/agdg/ - Amateur Game Development General

Turn off your internet connection and uninstall steam

motivation a shit

discipline is where it's at

>>21606

This. I do pushups, yoga, and meditation daily. I try to eat fresh veggies and fruit. Drink water and tea, no soda and no diet soda. Take a multivitamin. Shower. Brush your teeth.

Take care of yourself. :)

>>21587

Well, i can't speak for other people, but deving is actually a lot of fun for me. Once i dev on something i do it for hours straight. The biggest problem is always starting to work, like the moment you have to jump in cold water, but once you are in for a minute, it is okay. I often trick myself to work by learning something new, for example i have a 3d model which needs certain work to finish, so i learn more about how to do it, and because i want to try it out, i automatically start to work on the 3d model, and once i started to work i have no problem to keep working.

What >>21617 says is also very useful, because of routine + discipline i actually do sports. It is also useful to have like a alarm clock that reminds you of what you wanted to do at a certain time, or tell someone "hey i am going to do this today, i will show you later", so basically you force yourself to do something because else you would be a faggot who can't keep up what he is promising to other people, actually with that technique i got myself to take a friend to a fitness center and started doing sports with him.

I am probably the laziest person alive, so if this shit works on me it should work on anyone.

It's not the motivation you're missing, it's the will.

I use a self-discipline rule system that motivates me to do stuff. In short: doing specific tasks gives me imaginary coins, and I can spend these coins on rewards.

For example, in my case, possible tasks are:

- Spend 30 minutes game devving

- Practice drawing for 30 minutes

- Meditate for 20 minutes

- Practice playing the piano for 30 minutes

I keep a log of which tasks I do each day.

These tasks give me coins the following ways:

- If I do at least 9 tasks in 3 days, I get a coin

- If I do at least 5 tasks in a single day, I get another coin

I can spend these coins on specific rewards, for example a can of soda, bag of candy, chips, watching porn, watching chinese cartoons, etc.

This system usually motivates me to do at least 3 tasks a day.

I review how well the system is working every 2 weeks, sometimes I make changes (e.g. making certain tasks easier/harder, or changing the rewards). Then I write down my new rules for the next weeks.

Let me tall you from experience:

1. don't give up

2. don't give up

3. don't give up

4. PAIN (because nogaem)

5. immediate action to relief pain (making game)

6. don't give up

7. don't give up

8. don't give up

9. ???

10. game

>>21663

>PAIN (because nogaem)

It's not our fault that you bought a PS4.

>>21587

I imagine the cold embrace of the grave aka an office job, that usually kicks my ass back into gear.

There are some people in life who are naturally intrinsically motivated. That means they'll just get up, and do whatever it is that they're passionate about doing, and they will never, ever stop, like a fucking automaton.

I'm guessing you're not that type, however. It's fine, few people are. For me, it's about setting deadlines. I pretend that I actually have a boss to report to, and if I don't cough up my weekly deliverables, I'm fired. It's all complete fiction, yet somehow it helps. Most of the time, anyway. It's different from person to person, so try as many things as possible. That's the only way to find a solution fast.

Also as >>21617 said, it helps to be disciplined, and do some exercise. It will work wonders for your health and energy. Getting motivated is hard when you barely have the energy to crawl out of bed in the mornings.

>>21635

>rewards

>for example a can of soda, bag of candy, chips

Rewarding yourself with junk food is not a good idea

Break things down into the smallest pieces possible. Focus on getting one tiny thing done at a time. And aim to get at least one thing done every day. You don't need to get entire systems implemented in hours.

You need to know how to plan out your project. This is one of the most important steps to actually getting anything done. Programming experience helps. Write out some documentation and flow charts of some general game concepts. Think about how you would go about implementing them, starting from the first step and then do it, not moving past the first step until it's complete. Get tiny pieces implemented and working, focus on improving and refactoring them later. Deadlines are secondary to solid feature implementation.

You need to estimate the cost that you will incur, time or money, from things like assets.

Use version control and commit whenever you reach a checkpoint. For small games, bitbucket is a usable option. For anything >2gb look into perforce.

Use visual studio's task list or emacs org mode or some similar task list tool. Check things off as you go.

That's about all for this post, any questions feel free to ask.

>>21587

Here is what I did.

Think up a completely dumb idea for a game, so dumb you can't even take it seriously. Then, pick a method for making the game based on your current abilities. Then, make the game. Don't take the project seriously, just have fun with it. It's just for practice to get something done. Surprisingly, a lot of really good games have been created this way.

Save your really good ideas for when you have a few games under your belt and know what you're doing.

>>21587

I spend 8 hours at work not enjoying what I do and dreaming of doing agdg when I get home.

If I don't want to spend my life as a cubicle serf, I gotta get off my ass and get productive. It's that simple.

>>22161

If I remember correctly, this was the development process behind Binding of Isaac.

MOTIVATION IS A FUCKING LIE

YOU NEVER RELY ON MOTIVATION

IT'S CALLED DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE, DISCIPLINE

YOU FORCE YOURSELF TO DO SHIT UNTIL YOU BECOME GOOD AT IT AND START TO ENJOY IT

IF, HOWEVER, WHEN YOU BECOME GOOD AT IT AND YOU'RE STILL NOT ENJOYING IT, TAKE A PAUSE AND THINK WHAT YOUR INTERESTS ACTUALLY ARE, WHAT DO YOU ENJOY

I find it hard to make myself do certain things too even though I enjoy them

But I have this problem with everything and am barely functioning as a person, so there's that

maybe the next set of pills will help :^)

I stay motivated with microprogress. I still think of myself as an amateur, so whenever I make something I think "wow, me, a lowly dev, was able to [...]" so Im always feeling like Im accomplishing something. The downside to it is that progress is very superficial, and I dont invest enough time in the underlying systems, which has no immediate payoff. So while things go fast at first, later on it takes too long to polish a component because it wasn't designed well, so I rip it up and rebuild it "properly" which is a giant waste of time.

But yeah, my motivation come from microprogress.

I stop jacking off.

When I go a few days without beating off, I get way more done.

>>22838

This is interesting. I've heard stories that your testosterone levels increase when you haven't orgasmed in awhile. So you get very horny but also very active. It becomes more and more difficult not to fap the longer you go as a result.

But you get puuuuuuumped, too.

>>22838

Same here. I also find pushups and daily walking also increase testosterone and help me get more done. Yoga and meditation help balance it out, keep me feeling good, clear headed, able to focus.

Come check out /yoga/ sometime. :^)

I find myself most motivated when working with a partner on a regular schedule. I can rationalize not doing something or quitting prematurely quite easily if I'm the only one I have to convince.