The Most Overlooked Part of Game Dev

We often think about game dev as just the process of making games, but it's more than just that. You need to consider everything that surrounds it to set yourself up for success and in this video, I talk about one of the most important aspects of game development that no one speaks out about.

[@supericeg5913]

It's really quite strange how easily one brushes this off as trivial or unimportant. I too need to work on myself more so my super productive coding sessions are no longer random. Using a notebook is a nice touch, I guess it makes you take your ideas more seriously if you're writing them down on real paper.

[@m0rtal803]

It's great to see you are determined to apply something like this in your own life! I've heard people suggesting writing down on paper here and there, but it seems to have a much greater effect on me than others as opposed to a digital form on organizing.

[@UltimateEpicThing]

I have always known about how I get distracted easily and often forget about working on my games, even with my motivation draining because of those distractions I appreciate the message you tried to convey with this video, and I know at some point I will have to make a stable schedule Thank you

[@m0rtal803]

Thank you for your comment! My suggestion would be to make that "at some point" right now. If you've got some really important stuff to do in your life, of course, prioritize them, but it isn't very difficult to start building a stable schedule. You can write a rough outline down somewhere and you will develop it in time. I don't think you should be too strict with it in the beginning, as that will make it difficult to stick to. If you've got your mind in the right place, improvement comes fast. Good luck in your journey!

[@logval]

this is an underrated gem. I'm not even a game developer (i burn out before finishing) but this would help me with EVERYTHING i do. thank you!!

[@m0rtal803]

Thank you for taking time to write a comment! I'm glad this video was succesful in what it set out to do: help people.

[@sushiman_]

I hope i can come back to this video month or years later and comment a big thank you

[@m0rtal803]

I hope so as well!

[@dmangamesSTUDIO]

Basically, live better = code better. I enjoyed the video, keep it up!

[@m0rtal803]

Exactly!

[@kobsboy4227]

thank u for ur wise knowledge. also need to try a standing desk

[@m0rtal803]

I haven't tried a standing desk myself yet, but I'll have to get one in the next couple of years for sure.

[@illdie314]

The contrast in your stories primarily seemed to emphasize having a well structured routine and plan for your dev process and life, and that separately benefitted the dev process and health. Health doesn't give you a notebook with a list of things to do, but it can make it easier to focus on and accomplish those things.

[@a6gitti]

Dope video. Im a indie game dev, father, worker etc. Much appreciated 🙏🏼

[@m0rtal803]

Glad you liked it!

[@Drakuba]

scenario 3: I wake up at 4:30, because at 5:10 i have a bus to catch. at 5:55 im at work, where i spend 8 hours (if im lucky, if unlucky 9 or 10). I (hopefully) get home before 15:00. I need to feast, therefore i cook something up quick. I watch youtube/anime untill i eat everything, its 16:30 if i was quick in making food. That gives me time untill 20:00 of either doing some gamedeving, watching a movie/more anime, playing helldivers or be social (ultra rare). I have to make a food tomorrow so i dont die at work of starvation, need to wash up, and be in the bed ideally before 20:30 so i can (hopefully) get 8 hours of sleep

[@m0rtal803]

Getting things done in game dev when you have a fulltime job or are in school is difficult for sure. I think it's probably easier for me with school since it's not as draining as 8 hours of work might be. The scenarios shed a light on fulltime game devs, which obviously gives you much more time. Thanks for sharing your experience with this and good luck with what you want to continue doing in life!

[@erichedenskog963]

Really liked the video :) Important to be reminded sometimes, you have definitely made me get to sleep earlier today at least!

[@m0rtal803]

Glad you liked it! Have a good night's rest and take on the world refreshed tomorrow!

[@Neue_Raptor]

Thanks my dude, I needed to hear this!

[@m0rtal803]

Thanks!

[@darkphinkwastaken3362]

Thank you bro, I have been learning c++ and I haven't been productive now I know why

[@m0rtal803]

I'm not sure if this is satirical or not.

[@darkphinkwastaken3362]

@@m0rtal803 it is love your vids

[@m0rtal803]

This comment being satirical would imply you not liking my videos, so I am confused.

[@brennenblanco7174]

Thank you very much for this video. I hope to see more videos from you in the future 🎮

[@m0rtal803]

Thank you for your comment! I'll be posting once a week and I'll make my videos as good as I can and try to improve them.

[@Toadsenburg]

Im not a game developer, but this is quite motivational and makes me want to improve myself.

[@m0rtal803]

That's great to hear!

[@whisterbin]

this is the second video in a row (entirely unrelated topics) where the creator has recommended atomic habits. hmmmm

[@m0rtal803]

You figured it out! I'm James Clear himself.

[@Gqrfield]

I get the point of the video, but the examples are terrible. You just made up different times it takes to implement things in a game. In the first example, implementing two features and fixing a bug takes up the entire day with just a 30 minute break for youtube and some eating and give details like "getting stuck on stackoverflow." Then in the second example, this person is just magically able to complete all of the tasks for the day in 3 hours including fixing bugs and is more accomplished. Having a healthier life style does not magically make you able to implement things faster and fix bugs without gettign suck on stackoverflow, this is normal things that happen. I think it would have been better if you made a more fair comparison, and rather than using strawman/exaggerating the differences, make it more realistic and focus rather on how a healthier lifestyle is when a person can deal with a problem in a healthier way than someone else. Deadlines can also be a thing, and it can sometime be difficult to lead a life with so much extra time like you gave the second example where all the code magically fixes itself.

[@m0rtal803]

I believe that if you live a healthier life you will be able to improve on your coding faster, which will make you a better developer. Once you are a better developer, you will be able to solve bugs and issues better and faster. I did exaggerate both examples in order to get my point straight, but I think living a healthier life gives you a significant advantage in this.

[@PomuLeafEveryday]

​@@m0rtal803 I disagree, I find that if I take a break I get distracted, impatient, and I don't get work done. All my best work has been done when I drink lots of coffee, late at night or early hours of the morning, on the verge of falling asleep. I don't why, but there's something about that "zone" where you're sleepy yet not sleeping that allows you to work without distractions, at the point of near obsession. Can't sleep until I get work done is a really good motivator sometimes, worked a lot for me during university with projects.

[@m0rtal803]

I don't see how your statement disagrees with my comment. I agree that taking lots of breaks will distract you from your work and that's why in my example there were only 2 blocks of work, separated by a slight break that was quite peaceful itself.

[@jadejauquet5011]

One hundred percent true. My productivity jumped so much when I started watching my food/meals and began working out multiple times a week. Great video. Keep it up, I'll be back. Cheers.

[@m0rtal803]

I'm happy to hear that it's working for you! Comments like this might push other people to take action even more. Thank You!

[@Enoa27]

Good video. Clear and concise speaking.

[@m0rtal803]

Thank you!

[@VinOnline]

I didn't realize how cookie-cutter my life was. How depressing.

[@m0rtal803]

Can you elaborate on this analogy? I don't quite get it.

[@BailyGameDev]

Your new most viewed video and it's only been 5 hours. Dang Bro! Keep it up!

[@m0rtal803]

Thanks for following my entire journey thus far! Yeah, this just kinda blew up (for my standards) out of nowhere. I expected it to be just another video with like 35 views in the first 24 hours, which slowly goes up to around 55, where it stops growing. Instead, I check my stats after about 30 minutes after I posted the video and I see 6 views. About half an hour later, I check to see that go up to 60. Now, the next morning, KZbin just put another 1 ahead of that. I'm grateful that his has happened and it is my responsibility to keep making videos, improve them each week and help more and more people.

[@BailyGameDev]

@@m0rtal803 Yeah that's crazy. I'm going to stay subbed and see where this takes you. I'm loving the content so far.

[@BailyGameDev]

@@m0rtal803 Tbh, I kinda want to start posting yt videos at some point. I'd want to post devlogy videos, and rn the game I'm working on isn't good enough for a devlog.

[@Stridenx]

This is so good.

[@m0rtal803]

Thank you!

[@loutrechan8332]

I have a hard time managing my worktime, I always either overwork or don't, that's why I always force myself to take time off with my friends, family and other things Also I do a planning of things to do

[@bikerboy3k]

Aha so working out and going on dates+eating vegetables prevents having to search on stack over flow and potentially never encountering bugs. Cool cool.

[@m0rtal803]

No, it doesn't prevent that, but the point I made is that the second guy would have less bugs, which he would fix fast. I didn't mention the bugs. Both of my stories were exaggerated for the purpose of getting my point straight. There will be issues and unproductive times whichever path you choose, but I believe that living a healthy life improves your work substantially. I don't think that's a wild claim.

[@precipire1025]

I see how you could get that impression from this but I think you're missing the bigger point. He's talking about organization and health. In day 1 there was no clear goal defined so he just played his game, came across a bug and then immediately went to try and fix it. The better approach, if the bug was not game breaking, is to document it and set aside time to fix the bug later. By not having a structure for your game with set goals a lot of what gets done during development are small tweaks and time wasting tasks. The health side is all about promoting a mindset that gets stuff done. Mental capacity, ability to learn and problem solving are heavily effected by what we eat, how we sleep and exercise. The social aspect is important for mental health which is just as important as physical health. So he's not saying you won't be searching stack overflow or dealing with bugs, but by organizing your time and looking after your health you can handle your projects in a much more productive way. Lmk if u need any further clarification!

[@bikerboy3k]

@@m0rtal803 generally speaking you're right yes.

[@modtyrant1784]

Good vid! Being healthy and having a diverse day helps the mind work. Don't deny your self a break, all work and no play makes you a dull creature.

[@m0rtal803]

Thanks! That's kinda what I was going for, yes.

[@Generic_Games]

Amazin video

[@igonatangi]

9 AM!? 6 AM!?!? I prefer 1 PM.

[@m0rtal803]

Sure, there's no issue with that as long as you sleep schedule is consistent., everyone works differently. I mentioned 6am and 10pm for the second guy to show he's waking up and sleeping at roughly the same time, not to say those are the best hours.

[@ivanstepanov4256]

1. Only half of the world are early birds. And even they do not live in vacuum: house chores, late appointments, noisy neighbors that just start loud parties at 10pm… You mentioned a date in the plan? Well, most restaurants just start to open by midnight. And then you’ll have a romantic night stroll by the river, and then, if you are lucky, follows a night together... Good luck for 6am! 2. And then one must not only get up at 6am, but immediately start a productive work. 3. And we’ll ignore that almost all the programmer world famously live on large amounts of coffee. It’s only because all of them are unhealthy, of course. And that typical developer is not at all an early bird, that’s a myth too. 4. Most of what “case 1” describes is called a procrastination. Whereas in “case 2” there is no procrastination because… he only eats salad? 5. In “case 1” he finds a bug that is difficult to resolve. Which leads to a scrambled day. In “case 2” there are no bugs: most of the work is done by 9am. Of course he’ll have plenty of time to do many nice things after that. Well, it is an obvious manipulation. 6. By the way, in “case 1” he has in fact 1.5 hours more. He could have time for a date, fitness AND for KZbin. But he procrastinates all this time because of a bug, how convenient. 7. Getting up at 9am is too late, and 7 hours of sleep is horribly unhealthy, has I understood you correctly? (yes, I see that you made it 6.5 hours to look worse).

[@m0rtal803]

1. I never said to wake up at 6:00am and go to bed at 10:00pm. I just showed a consistent sleep schedule that works for this guy. There are going to be other factors that influence the ability of one to maintain this, as you said, I just showed a day when there weren't such factors. I believe I gave plenty of time for the date (2:00pm - 7:00pm), but for sure, on some days you will have to sacrifice some productivity for your SO and I would make that choice with my eyes closed. 2. Yes, I think working first thing in the morning is a great thing. You don't have to do this, of course, if you don't want to, but I say you should at least give it a try and see how you like it. For me, it's helped me both with waking up and being productive in terms of my work. 3. I don't drink coffee and I am against it. I don't like the idea of being dependent on a substance to function properly. I see why some people drink it, but I would advise against it. I don't understand what you are trying to say by "And that typical developer is not at all an early bird, that’s a myth too." 4. Eating properly and exercising improve your mental and physical health, which in turn leads to less procrastination, yes. And no, the second guy does not only eat salad, I said healthy. Eating ONLY salad isn't healthy unless you are filling your salads with foods that don't usually go in salads. 5. The bug isn't what scrambles his day up, it's his mental health mostly. I exaggerated the extent to which the second guy works productively, I agree with that. My point was that he not only worked faster, but better, having a sharper mind. 6. I don't know what love you have for bugs, but the bug is not the reason for his procrastination. The main one is his mental health. Notice how I didn't mention him having a single human interaction, which is a really negative thing going on for this guy. Even though mental and physical health go together, I would consider mental health to have a way higher impact on your work and it is a thing everybody should prioritize to improve. 7. No, getting up at 9am is not too late. 6.5 hours of sleep works for some people. I tried to make his sleep schedule look inconsistent, but that isn't even the worst part of it. I had a whole paragraph as to how he's staying inside a dark room with 2 bright screens for hours on end. Then he goes to bed and falls asleep WHILE watching a video. Such heavy technology usage until the last second he goes to sleep is horrible for your sleep quality. As I said, it's not only about quantity, it's also about quality. I tried to answer as best as I could to all of your questions and some of them I consider to be valid. This is obviously an ideal day which won't always happen, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't strive for it. I gave exaggerated examples on both sides because I wanted to send my message straight. I used my examples for the core ideas that they show, not the individual actions in them. I didn't tell you to live like the guy in case 2, I just told you to consider using some of his methods and taking some of his advice. If you try it and don't like it, that's amazing, you're one step closer to finding your way of living in that particular area. Thank you for posting this comment and making me think about possible gaps in my stories! I will use your criticism to try to improve my future videos.

[@TheOneAndOnlyMart]

good video

[@m0rtal803]

Thank you!

[@N1ghtR1der666]

look I am sorry but who the heck is getting up at 9am! :D

[@m0rtal803]

At least 50% of people should be awake by 9am in my eyes. You can wake up at any time you want, what's important is to have a somewhat consistent schedule and have high quality sleep.

[@Proxy720]

REAL

[@svenmify]

Searching stack overflow for hours? Someone is living in the past, chat gpt and copilot are a thing now

[@svenmify]

Also, if you procrastinate that much, you’re probably working on the wrong project. I’m a terrible procrastinator, but if I’m passionate about a project, all I do is work. If you’re wasting time reading books and working out, time to find a better project to work on.

[@m0rtal803]

Since when is reading and working out a waste of time? It's great to be passionate about something, but working non-stop isn't always the most productive thing.

[@kdizzy07]

Sorry but you're delusional if you think you can implement "flying", "wall jump" and "Cosmetics" in 1 day. Unless you have a VERY primitive pixel game or you take prebuilt store assets there's no way. Also I love the sneaky way you replaced "Add 5 new levels" with "Put 2 obstacles in 4 existing levels". I get what you're saying but you're not a good communicator if you have to invent an unrealistic scenario to "sell it".

[@m0rtal803]

I didn't take the assets into account, just the features. I didn't say the guy finished cosmetics, just started it. And for the rest, it's possible. What I meant by 4 levels with the 2 new obstacles is that one of the 5 new levels was made with the previous obstacles. I think the scenario is slightly exaggerated, but certainly not unrealistic. I am not able to have such a productive day, but considering I'm pretty early into my journey, it seems likely I will be able to reach that point in a year or two.

[@flash1652]

I know you are trying to give a good message and I agree with your message even, but this video is so biased it's insane. You basically said: Yeah you implement 2 new features that are decently complex with no issues and bugs in 1 hour, then you create 5 levels in your game which took 12 minutes each, in another hour, then you solve 2 bugs in 30 minutes... What? No one ever works that fast. It's literally not possible. I thought that was gonna be the twist in the video: "It's good to be planned but it's okay to be the first guy because some days are like that" or something, but I was surprised you were unironically saying being the 2nd guy is possible.

[@m0rtal803]

I wasn't trying to be extra specific and I certianly think what the second guy did is possible. I assumed he's already had experience with flying and wall jumping mechanics, which is why he got them done. Also, I considered the levels to be pretty short. I can definitely see your point, not all days will be like that, but I wanted to exagerate both scenarios in order to show what health has to do with it. I gave examples, I didn't try to be extra specific, which maybe I should've mentioned.