What do you do when you are not directly working on your VN?

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nerupuff
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What do you do when you are not directly working on your VN?

#1 Post by nerupuff »

Hi all! It's been a while since I have last been online here.

For the past few weeks, I have not been working on my VN plans at all. Far from it, as I have been giving my entire focus towards my academics, which is a good thing, but sometimes it gets a bit tedious to always be more work and very little play.

As fellow creators, I am sure that you also have other things to focus on, other than your VN projects. How do you make time work for you in that aspect? Do you delegate specific hours of your schedules solely for VN work? Or even in your downtime, do you manage to sneak in a bit of dev work, like coming up with an idea in the middle of non-VN dev time?

For me, I find that I often spend my study time focusing on current tasks, but when my concentration begins to waver, my mind comes up with possible ideas for my VN, such as scenes and possible CGs. I take the time to doodle possible artwork, but of course, they aren't serious attempts, only just to pass the time. I'm hoping to learn some methods to be more productive and use some of my downtime to delegate to dev work, even if just a little, instead of being on a full-blown hiatus.

Or is there a benefit to completely taking time away from your project? Will it help you see it in a new light when you come back? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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Whimsy
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Re: What do you do when you are not directly working on your VN?

#2 Post by Whimsy »

I have way more free time that I almost care to admit, so finding time to work on my project isn’t as big of an issue compared to finding the motivation to work on it.

At the same time, I can’t get it out of my head! I live and breathe my work, and I have been ever since I started it (like 8 months ago). I even tried to force myself into a hiatus just to settle my thoughts and come up with new ideas, but three days later, I couldn’t stay away.

It’s a strange mix of “I want to work on this thing until I pass out” and “I don’t want to touch this because I don’t want to do this specific part, but I can’t advance if I don’t do this part”. So a lot of times it’s me keeping myself up at night thinking about new ideas and wanting to write/draw but hen being like “I can’t write/draw this without writing/drawing THIS first”.

When I get into slumps/road blocks like this I try to approach what I need to do from a different angle. For writing, sometimes writing a little bit on my phone wherever I’m lounging helps get a lot more done than if I were sitting on my laptop (where I get easily distracted).
For art, I watch random art videos or download new brushes to get the inspiration flowing. Even doodling on sticky notes helps a lot.

Ultimately, if you’re really passionate about your project, I suggest keeping it on your mind. Hiatuses CAN be beneficial, but it’s risky. If you’re gone for too long, you might never come back D:
As for finding time, I suggest taking notes in your phone or on sticky notes every time you have any sort of idea that makes you excited to work on your project. I do this, and it’s super satisfying to look at my note archive. Makes me inspired to keep working!
Also, writing/planning before I go to bed or right when I wake up are my best times to get things done.

Sorry for rambling! Hope any of this was useful!

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Re: What do you do when you are not directly working on your VN?

#3 Post by Autumnotopia »

In general, I actually try to use things I learned from my schooling to help manage my work on games. Doing some research on project management can be really useful in my experience! Recently I've been setting two week goals for my VN, since having both clear goals and also a definite deadline can help people focus (it's sort of the paradox of choice thing, if there's too many things you could be working on it often leads to you having a harder time doing anything at all)

I try to min/max my usefulness by trying to figure out tools that'll help. Like if I'm taking the bus and I feel like working on my project, having Google Docs installed on my phone will let me directly write in the like 15 minutes of transit. Obviously there's some days where there's just too many other things going on, but in general I think that like even just 10 minutes a day spent working on a project is a lot better than nothing. My advice is to analyze your roadblocks and figure out ways to go around them (so basically, what Whimsy said)

From what I've seen, when people take a hiatus (as in like, not just a 'week break' but straight up saying 'I'll come back to this... someday') on a project they rarely come back to it. Not always, but it definitely seems like the return rate is in the single digits. I feel like when you add distance to a project it's harder to see the cool ideas you had and easier to see the flaws. I also feel like hiatuses tend to follow burnout, which instantly makes someone not want to go back to it haha.
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Re: What do you do when you are not directly working on your VN?

#4 Post by Elta »

It wasn't until recently that I decided to jump into this world., so I'll be doing pretty much what I always do, just with this added in! I work from home and the time I'm not working I'm pretty much painting/drawing all that time. So now I'll be painting/drawing for my project and writing/coding! You could say by other peoples standards I have no life, but since I feel most alive when I'm creating, I don't really agree. The friends I do have are the same, so even when hanging out we then to just hang and work on our projects together. Maybe go for some short walks in nature, but mostly my free time is taken up with creating.

Times I need a creative break I almost always go to video games, looking at others creations online, or walk outside. That always clears my mind and pretty soon I'm tired of not creating and I'm back too it, even if it take a few days, at most a week! Fighting taking a break always tends to backfire for me, and I end up so burnt out that I take an even longer break then I would have before.

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Re: What do you do when you are not directly working on your VN?

#5 Post by ktalkimist »

Right now, talking exclusively about "work time," when I'm not working on our VN, I'm getting the word out that our VN exists. 😛

When I'm not working, I generally consume material that I feel will be useful in the future. So aside from watching GDC videos and other content that keep me updated on the game dev industry, I watch movies that I feel will be valuable to have in my mental library. The last one I watched was Buried - Ryan Reynolds in a box for an entire movie. I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a game like that.

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