NO MORE EXCUSES!

[Not_Sure]

After several years of trying I’ve decided that this is it for me.

I’ve been struggling finding time to work on game design on and off for years now and I’ve always let projects fall apart when I get washed up in 60+ hour work weeks and a constant stream of social demands.

All I’ve ever wanted to do was make games and all I’ve wanted for the last five years is to make video games to raise money for abused children charities. But after what must be well over 5,000 hours of learning, hundreds of false starts and dead ends, and thousands of dollars spent on assets it’s time I either start releasing stuff or walk away.

I love doing it but I just can’t keep spinning my tires in the mud getting no where.

And as it so happens life has given me a real good cold hard moment to consider where things are going.

Today is my 35th birthday.

Literally no one but my wife has said one word about it and I’m realizing that my social life is in shambles and there are very little people who care about me.

At work I’ve gone as far as I ever will with my limited educational opportunities and will be stuck bellow the poverty line my whole life if I continue things as they are.

And on Friday I’m going in for a very serious surgery that (if all goes well) is going to leave me bed ridden for weeks.

I’ve decided that during those two weeks I am going to do nothing but try to finish Bravely Bear.

If I can not do this one thing I am going to cut my losses and walk away from game design. Something needs to give and this is a critical moment in my life that I need to make that change one way or the other.

For those of you who have helped me over the years thank you so much and I can not understate how much what you do for people on these forums means to others.

But this is not a pity party thread.

Over the next few days I am going to outline my progress to stay on course and stay motivated. Each day I plan on drafting a schedule and checking off the boxes as the game moves towards being published.

More to come.

[Meltdown]

All the best with the surgery, hope it goes well.

We expect a link to a build in two weeks

[Ironmax]

Don’t give up. I hope everything will go ok for you. Just believe in your project and your self. what i seen from your projects your on right track on things. Game development takes time, but in the end its worth it. Its like building a house, once buildt any one can enter it. Happy birthday, positive thoughts from me to you.

[hippocoder]

@Not_Sure

Literally no one but my wife has said one word about it and I’m realizing that my social life is in shambles and there are very little people who care about me.

Sounds pretty normal actually. I think people have this hollywood ideal of what life is, and when they realise that doesn’t happen for them -when they want it- they feel a failure. That’s not true. Life will have shitty bits and good bits. It’s not your fault.

[Billy4184]

@Not_Sure

After several years of trying I’ve decided that this is it for me.

I’ve been struggling finding time to work on game design on and off for years now and I’ve always let projects fall apart when I get washed up in 60+ hour work weeks and a constant stream of social demands.

All I’ve ever wanted to do was make games and all I’ve wanted for the last five years is to make video games to raise money for abused children charities. But after what must be well over 5,000 hours of learning, hundreds of false starts and dead ends, and thousands of dollars spent on assets it’s time I either start releasing stuff or walk away.

I love doing it but I just can’t keep spinning my tires in the mud getting no where.

And as it so happens life has given me a real good cold hard moment to consider where things are going.

Today is my 35th birthday.

Literally no one but my wife has said one word about it and I’m realizing that my social life is in shambles and there are very little people who care about me.

At work I’ve gone as far as I ever will with my limited educational opportunities and will be stuck bellow the poverty line my whole life if I continue things as they are.

And on Friday I’m going in for a very serious surgery that (if all goes well) is going to leave me bed ridden for weeks.

I’ve decided that during those two weeks I am going to do nothing but try to finish Bravely Bear.

If I can not do this one thing I am going to cut my losses and walk away from game design. Something needs to give and this is a critical moment in my life that I need to make that change one way or the other.

For those of you who have helped me over the years thank you so much and I can not understate how much what you do for people on these forums means to others.

But this is not a pity party thread.

Over the next few days I am going to outline my progress to stay on course and stay motivated. Each day I plan on drafting a schedule and checking off the boxes as the game moves towards being published.

More to come.

All I can say is, get a prototype finished and get it out there. There’s nothing that kills projects faster that the stone-cold tomb of your hard drive. If you want people to notice you as a developer, you need to start putting stuff out and making noise.

[Kiwasi]

Happy Birthday.

I care about you.

[Martin_H]

@hippocoder

Sounds pretty normal actually. I think people have this hollywood ideal of what life is, and when they realise that doesn’t happen for them -when they want it- they feel a failure. That’s not true. Life will have shitty bits and good bits. It’s not your fault.

Very true.

@Not_Sure

After several years of trying I’ve decided that this is it for me.

I’ve been struggling finding time to work on game design on and off for years now and I’ve always let projects fall apart when I get washed up in 60+ hour work weeks and a constant stream of social demands.

All I’ve ever wanted to do was make games and all I’ve wanted for the last five years is to make video games to raise money for abused children charities. But after what must be well over 5,000 hours of learning, hundreds of false starts and dead ends, and thousands of dollars spent on assets it’s time I either start releasing stuff or walk away.

I love doing it but I just can’t keep spinning my tires in the mud getting no where.

And as it so happens life has given me a real good cold hard moment to consider where things are going.

Today is my 35th birthday.

Literally no one but my wife has said one word about it and I’m realizing that my social life is in shambles and there are very little people who care about me.

At work I’ve gone as far as I ever will with my limited educational opportunities and will be stuck bellow the poverty line my whole life if I continue things as they are.

And on Friday I’m going in for a very serious surgery that (if all goes well) is going to leave me bed ridden for weeks.

I’ve decided that during those two weeks I am going to do nothing but try to finish Bravely Bear.

If I can not do this one thing I am going to cut my losses and walk away from game design. Something needs to give and this is a critical moment in my life that I need to make that change one way or the other.

For those of you who have helped me over the years thank you so much and I can not understate how much what you do for people on these forums means to others.

But this is not a pity party thread.

Over the next few days I am going to outline my progress to stay on course and stay motivated. Each day I plan on drafting a schedule and checking off the boxes as the game moves towards being published.

More to come.

Best of luck for your surgery and happy birthday!

I’ve had a super persistent cold for a few weeks recently and spent a lot of time in bed. I didn’t get sh!t done on my game. I think you shouldn’t beat yourself up if it turns out you can’t crunch out a game while you are recovering from friggin’ surgery. I really don’t wanna mess with your motivation because imho it’s one of the most important things to have, but that seems like a rather unhealthy expectation to make that time your “make-or-break-moment”. I’d focus on getting your health back first.

[yoonitee]

Happy birthday!

Good luck!

If you want to keep motivated one idea is to post a couple of minutes of YouTube footage of your progress or what your working on. The worst that will happen is none will see it and the best is you can get some subscribers and potential customers. Also, I want to see what this game looks like so far.

[Aiursrage2k]

I was thinking 2 weeks isnt enough time but if you can put 60 hours into your game per week you might get it done.

[Arowx]

MVP Minimum Viable Product, if you focus on the core of your game and just deliver the minimum at least you can say you have done it.

[Arowx]

@Aiursrage2k

I was thinking 2 weeks isnt enough time but if you can put 60 hours into your game per week you might get it done.

Nonsense check out Ludum Dare, some people are producing great little games in a weekend.

Actually less time can be a good thing as it cuts down on feature creep and limits you to the core of your game.

[Azmar]

Good luck with your surgery!

Maybe this is your enlightenment to finally reaching your goals! Could you share your wisdom / experiences with us on why you believe it hasn’t worked out so far so we can learn from it, or any general tips? 5,000 hours of knowledge is a lot to learn from, you are probably so close to releasing something great just need a new perspective.

[voltage]

@Not_Sure

All I’ve ever wanted to do was make games.

Something tells me you’ll come back to visit us no matter how this scenario goes. You can add me on facebook if you wish, I’ll pm you the link. Sometimes its hard having no friends with common interests. I’ve watched your threads as time goes by and I can tell you know what you’re doing. Hell, maybe we’ll even work together someday. No one said us forum dwellers can’t be buddies.

[system]

@Not_Sure

After several years of trying I’ve decided that this is it for me.

I’ve been struggling finding time to work on game design on and off for years now and I’ve always let projects fall apart when I get washed up in 60+ hour work weeks and a constant stream of social demands.

All I’ve ever wanted to do was make games and all I’ve wanted for the last five years is to make video games to raise money for abused children charities. But after what must be well over 5,000 hours of learning, hundreds of false starts and dead ends, and thousands of dollars spent on assets it’s time I either start releasing stuff or walk away.

I love doing it but I just can’t keep spinning my tires in the mud getting no where.

And as it so happens life has given me a real good cold hard moment to consider where things are going.

Today is my 35th birthday.

Literally no one but my wife has said one word about it and I’m realizing that my social life is in shambles and there are very little people who care about me.

At work I’ve gone as far as I ever will with my limited educational opportunities and will be stuck bellow the poverty line my whole life if I continue things as they are.

And on Friday I’m going in for a very serious surgery that (if all goes well) is going to leave me bed ridden for weeks.

I’ve decided that during those two weeks I am going to do nothing but try to finish Bravely Bear.

If I can not do this one thing I am going to cut my losses and walk away from game design. Something needs to give and this is a critical moment in my life that I need to make that change one way or the other.

For those of you who have helped me over the years thank you so much and I can not understate how much what you do for people on these forums means to others.

But this is not a pity party thread.

Over the next few days I am going to outline my progress to stay on course and stay motivated. Each day I plan on drafting a schedule and checking off the boxes as the game moves towards being published.

More to come.

Best of luck with your surgery… Hope it goes well and you come out feeling better…

As for the rest, well at least you figured it out whilst you’re still young. It annoy’s me when people say I’m 30 is it too late to start X? Forgetting the fact on a good run you’ll live your life another two times over and you’re pretty much just starting out on your journey. It doesn’t stop anyone who can be bothered to try…

So yeah, have a crack at the end goal… If it doesn’t work out, then you can spend a year focusing on sorting your life out (c’mon it’s a blip in the ocean really and worth it). Get out a bit and meet people, go back to Uni / specialise or even open a company, just do something else for a while. World’s your oyster chief and games will always be there, you can do it as a hobby at any point and if it’s becoming a negative aspect of your life then it’s easy to dump / move on. Glass half full and all that…

Also just to say, I doubt this is uncommon. It’s ridiculously simple to sink thousands of hours into research / how to’s / things you think you need and going off on wide tangents. Also stress, it’s odd what types of lethargy psychological stress can add to the simplest things… Like you can get stressed because you’re not working on your game (which you probably shouldn’t be working on it, you do need a break) then lethargic when you come to work on your game because you were stressed about not working on it…Which ends up in you not actually achieving much if anything…

If that made ANY sense at all.! Anyway, best of luck and it’s nice / honest / brave to share… Keep us updated.!

[Martin_H]

Like you can get stressed because you’re not working on your game (which you probably shouldn’t be working on it, you do need a break) then lethargic when you come to work on your game because you were stressed about not working on it…Which ends up in you not actually achieving much if anything…

That’s pretty much me for the past… years.

[hippocoder]

So Unity is actually creating an environment of mental illness and broken promises, shattered dreams and failing health. Unity KILLS PEOPLE! Why don’t people see the dangers?!*

*not really.

[LukeDawn]

Happy Birthday, and all the best with the surgery and recovery.

Keep on devving, Bravely Bear and other games are inside you waiting to get out. All the best

[Buhlaine]

Happy belated @Not_Sure ! Keep pushing forward, we are all here with you on your development journey!

@hippocoder

Unity KILLS PEOPLE! Why don’t people see the dangers?!*

Shhh you’re not supposed to tell people @hippocoder …

[Martin_H]

@hippocoder

So Unity is actually creating an environment of mental illness and broken promises, shattered dreams and failing health. Unity KILLS PEOPLE! Why don’t people see the dangers?!*

*not really.

From the Unity webpage:

Create games, connect with your audience, and achieve success
You can create any 2D or 3D game with Unity. You can make it with ease, you can make it highly-optimized and beautiful, and you can deploy it with a click to more platforms than you have fingers and toes. What’s more, you can use Unity’s integrated services to speed up your development process, optimize your game, connect with an audience, and achieve success.

Sorry, could not resist .

[imaginaryhuman_1]

Marketing blurb. “Can” doesn’t mean “will”.

Good luck on your surgery and game attempt, OP. Don’t be too hard on yourself. Set a goal but don’t come down on yourself with a ton of bricks if you don’t meet it.