Taiji Game Development Log #52 - Music To My Earholes

[@SakosTechSpot]

Such a chill soundtrack, I love it! How did you decide to take on such an endeavor? It's a huge commitment you made to this and it's coming along great! I only ask because I have trouble seeing a project through. Although I've been working on an app for about a year and a half now so I got that going for me. How do you manage burnout and getting "bored" of the project as much as you love it?

[@mvandevander]

Yeah, hmm... I don't think I ever really decided to take on the endeavor of making a game for 7+ years. It was initially envisioned as a small project, but it slowly grew and I just sort of kept working on it. I think, as stupid as it sounds, that's sort of the key to sticking with anything. To stick with it you have to stop thinking about it like "I need to finish this thing!", and more just like a thing that you do each day during your working hours. As far as managing burnout, I do have a separate devlog video about this, but I'll try to summarize here. The main things that I've done to manage burnout is to be less hard on myself and give myself breaks. This is maybe not a strategy that works for everybody, because maybe some people really are just too lazy and the solution is that they need to be harder on themselves and work harder. But on my last project, I spent 3 years overworking. I would work 14 hours a day every day even if I didn't feel like it. Eventually the project collapsed and I was so burnt out that I couldn't work at all for around a year, even when I wanted to. And for the next couple years, I could only really focus for a few hours before I would feel dizzy. Honestly, I've never fully recovered from that, and my best days now are about as productive as my average days then. And as for getting bored or tired, this is something I struggled with a lot as the game has gotten closer to release. I started to get antsy and really eager to be done with things. Some of this is good because the game needs to be released soon, and it's never really going to be perfect. I have a perfectionist streak, so I knew it was important for me to start making hard decisions about what things just aren't getting done. But, at the same time, I used this as an excuse to be lazy. I told myself that I was "tired", and that I shouldn't improve certain things because I'm tired. This was a mistake, as the tired feeling is just a story I told myself. Although I haven't been meditating regularly in a long time, this is the type of thing that I've only really gotten insight into from time spent meditating. The entire concept that "I'm tired of working on this thing because I've been working on it for 7+ years" is just a fiction. I mean, it's true on one level of analysis, but it doesn't mean anything about NOW. It's actually good that I worked on it for 7+ years, because the thing wouldn't exist at all if I didn't. The reality was that part of me just wanted to be lazy and another part of me was providing an excuse. Not only did I need to ship the game soon, but I'm SO TIRED! Anyway, I've turned this into a novel here, but I hope that it was helpful or at least entertaining. :D

[@therealdyer]

You've got our support Matthew! Do whatever you need to to support your own health, and be sure to take a well-earned break when you're done. Travel the world and we'll all put you up in each country.

[@OLP2000]

Inspired by the witness even in development Time. 😀

[@OLP2000]

Art, music, the smooth transitions, All really nice!

[@rtepadnaj]

Thank you for the latest update, I was chechking on your channel every Saturday since last Taiji update. Well done indeed, music is amazing, so calm and relaxing. I hope there will be a musical score available also outside the game. I would certainly buy it.

[@mvandevander]

Thanks, and apologies for not having updates more regularly. I just decided that it was better to not do the devlogs than to try to do them without anything to bring to the table. Yeah, plan is to make a purchasable soundtrack at some point. :)

[@fleaspoon]

Woah its looking great

[@OLP2000]

Are you considering releasing it on epic or any other platform. I'll gladly buy it on the platform that gives developers he most share.

[@mvandevander]

There will probably be a Steam and Itch version at launch. Epic really depends on if I ever hear back from Epic.

[@jockohomosexual]

Hey Matt! I've been following this devlog for a long long time, and it's been a thrill following you develop this beauty over the past year or two!!! I'm a video essayist who wants to get deeper into video game analysis, one who's always wanted to do one for the witness if it wasn't for the millions of other videos on that game.. If you're interested, I'd love to be able to get a demo copy to possibly analyze it and do a little review when it's released! If not it's ok, I'm very excited to see this all come together!

[@mvandevander]

Yeah. I’m handling most of the requests through Keymailer, and you can find the link on this page: taiji-game.com/press-kit/ If keymailer doesn’t work for you then you can use the form at the very bottom of that page to email me and I’ll get you a key that way.

[@jockohomosexual]

@@mvandevander Thank you so much! I created a keymailer account just in case, but I also contacted you through email as well, since it'll probably take a while to get verified. Big thanks for responding, excited for the game :D