My Process as a Solo Dev with a Full Time Job

[@Aarimous]

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[@nocturnaltruthseeker]

I work a 12 hour overnight shift in a factory. I'm worn out after work. I also have adhd, anxiety and depression. Learning game dev and working on my day is a struggle. Life is hard. And doing everything you need to do takes up time. I been working on my up days and learn what I can on my lows

[@Aarimous]

Sounds like your are doing the best you can with the hand you were delt. And that is all we can do. I'm glad to hear you are able to find some time to dedicate to game dev. Good luck learning to deal with your lows. That's something I still struggle with and am constantly needing to mange. Thanks for sharing your perspective.

[@nocturnaltruthseeker]

@Aarimous It's hard to accept but sometimes you can't do it all. Some days giving it all you can may only be just thinking of ideas or watching a tutorial or two. Just the act of getting on your computer and attempting to code is sometimes all you can do. And that's ok. You got this. Sometimes burn out takes years to recover from. Just know you have support from the community.

[@chaslinux]

Yes... for me it's not a whiteboard, but a post a Discord forum. As I make progress I add a bit of progress to the game's forum post, then map out a list of things that I want to get to. Some of those things fall off the list for awhile, only to reappear later. I sometimes find a few minutes at work (lunch) to do a bit of dev, but much of it happens after I'm pretty beat from a full day at work. There are some days when it just doesn't happen. Yesterday, for example, was one of those days where it seemed like it just wasn't meant to be (I ran into a tiling issue with the engine I'm using. Today a new beta came out that seems to have fixed the issue). Sadly, I tend to have more energy in the morning, so I really have to discipline myself to do some work in the evening. But it's also about balance, and that means not ignoring family/friends, on top of the little amount of time and energy you might have left... For me, the Discord group helps motivate me. Seeing the progress others are making helps motivate me to continue working on projects.

[@Aarimous]

Thanks for sharing! I try so hard to get up early and do game dev before work, but that goes it wave. This week has been good to my getting up 1-2 hours before. But gosh, it's so hard. Thanks for sharing you process, means a lot and I find it very helpful to hear from others. Good luck!

[@ThomasStewartDev]

Wise words! I've found all of this to be true in my own life as well. This also makes me want to critically evaluate my relationship with alcohol. One thing I would add to keeping up mental health is surrounding myself in community. I know I will hit more frequent low points when I hermit myself, but being around friends and family always fills my cup!

[@Aarimous]

It's important to figure out the activities which fill your cup.

[@bigturtleworks]

Going completely sober is a great tip. In my experience even a single drink negatively affects my sleep which then hurts my energy and productivity the next day.

[@Aarimous]

I have forget what it's like to be hungover, but I was the biggest baby (back when I drank) and I would lose and entire Sunday due to being hungover. Now (writing this on a Sunday), I wake up and can spend the day being productive and my brain works. Thanks for sharing :)

[@Worldfire_Interactive]

Nice! I quit drinking 6 years ago, couldn’t imagine going back now. Besides the obvious benefits, I think that eliminating a bad habit requires exercising a really high level of self control that can benefit a person in succeeding elsewhere. It takes a lot of strength of will to conquer a bad habit! The energy thing is real. What makes it even more difficult is if I muster the strength to get to dev work, I don’t want to stop haha. I’ve got to draw the line at what I want to achieve early, otherwise it might mean a lack of sleep which leads to less energy and the cycle repeats. Sleep is very important.

[@Aarimous]

Congratulations and thanks for sharing. Once I started seeing the benefits it became a no brainer to not drink anymore. Likely one of the best choices I've made. Good luck on your projects and I look forward to seeing your updates in the Discord (assuming you profile pic here and discord is the same).

[@Worldfire_Interactive]

@@Aarimous yep, that’s me and see you there 😉

[@bioburden]

Very good video, as the majority of us tend to do this on the side as a hobby. Work + wife & kids makes it even harder for sure, then pair that with some actual hobbies that forcefully take me away from sitting in front of a screen - it can be tough.

[@collinvisser7108]

Good video - I struggle with this as well.- at my job we use a trello type system - I found haveing a system like that killed my game dev- now I use posted note in a book and scrunch them when done. I have yet to do a big project with this.

[@Aarimous]

Agreed, I find Trello and Jira are very helpful for large teams. But for my game dev hobby is a free space where I get to do what I want when I want. And I've found that those tight planning methods just end up getting ignored and never updated. Now, I do think there is value in the activity of thinking through and writing down that sort of todo list. So I will likely still make those boards, but for day to day planning the simple ToDo list is all I need. Cheers, and thanks for sharing :)

[@mattg1345]

What package was used for the dev board you briefly showed in the video ?

[@Aarimous]

www.notion.so/

[@CamTheMan49623]

I'm wanting to learn how to create video games as a hobby. What coding language do you recommend learning first? What language do you use?

[@Aarimous]

I use the Godot Game Engine which uses GDScript. It is very similar to Python. If you are looking for a tutorial here you go:kzbin.info/www/bejne/sIbIfZipmbFqoqc&ab_channel=HeartBeast Good luck, I've found the soft skills like I talked about in this video are far more important to me than the engine or programming language. Thanks for watching :)

[@CamTheMan49623]

Thanks.

[@phealy3330]

I like white board + post it notes myself, it is unreasonably effective for the simplicity

[@Aarimous]

100% Sometimes the simplest solution is just the best. Cheers!

[@tnstune]

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[@stephenharperisgay]

Mood. I use gamedev as en excuse to not drink. But then reading my own code makes me need a drink. (Kidding, kinda) But unironically, sitting in a chair sedentary for hours on end zooted on black coffee is still healthier than getting shit faced.

[@Aarimous]

True! I lost like 10 pounds when I stopped drinking. Good luck with your game dev journey and thanks for sharing :)

[@madaraainna]

So, he FAILED as a full-time solo game dev.

[@Aarimous]

It all depends on you definition of failure. I don't view last years as a failure, instead it was one of the best years of my life and something I will do again, but this time with more of a business plan. Good luck on your journey. Cheers!

[@tnstune]

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