[closed] Thank you everyone for taking their time to help me

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AsHLeX
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[closed] Thank you everyone for taking their time to help me

#1 Post by AsHLeX »

- content no longer relevant -
Hello everyone. I just had a curious question to ask all of you who make games (visual novels, RPG's etc.) in your free time as part of a personal hobby. Have any of you ever questioned whether it's actually worth the time and effort you put in?
As most game-makers will probably already know, making a new game/visual novel takes a horrendous amount of effort and time and resources, so much so that I often find myself questioning if it's really worth the effort.
I'm actually in the process of reviving one of my old dating sim projects, but there's a lot of stuff to do and it's taking a crazy amount of time and effort (especially since i'm doing it solo and not in a group). I only ever make visual novels during my holiday because for 1. I don't have time during med school to do anything but study. and 2. I only can focus on one thing at a time if I want to complete it.
I treat making visual novels/games as a full-time job (or maybe even worse than that - I constantly pull all-nighters to finish writing a certain plot point or organizing a certain code, i'm sure i'm not the only one and that others out there also do the same time sometimes)
This is the last long holiday that i'll be having in a very long time - meaning that if I want to finish my dating sim, i'm going to have to do it now or never (due to my policy of not doing personal hobby stuff during the semester). Because of that I've decided to keep doing this.
But I keep questioning whether it's really worth the time and effort i'm putting into it. I mean, I could be watching anime right now, going out with friends and catching up on new movies and playing new games and visual novels or reading the books that I always wanted to read, but no, i'm spending literally from the moment I wake up until midnight or 1am in the morning working on this dating sim.
I thought I would quit the visual novel making scene the moment I started medical school because I didn't want a hobby that took up a crazy amount of time that I could barely afford but it just keeps drawing me back, especially when I read my old notes and old works.
I really want to revive this dating sim because it's literally the very first visual novel that I ever thought to make - i'm revamping it because I didn't have the capability to do a proper dating sim with my programming and writing abilities when I first started using ren'py, but I constantly keep asking myself if it's really worth it? Because at the rate i'm going it's almost as if my holiday isn't a holiday at all. Maybe i'm starting to suffer from burnout - kind of ironic though, don't you think? Suffering burnout from a hobby that I do kind of love.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of others out there also have faced the same dilemma as me, what did you guys decide to do?
Last edited by AsHLeX on Thu Dec 15, 2016 6:30 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#2 Post by Valhalla »

Hobbies are supposed to be things you enjoy, that you want to spend you time doing, you know?
I guess that's the reason I keep doing it even though I already work full time. But you need to know when enough is enough, and if it's becomes a chore, or feels like a waste of time, maybe you should stop.
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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#3 Post by AsHLeX »

I do enjoy doing it and I don't feel that it's a waste of time. I just keep questioning if it's worth sacrificing the time I could use for something else :O I know that it's something that I have to answer for myself but i'm curious what conclusion everyone else came up for themselves. I'm currently torn between abandoning it or just pushing through.

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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#4 Post by Sonomi »

Hi. The short answer is yes, it is absolutely worth it. I have never released a visual novel before, but I have released software that I made as a personal hobby. There is no way to describe the feeling of accomplishment and validation when someone else appreciates all the hard work that you've poured into something. So if you truly love this as a hobby, I say go for it.

But the point is that you need to see it as a hobby, something that you do strictly for fun. It's perfectly fine to take a break and do other things--it is your free time, and you should be relaxing, regardless of what you choose to do! Go spend time with friends and family, watch that season of anime, play the games of others.

There will be an end to your next semester, yes? So you can certainly pick up where you left off later. This is quite a supportive community. No one is expecting you to burn yourself out to release your VN; rather, we're expecting you to just have a good time making it, no matter how long it takes. Give yourself a little break and take it easy. :)

Personally, I have too many hobbies to enjoy properly because there are so many other obligations that I must meet and I am almost never at home (^^; wish I could take my guitar with me everywhere). I usually work on my own visual novel pretty late at night until I feel tired enough to sleep. But it is a solo project and there is no pressure. I can watch YouTube, play other VNs, or go out instead. And...I do. You'll more than likely find more inspiration anyway by taking a step back for a while.

Good luck! And I deeply apologize for the long post.
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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#5 Post by Kate »

For me it's really a mix. I have thirty hobbies and am finishing up college (YAY!) Time for student teaching, less homework now...

This semester I probably could've worked more on mine but since I got engaged, and my guy was back from college this semester for a local co-op, of course I chose to spend time with him. He's like a puppy when I don't give him attention so I have to put aside any writing. Heh.

What it boiled down to for me is that it IS worth it because I feel so accomplished when I, an English major, have managed to figure out programming and break out of the confines of writing on paper to generate stories that can only work with a multi-media game. (I'm obsessed with branching stories atm.) It's just something that can wait a little when special occasions to spend time with people and do things together arise. It takes so much focus to write and twice as much to program effectively for me, and while my Senpai loves me to death and would probably try so very hard to be helpful, he'd probably get bored quickly with my work and it just wouldn't be a good use of our time together on his few nights off.
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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#6 Post by LateWhiteRabbit »

AsHLeX wrote:I do enjoy doing it and I don't feel that it's a waste of time. I just keep questioning if it's worth sacrificing the time I could use for something else :O
As someone older, let me share a secret with you - nothing we do in life is worth anything more than anything else. We're all passing time until we die. The important thing is spending your time doing what you ENJOY.

So if you enjoy what you are doing, and are happy doing it, that's all that matters in the end. Not the end result, or even IF there is an end result.

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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#7 Post by Mammon »

You just need to look at your VN and then look at the alternatives like watching anime or hanging out with friends. See which one you'd prefer on its own rather than trying to compare them. If you're starting to feel like making a VN is a chore rather than a hobby, and you consider your free time to have more value than this chore is worth, then do other stuff. You shouldn't bind yourself down with a false sense of responsibility. If you feel joy when making your VN, and feeling this sense of accomplishment lacking when you're doing other stuff, make VN's. Or try to combine the two. It can take a lot of discipline as well to stop being disciplined enough to work on something for hours.

For me this problem of yours hasn't been an issue (yet). I too am in college but I started to actually write out what was in my head during the time I was supposed to be doing homework rather than in my free time. Either they don't give me enough homework, I work too fast and focussed, or a combination of the two, but I rarely had to do any homework at home because the time I get for it between classes is enough to not only do all my homework but also to have an hour or two per week where I have nothing better to do than work on my VN as I'm waiting for the next seminar to start. (Me eating and working at the same time may play a factor in this)

So I never really had the issue that you had. My free time and my VN time didn't overlap at first, and only once I had enough free time during holidays that I got tired of watching anime did I get to the other parts like drawing the sprites and doing the coding. But if I were to put myself in your shoes, making it so that I would have the vacation periods to make a VN? It's a tough call but I'd probably pick my projects now that I've experienced making them. I would never really get into making VN's because I wouldn't overcome the effort barrier of learning the how-to, so I'd never really start my first VN. But as this is a barrier you've already overcame I'll overlook it and look at my situation changing to yours today. And then I'd pick filling days with a project over filling them with a loose string of other hobbies. I know myself, after a few hours my YouTube subscription uploads run dry and I'm no longer in the mood to watch anime (3 episodes a day, that's the limit before I tire of any anime). I'll be looking for some other way to fill this void of time before dinner, (which led me to EVN among others) and something meaningful and enjoyable that I can pour any amount of time and effort into are better than this filling of a void with browser games and YouTube videos I don't even like that much.
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AsHLeX
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Re: Personal Conflicts if making VN's are Really Worth It

#8 Post by AsHLeX »

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone for taking their time to answer. I really appreciate it. Reading all of your comments made me come to realize why I started making visual novels in the first place; the joy that I had when I finished my first one and my ambition in continuing to build longer and better visual novels. The excitement that I felt when I learnt how to program new things and the vigor at which I wrote down ideas when they came to mind.

I used to have the idea that "the end result is the only thing that matters", but now slowly i'm starting to change my mindset. Going into medical school helped me to see that. When I read what LateWhiteRabbit said, it made me remember to see things as it is now and to just enjoy the moment, rather than constantly stressing out over which activity I should choose to do in my spare time by weighing up which one would make me the happiest. That's when I realized that I should apply the "just enjoy the moment" concept to things outside of medical school too - for instance, my hobbies.

I thought over what everyone said, and started asking myself whether I really do like making visual novels. The answer is yes, without a doubt. As Sonomi said, the feeling of accomplishment and validation that you get when you complete your work and when other people praise something that you made out of your own hands - something that you created - it's a joy that's indescribable. I was reading through my inbox and I found a letter that someone took their time to send me. It was a whole paragraph detailing what he thought of one of my works at that time. And the warm and fuzzy feeling that I had when I read it was really something that I never had before. Reading it made me remember about when I was working on a visual novel with someone else and the immense fun that we had during that time. For me, honestly, that was one of the best time of my life. Finding someone else who was similar to me.

About what everyone said - do I feel that making a visual novel is a chore rather than a hobby? The answer is no. Although my feelings fluctuate, I do think that making a visual novel is something that I honestly want to do. Especially this dating sim, since it's my first time.

So, in the end, after reading through what everyone said, I do think that making a visual novel is worth all the effort that I do put into it, although I do think that I should take a little time to slow down and enjoy the moment. So my end decision is that I want to power on and complete this, but at the same time only doing it to a point where I'm able, like maybe cutting down the length and the number of characters.

Again, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to answer this. I've read through each and every one of your responses and I must say that I am very touched at the support that you guys have given me.

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