just march on with the workload of your project without further planning. You just need to assume your organisation up to that point worked.

But yes, everything you said above is correct. No matter how big it might be it's not impossible. Whether it's practical is a whole other matter, too many people try to make an extremely interactive story only to figure out that a hundred routes would actually need a hundred stories, for example. But I can't really say much about that without knowing the project itself, your organisation however will be a good way to determine it.

[Ostrogradski]

From what you say, I understand that it is important to have some organisation at the beginning of the project to know which direction you are going on with it (a plan for the story for instance) but not necessarily one on how you are going to make it? So for instance, letting youself the liberty of working on whatever suits you best at that moment instead of pushing on another part of the project you don't actually really want to work on right now.

[Mammon]

From what you say, I understand that it is important to have some organisation at the beginning of the project to know which direction you are going on with it (a plan for the story for instance) but not necessarily one on how you are going to make it? So for instance, letting youself the liberty of working on whatever suits you best at that moment instead of pushing on another part of the project you don't actually really want to work on right now.

Yes and no. When you say 'not on how you are going to make it' I'm going to say no, that's definately something you'll want to think out. I personally would advise making a summary of your story for this before you write the story itself. However, when you say 'the liberty of working on whatever suits you best at that moment' that is indeed the best approach once you're pressed for time, and exactly what I meant.

I might be overgeneralising here, but: If you have a schedule where the chances to work on something are one hour or less (once your job begins), you don't want to think about organisation. You just want to start right away, organising stuff will just result in wasting 20 minutes and possibly putting it off with the thought 'I'll work on it later'. However, when you still have all day to dedicate to your problem, then you'll want to organise among other things. That 20 minutes upstart will be insignificant in that case.

[Ostrogradski]

Ah ok I understand now! That makes sense!

Thanks for all the good advices

[Zelan]

So for instance, letting youself the liberty of working on whatever suits you best at that moment instead of pushing on another part of the project you don't actually really want to work on right now.

About this - I agree with Mammon that sometimes it's best just to leave the boring parts for later and get to the most exciting things. However, bear in mind that, eventually, you WILL have to get around to it and get those parts done, or your game will never be finished. It's okay to grumble a bit, of course, but if you just buckle down and do it, you can finish it and not have to think about it again. c:

[Ostrogradski]

Yes, that's a good point. But I was thinking more of the fact that some day you might be more excited by thinking about pimping a character, another day you might want to work a particular scene just because you feel like it. In this case, I think it would be more difficult to follow a plan that forces you to work on a particular scene instead of another one for which you would have more idea.

[Mammon]

So for instance, letting youself the liberty of working on whatever suits you best at that moment instead of pushing on another part of the project you don't actually really want to work on right now.

About this - I agree with Mammon that sometimes it's best just to leave the boring parts for later and get to the most exciting things. However, bear in mind that, eventually, you WILL have to get around to it and get those parts done, or your game will never be finished. It's okay to grumble a bit, of course, but if you just buckle down and do it, you can finish it and not have to think about it again. c:

It's a matter of motivation and focus. If you have it, you can leave the boring parts for last. You'll still buckle down and do it, and while you do it you might cheat a few times by (re)doing some things you do enjoy doing. In my case, I rewrote a lot and added a lot of scenes to weasel out of coding for a day. I do believe it will increase the quality, because you'll be extra motivated to redo and rethink everything of the production that you do like doing.

If you don't have the focus, feel like your project is taking forever or if you will have very little free time in the future, it's better to do the boring parts as much as possible while you'll still have the time for it. Not only will the investment of time in those chores increase your motivation of finishing (because like hell are you throwing all that hard work away!), once you do lack the time you might find yourself unmotivated to do something you don't like doing. Extra much because this will be a chore you can postpone indefinately.

So in your case, doing the things you don't like that much while you still ahve the time would be the best approach here.

But I was thinking more of the fact that some day you might be more excited by thinking about pimping a character, another day you might want to work a particular scene just because you feel like it. In this case, I think it would be more difficult to follow a plan that forces you to work on a particular scene instead of another one for which you would have more idea.

Well, if you planned things out properly that shouldn't be a problem. As long as you have a sketch, draft or summary of your story to prevent losing track of what you're doing, that approach should work just fine.

[juunishi master]

I'm going to respond to the very first post first.

Hello everyone!

I am a newbie here, I actually just created my account so first of all : nice to meet you all! I hope we can get along well!

Nice to meet you too. My registration date is ... about a year ago I think, but I started to active this year.

I had an idea for years and years for a game but never got to do it. Recently, an event in my life finally allowed me to go into the realisation of that game that's been haunting me for so many years and I have to say I have never been so happy to be involved in something.

I bet a lot of people feel this way. I also have a passion for game for many years, always wanted to make one (right now, I work in a local game studio).

But then when I started working for "real game", I realize again that game could be so overwhelming to be handled by one person only. I kinda feel discouraged at this point, but then a friend of mine said, "You loves writing, right? Why don't you mix your writing and game making and focusing in making something more story-driven? I think that'll be great!".

And that's basically why you find me here in this forum.

I have however a real dilemma. I have been able to work on my game because I was on a leave from work but I will probably have to get back to work at some point and I have no idea how to conciliate my work life with the making of my game. I was wondering if some people would be kind enough to share their experience regarding that issue.

Aah, right. Balancing work and life itself is already difficult (I even found some article that boldly said to "forget about work and life balance"), so how about inserting game making in the schedule?

- Keep it small and manageable.
Like everyone else said.

Why keeping it small is important? It's to keep yourself sane. It's like making a (real) house VS making a birdhouse by yourself. Think about the satisfaction when you finish something VS disappointment when you think you made no progress.

Don't worry, you always learn something from small projects. It prepare you for the bigger ones.

- Work with other people (keep small team too)
Feeling down/tired/discourage is unavoidable, but you could get up from it easier when your working partner is so fired up about the project. It's like, "I can't let him/her down!" and then you get back to your feet and work again. It's (I think) the same too for your working partner.

- Don't be too hard on yourself
There will be times where you come home really tired and can't do a thing, can't even stare your PC for another minute to work on your game.

Don't force yourself.

Switch to another task that doesn't need to open your PC (that's why I still love pen and paper for game design material/story outline). Reread the story outline, write down your item list, doodle your character/hometown, or do something else less tiring. Again, don't be too hard on yourself.

I found these videos a couple of years ago and still rewatching it whenever I feel the need to "back to basic". Maybe it could help too.

[Ostrogradski]

Nice to meet you fellow passionate person

Thanks for the advice, it's really helpful!

[jeshii]

Hello everyone!

I am a newbie here, I actually just created my account so first of all : nice to meet you all! I hope we can get along well!

I had an idea for years and years for a game but never got to do it. Recently, an event in my life finally allowed me to go into the realisation of that game that's been haunting me for so many years and I have to say I have never been so happy to be involved in something.

I have however a real dilemma. I have been able to work on my game because I was on a leave from work but I will probably have to get back to work at some point and I have no idea how to conciliate my work life with the making of my game. I was wondering if some people would be kind enough to share their experience regarding that issue.

Thank you all!

Nice to meet you Ostrogradski Its funny, I was conflicted with the same issue as you for the past year. I was interested in starting my own project, but just graduated college and got a job in Japan. I was working 12 hours a day at the start, and eventually found no time.

But I recently created a balance for myself that has been working out quite nice. My profession is in software development, so I started developing code that can be reused for work and my project (I am building my vn from the ground up without using any other engine). Basically, I merged my work life with my project. Not sure what your work involves, but perhaps there are ways you can do the same.

Also, I found waking up at 4am gives me time to work on the project effectively. It is hard for me to be as productive after work. If you are not an early bird yet, I highly recommend you give it a go