Imposter Syndrome and Burnout | My Thoughts

[@iHeartGameDev]

I’d be curious to hear your own thoughts on imposter syndrome and burnout if you’re willing to share below ✨ It’s also been a while since I’ve done one of these types of videos and it was really nice to do something different 😊 thanks so much to the Patrons for the support and helping to make this happen! Of course, more tutorials are on the way. Happy Holidays!🍻 -Nicky

[@aiden16925]

Ee

[@Tryste]

The industry culture amongst developers is also constantly bashing something "wrongly coded". It can be tiring at times but to be honest, the hardest environment are often where we level up the most. Also for people with more acute emotional sensitivity, they do have the advantage of reading people thoughts/feels faster but have the drawbacks of "taking things at heart" more than what people really intend to convey. I think it's important to know our own inner working between emotions/intellectual strength and how the reinforce each other (or freeze each other) to navigate the industry typical atmosphere with more protection and sanity ^^.

[@GameplaysJogosPC]

The Imposter Syndrome, I believe is most seen in the tech arena because we are constantly seeing people creating something incredible that we think we are not capable of creating. A similar example would be like a person standing on Instagram looking at someone's achievements or stories and thinking "wow, I never did that, how I wish I was there" or "Wow, my life is boring, I'll never have something like this" ... In reality, everyone is capable of doing anything, it takes time to learn and do it. Each person has their own rhythm and as long as we don't realize this, we will be exhausted, unhappy and constantly charging us unfairly. We need time to rest, time to reflect... Only in this way can we have a healthier life.

[@iHeartGameDev]

What a fantastic comparison and write up. I completely agree. Social media has its perks for me with finding inspiration, but you’re totally correct about it also imposing a feeling of “I still have soooo much to learn”

[@cptwoody7103]

i realize work life balance and mindfulness is important now its a common thing and hard thing for some people

[@shehryarmalik6105]

Thank you for this video, I suffer from these issues especially from the imposter syndrome since I have to watch videos and copy paste code to get most things done. It just makes me feel guilty when someone says wow you are a genius when I make something. Seeing that teachers like you suffer from these problems too helped me understand that it is part of software engineering. I will have to get used to it and learn how to get over them as soon as possible.. every time x.x god that's exausting lol. And what you said about learning cinemachine is so true. I had the same feeling when learning how to make cinematics in timeline. Everything was alien to me and I had to look up even the basics things but after just a few days I'm so comfortable with it that I managed to make quick time events system on my own. Thank u again I would love to see more videos like this!

[@iHeartGameDev]

Thank you for such a kind and thoughtful comment, Shehryar! I'm glad this helped a bit!

[@benis1120]

Nicky, this was a banger. You should do these types of videos where it's just you and the camera more often, especially when feeling burnout(which I also empathize with). I love seeing your personality plus you're an awesome guy.

[@cptwoody7103]

thx for making this video for us , keep working

[@twosoulfox]

I acknowledge people who do their best. You are an inspiration for many and I think your work makes a difference. Take breaks and best wishes.

[@szyslay]

You did one of the most awesome tutorials for state machines and it helped me a ton! Thank you :D

[@iHeartGameDev]

Thank you for such kind words. It helps a lot with my confidence

[@szyslay]

@@iHeartGameDev No need to thank me, did YT videos and they take time to make in such quality ;) Now my game has a Dragon Wand, which changes characters based on states! Awesome! Thanks again :D

[@signalised9540]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts Nicky! I think every person experiences Impostor Syndrome or burnout atleast once in their lives. The only way to beat is to just ignore it and keep pushing!

[@iHeartGameDev]

Thanks for stopping by Sig! Always happy to see you here. And that's been the only thing I've been able to do to get through it!

[@signalised9540]

@@iHeartGameDev always glad to be here Nicky!

[@UnitywithWIKA]

Thank you very much for your valuable thoughts. As a game dev, I recently started in tutorial making on game development and definitely this will be useful for me. Thanks again.

[@UnitywithWIKA]

And I really enjoying your videos and your production quality and the way of explanation is awesome.

[@iHeartGameDev]

Hey thanks for watching! I hope these little bits of advice help you out a bit!

[@develophours9270]

Been a while. Great Video

[@dibaterman]

I've got my main project but I take breaks by hitting up side projects. Right now my main goal is to figure out how to do procedural coding for the rpg I want to make. That alone has a ton of sub goals; I got stuck on creating an inventory system which has made me very uninterested in creating UI... I am finding that I dislike making UIs a lot for some reason. So I am thinking maybe if I just draw the UI I want on a piece of paper and then try to make it in Unity, that might inspire me. But it really informs me that I might be sensitive to my failures in a more emotional way than I realized. Oddly when I start making the UI I don't mind the grind but I'll get hung up on small parts to it usually dealing with coding or some Unity parameter. That's why I decided to shoot for a proper Unity class. I think I am appreciating the Unity itself demands to be understood, and the biggest hurdle is not just the C# aspect. Yeah this video made me open Unity and work on a small 2d project. Thanks.

[@iHeartGameDev]

Rad! Thank you for sharing! This comment made ME open Unity too :)

[@xvalue]

Amazing video. Thanks for this.

[@AlexBlackfrost]

Thanks for tackling this topic! Happy holidays ⛄❄️!

[@iHeartGameDev]

Thanks for the suggestion, Alex 😄👍 great video topic and was great to think about it on a personal level.

[@sarahm2005]

I recently watched your video on goals for 2021, make a follow up video on that. are you happy with where you are now? are you doing one for 2022?

[@iHeartGameDev]

I should make a 2021 recap and 2022 goals video! That first one was pretty fun!

[@Diablokiller999]

Dealing with depression/burnout for nearly two decades now, know how it is to struggle getting up every day, get your sh*t together, being nice to friends, family and co-workers while the only thing you want is being alone. I hate events like christmas because of that, everyone has to smile, be happy, buy presents for other people you don't even know what they want and you mostly don't care. Or maybe I'm just an A-Hole, don't know. At least I've got a loving kid and girlfriend that both keep me up and running, my only motivation to go on. But I'm watching your videos to get back into my childhood dream of becoming a game developer, maybe that can finally bring joy back to my life.

[@BenDol90]

Great advice, I think a big part of it, is that a lot of people assume others aren't also experiencing a similar thing to them and in reality most people do.

[@iHeartGameDev]

Totally - I think it really has to do with how difficult software engineering is. It's only natural to have a bit of doubt.

[@vishnuj2717]

Great job brother 👍👍 good luck this one help me alot

[@iHeartGameDev]

Happy to hear that it helped! Thank you!

[@ThomasStewartDev]

I think burnout is a huge hurdle for aspiring game devs because making a game is so time intensive, and almost everyone has a full-time job or school. I liked your advice though - getting outside helps me tremendously as well!

[@iHeartGameDev]

The full time job on top of game dev has been the biggest time management hurdle that I’ve still been unable to overcome.

[@ThomasStewartDev]

@@iHeartGameDev I tried waking up at 5am everyday for the last month to try to find a pocket of time for game dev. It was brutal haha. But I got so much done!

[@iHeartGameDev]

@@ThomasStewartDev yo the 5AM wakeups are so clutch! I just found it impossible to maintain for more than a few days a week

[@ThomasStewartDev]

@@iHeartGameDev Yeah! My wife noticed I was significantly more irritable throughout the day, so I need to go back to the drawing board and see if I can figure out a more sustainable schedule.

[@khalidzoz4186]

Imposter syndrome is relentless my man. Omg, Thinking that you are where you are cuz you're lucky and somehow it all works out.

[@iHeartGameDev]

It’s been around ever since I started learning software development 😅

[@arthurjvnb]

For me the burnout comes so quickly, even doing things that I love. I just want to rest more time to come back doing what I love.

[@ultmatepotato]

Hey man, can you make a video on how to make a portal gun in unity, or at least the portals themselves? Your videos are great btw, very helpful!

[@odinniereece4096]

Never really experienced this imposter syndrome .. atleast i dont think i have.. as a unity beginner... all i actually think about is learning something new.. i dont really doubt myself..but burnout for sure.. almost all my blender projects i feel this way

[@iHeartGameDev]

That confidence is a good thing! Keep learning and push through the burnout!

[@kabhes9040]

I think a lot of the imposter syndrome also comes from the fact we programmers copy a lot of work from others, and it starts to feel like you didn't create it yourself.

[@Giantpenguin]

For gameDev I have the problem that once I finish coding the main mechanics or whatever I consider the "hard" part I usually just shrug and stop. I'll code for days and months on end to get everything working flawlessly and thene can't bring myself to create some levels so people can actually play it. I don't have Imposter Syndrome with gamedev, I do have it big time while drawing though. Doesn't matter how much effort I put in over the years. I don't feel I belong among the other "artists". Doesn't matter that I'm actually quite skilled at it now., don't think I'll ever call myself an artist.

[@iHeartGameDev]

What an interesting take on burnout. It’s almost like addressing the challenging parts are what keep you going and then once it’s done, you’re ready to move on. Now that I think about it, I guess that’s exactly what happens with my tutorials. Also super intimidated about the artist imposter syndrome. I just picked up a drawing tablet so I suppose that’s on the way too 🙂

[@Mouquette]

Wow, I feel exactly the same. I work as a web dev, and do game dev as a hobby since few month. But whatever the project is, I love to do the "main" part, but once its done, and then can't bring myself to do the "details" part. That's why I give up on most of my project.

[@GrahamOfLegend]

Literally have this written down as a topic. Imposter syndrome is the ABSOLUTE WORST!!!!!!

[@MathsPlusGames]

Good video

[@darthsquirrel4247]

Love it

[@irql2]

How come theres no dust in your house?

[@iHeartGameDev]

Lmao my fiancée and I clean once every two weeks or so, and we only live in a one bedroom apartment so keeping things clean isn’t too difficult

[@longtranha8695]

play game, see your video, back to work :))

[@iHeartGameDev]

Hahaha thank you for say watching! Good luck!

[@davehale7576]

I started learning unity at the turn of this year with limited prior programming knowledge. I go to sleep most nights with random tutorials lined up to just get eyes on best practice ideas, how to do x,y,z ideas etc etc before i go try reinvent the wheel. As such I just watched your apple state machine video and was so impressed I felt compelled to add this message to say its probably the best tutorial I've seen on any programming topic! Although abstract classes etc may not be the most complicated of things, the way you managed to transition between scripts without any chance of someone getting lost was great! 100% perfect for understanding state machines and understanding the use of abstract classes even outside of their use in the videos context. The vast majority of tutorials are great at showing you how to implement something but often leave more gaps in understanding than they fill. I'm half old now! And struggled with self confidence aka imposter syndrome most my life. Being diagnosed with ADHD just over a year back was the catalyst that made me realise I was my own worse critic and was allowing myself to give up due to loosing faith in myself. Using the word you as the general you - not the you you! Suffering imposter syndrome (when you know you do!) is awesome! It simply means you know you might not know everything and therefore willing to keep learning. I think the trick to owning it rather than let it cripple you is to first spot when its nibbling at your confidence and then to remember that questioning yourself allows you to both spot and accept holes in your knowledge. Its important to look back at your learning and give yourself credit for any progress no matter how small. The opposite is the dismissive expert who hasn't a clue? ;) btw a 15min video in the style of your apple state machine but on a simple event system would have saved me the last two weeks messing about trying to stitch others tutorials together to actually understand and expand on them over just implement and tinker!!

[@oldborodach]

Блин если бы еще понимать 🤔

[@snook5555]

Like many watching this video, I def has both these issues.

[@CertraX]

I recently got promoted and the imposter syndrome is kicking in

[@iHeartGameDev]

You were probably promoted with good reason! 😊👍

[@Pluto008]

NICK, WOULD YOU PLEASE MAKE A VIDEO ABOUT SHOOTING WITH GUN IN UNITY IN BOTH FPS AND TPS WITH ANIMATIONS FROM MIXAMO ???

[@abolfazlmaleki4514]

God damn boy

[@atokosto]

😥

[@Chandlest]

just fyi, your thumbnail kinda makes it look like I've already watched the video. If you care about that sort of thing