How to make the most out of limited development time.

News & General Discussion
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I have a full-time job, family, responsibilities, etc. That said, I find about 1-3 hours per night to really work. Any strategies for making the most out of limited time?

As of now, I’m planning what I’m going to do in advance so when I start working, I know where to go. I just was wondering if anyone had any similar experiences, any techniques they evolved…

Thanks in advance

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Greetings Mister Selmo. As you know I face the same challenge of limited dev time. I think planning ahead and making using of previous work and other available resources are a big help. Beyond that identifying what the biggest bottleneck is and trying to solve that issue. For me the bottleneck has always been working on graphics. So I look for assets to buy and hired two artists. But if you know what the biggest bottleneck is then you may be able to find a solution for it.

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Goals. Written, un-erasable goals that take about 1-3 hours to complete. Do one a night, and cross it off when it’s done. This helps me so much. It keeps me from getting sidetracked. If I have a string of goals that aren’t crossed off, I know I need to rethink how I’m dividing up the work.

Or just slow down the planet and make days longer. :slight_smile:

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I think graphics are a huge bottle neck that’s why I won’t even do them until later in the development process… lol. I’ll have to look for anything else slowing me down but I definitely think reusing old stuff is going to be important in the future. I’m designing for future reuse do that’s probably slowing me down a little, but I plan on more than make up for it down the road by not having to redo the same stuff over and over.

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You know I think we should make a entire thread about how to slow down the planet and make days longer, given some of the threads lately I think that would be perfectly in line.

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The most helpful thing I’ve done so far is keeping a task list. A simple .txt file with no formatting, just line after line of things to do. Find a random bug while implementing something unrelated? Put it in the task list. Think of an awesome idea while brushing your teeth? Put it in the task list. Helps takes the burden off of trying to remember everything, and when you’re looking for the next thing to do after you finish something, there it is.

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Another great technique I think is stay away from these forums. I definitely spend too much time here. Gonna start working on cutting down the time. I just realized yesterday how much time I was wasting here. You might not be on quite as much though.

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I am during work, but I’m nowhere near a computer during the day.

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That’s exactly what I’m trying to do now.

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@BeefSupreme The task list idea is so simple it’s essential. I’m at the stage of development now that there are so many aspects of my code I could be working on it’s easy to get lost or unfocused. Looking over my task like over and over also helps to prioritise.

@GarBenjamin Staying away from forums. Yeah I need to be doing a lot more of that!

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just give up sleeping, there’s another 6-8 hrs right there! :wink:

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Like others have said before me. Using an agile like development style will help you out a lot. There is a reason why so many companies use it. Its because it works. If you only get 1-3 hours a night then you need to try and make tasks as small as possible. If a task will take you 20 hours, break it down. Keep breaking it down till you’re comfortable with the days load.

Example:
Create UI system. 50 hours.

just thinking about creating a ui system makes your brain explode and how it will take forever to make and who even knows if it will take 50 hours… UHHG!.. so lets break it down.

Example:
Create UI system. 50 hours.

  • Create start screen (includes design and implementation): 3 hours:
  • Create in-game UI: 30 hours
  • Create Player UI :10 hours
  • Create Item UI: 20 hours
  • Item UI design: 3 hours
  • Item to player Code: 5 hours
  • Item Code: 5 hours
  • Item 3d model design: 7 hours

… and so on.

This will give you smaller tasks you can focus on and complete instead of “make all the UI” which can leave you with code that may not even work after 50 hours of development time.

btw: these are estimates, don’t give yourself a hard time if it actually took you 12 hours to create the player UI.

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Avoiding forums is a good idea for more time.

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It’s funny, while I am in the middle of some task… trying to get something done, the last thing I want is a distraction like forums or something. When I finish something then it’s back to normal.

I’ve been unknowingly doing that “agile like” method up there, already. Slow n’ steady.

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Download the unity scripting api, and then turn off your internets :smile:

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Spend less time on this forum :slight_smile:

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procedural generation, maybe, if it doesn’t get too complicated.

otherwise minimalist graphics style.

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I get this question all the time from students/hobbyists/indies. I generally recommend:

DO:

  • Aim small. Don’t plan to make the next Skyrim or a game world that is massive. Yes, having a map that is 10+ Kilometres big is good for marketing strap-lines, but then you have to fill it with enough content to be entertaining/keep the player active. Aim for smaller, much more impactful environments. Monument Valley and Hotline Miami are great examples of small locations, but with lots of polish and detail in them.
  • Make a list of 10 things you need to get into your game to ship it; Audio, UI, Animation, etc. Then make sub-tasks for each list into things that are achievable in a few hours. Stuff like “Make a Pause Menu that turns on/off when you hit [p]”. Then make more sub-tasks such as “Make a toggle button, on that pause-menu, for all audio in the game”. It really helps your motivation when you work on your game for an hour and you have ticked off 10-15 small needed tasks from your to-do list.
  • Get your gameplay input/mechanics/elements in your game as early as possible, and play-test them with your target user. Download some free assets from the Asset Store to use as place-holder UI, Enemies, Weapons, whatever. For example: I put together a super quick prototype of a game’s core input, in an hour, and discovered through play-testing that the input was way too difficult and tricky for new users to adapt to. I was happy to lose an hour if I discovered that the one interaction my user would be doing wasn’t understandable. I then adapted it from there. Its no good working on a project for a couple of weeks, to make and polish it, and then discover that your target audience doesn’t like the core basis of it.
  • Pick 1 or two target platforms to begin with. It is incredibly rare for 1 game to target 9+ platforms from the start and try and fit into all of their specs, screen-sizes, input-styles etc. its also very tricky to juggle 9+ platforms by yourself.
  • Use Source Control. BitBucket is Free and Private (Up to 2Gb I think).
  • Get sleep and do other stuff than make your game.
  • Use as much procedural generation of content as possible. Randomise enemies, randomise environments, randomise audio. Anything to make your game look like it has more content than it actually has. :slight_smile:

DON’T

  • Aim for Realism. That stuff takes big teams, tons of money and hours and hours and hours of creation. Go for a much more stylized artstyle that doesn’t take as much resources to create.
  • Test your game on it’s target device, for the first time, the day before you plan to ship it. That is DOOMED for failure.
  • Make an MMO, unless you know what you are doing.
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Thanks.

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That’s a great advice, I’m in the same boat as the OP and I do most of your points (Minus the BitBucket but perhaps I should start).