Opinion Staying Motivated.

Landonbay

Member
I been wanting to work with my Game, but I cannot seem to stay motivated due to a combination of doing it myself, and having other work I am focused on.

Any advice on staying motivated with game projects?
 
What I would do (or should do, since I'm guilty of this myself) is break down your project into smaller parts and try to get at least one of those parts done every day, even if its just creating a single sprite or tweaking one piece of code, as long as you're working on something. Consistently seeing some progress, no matter how small, will help you stay motivated. The longer you go without working on your game, the easier it gets to put it off. While doing it yourself is definitely overwhelming, it does mean that if you hit a wall in one area, you have plenty of other things to do. Overwhelmed by coding? Work on your art or music. And every once in a while, play through what you have so far. Remind yourself how far you've come. Remind yourself how much better it'll get the more work you put in.
 

woodsmoke

Member
If you are already having problems working on your game, just wait till you get to the part of finishing your game. You need a lot more discipline and motivation to do the last 20% with all the boring stuff on a game you have been working on to death.

If you are not motivated maybe you are not passionate enough about your project. That's what keeps me going. That and discipline as previously mentioned (Put some work in everyday, even if it is just a tiny bit.).
 
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Misty

Guest
Maybe the game just wasn't meant to be made. Don't fight too hard against your own instincts.
 

curato

Member
Everyone does this. You get a great idea and flush it out all excited and get the bones in place and how you got to do all the "boring" work of making into a full game all the little unsung pieces that make a polished game. If you project is well defined and features and scope and not crazy like the next #1 MMO or something then all you need to do it push forward and get the work done if you want a complete project. There literally is no idea that you can come up with that isn't going to have a point where you did all the "cool" stuff you can do and you got to pound all the details in shape to get you to the final product
 
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Misty

Guest
We'll lets be honest. We were never meant to make one human army projects. Indie devs are trying to compete with multi-billion corps, some of these corps forget to even put particle effects into their games. The average player has extreme levels of entitlement and demands AAA and million dollar budget games. And indies are expected to compete with this. You are expected to be superhuman and defy all odds and be like john henry or something while getting paid pennies. Indie burnout is no suprise. Indies are expected to be da vinci at the bare minimum.
 

Landonbay

Member
In truth, I only really do it as a hobby. I was working on one project, but how I draw characters for sprites has changed a lot and it was planned as a platformer. However, I scrapped it (but kept the story), and started with a newer one, as an overhead game.

as for the newer project, I actually haven't started the project yet, but just been working with the "mannequins" to help me with the sprite work when I can find passion in doing it.

I do have spurts of motivation, but keeping the motivation is the hard part for me.
 

HayManMarc

Member
Motivation is a personal journey. You can find motivational tips all over the internet and in every bookstore. It all boils down to the individual to apply the techniques and try to make them work.

Basically, you just have to force yourself to keep going. But, it's all on you.
 

Landonbay

Member
I think for my case it is more or less scheduling. I schedule myself to get back to my project tommorrow. But I'll have to see if it helps stay motivated.
 

K12gamer

Member
Cut out stuff like movies, tv, dating...
Focus 50% of your time and energy on your game...25% on your regular job...25% on your personal fitness.
 

Landonbay

Member
Cut out stuff like movies, tv, dating...
Focus 50% of your time and energy on your game...25% on your regular job...25% on your personal fitness.
nah, that's way to much of a stretch. so far, I plan to have some days focused on game work (since I started over and only concerned with sprites as the story is already written)
 

pixeltroid

Member
You're either motivated to work on your game or you aren't.

Maybe you aren't organizing your time effectively. You only have 24 hours a day and so you need to set aside some time only for work on your game everyday. Or you could set aside one day of the week for work on your game.

You may even need to make time for yourself by cutting down another activity that's taking up time.
 

Binsk

Member
Motivation is an emotion, it comes and goes. You should focus on building discipline instead so you keep working even when not motivated.

Motivation makes things easier but it shouldn't be the driving force.

Discipline is reliable, motivation is fickle. My two cents.
 

bacteriaman

Member
My advice is to set small obtainable milestones so you have lots of wins along the way. If you're struggling with a particular aspect, put it aside for the time being and work on something else.

I also work on several game projects at the same time and switch projects depending on what inspires me at the time. I currently have several projects going, each at a different stage of development.

The great thing about being a solo developer is that you get to decide what do work on next. If don't feel like coding, you can always work on graphics, sound effects, etc.

Most of all, have fun! Every project always has some unglamorous stuff, but enjoy the overall process. It's not really work if you love what you're doing.
 
Following on from the advice of breaking down into smaller chunks of work, I always work on the easier chunks first, especially on a harder project.

By doing this (and letting the harder problems percolate in my mind) I am getting quick wins along the way and often end up untangling the tougher issues by the time I get to them.

I think it's all about small wins, that's how I get my motivation at least. Add in a bit of discipline working on your project daily and you will see good progress!
 
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GM029

Guest
If you've never built a full game before I think the main key is not to make your game something overly ambitious and complicated that is going to take over a year (possibly multiple years) to complete. The vast majority of people aren't going to make it to the finish line with those types of projects. I think a lot of people underestimate how hard it is to build a game just because the tools keep making it easier and easier.

Almost everyone comes into this very excitedly wanting to build an amazing RPG or Metroidvania but that usually wanes when the realities of completing a large scope game set in.
 

Landonbay

Member
Thank you guys for helping me out. I think it really helped me out. I think I might be missing something else than motivation.

There is a new topic I have, but that is for another topic.
 
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Fihril Kamal

Guest
I made a ton of project and only finished three (Other than games I made for other company), the secret to completing games is to limit the scope, I think. It's always good to see the end goal whenever we work on our projects.
 

Roleybob

Member
I've recently seen a couple of videos where Shaun Spalding talks about this, and similarly to what a couple of people have said above, he says that motivation isn't the problem - it's discipline that you need. I think I agree - you will get to a point in a project where you don't have the motivation to continue, and discipline is what you need to get through that and do it anyway.
 
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