next »

[yigitcan]

My question is for pals and gals who has a day job(except anything related to game/software development) and loves making games.

...HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH ALL THAT STRESS? I work for 5 hours at a cafe for summer, having maximum 15 minutes-break while working.I also try to make small arcade/puzzle/action games. But it's making me so tired that i sometimes fall asleep in front of computer, or get herp-a-derpy at cafe and forget orders while working.

I'm planning to quit my cafe day job and start working non-stop at game development while i can. In the middle of August, I'm going to halt all software/game development stuff, quit my job even if i don't quit right now and study for my university exam because i have to.

At least i will have a less stressful life by quitting my job. I don't have to work in the cafe since my family main income doesn't come from it(How can $1,4/hr be your main income LOL) and my family supports me in everything in any way.

So...if we come to my question, how do you deal with all that day job stress while developing games? Or you aren't addicted to development as i am?  

[Alevice]

I used to work 14 hours a day and still dedicate all my free non sleep-time to my projects. If you love what you do you will find a way.

[Kinaetron]

CAFFEINE  CAFFEINE IS YOUR FRIEND 

[yigitcan]

I used to work 14 hours a day and still dedicate all my free non sleep-time to my projects. If you love what you do you will find a way.

Holy hell, 14 hours. More than half of the day.
Can you tell me about your social life back then ? Just wondering.

[erebusman]

Its funny the way you asked your question ..

My question is for pals and gals who has a day job(except anything related to game/software development) and loves making games.

I'm going to make an assumption you meant that it is my day job to make the games.. which for me it is not!

So I work for a software development shop in my dayjob. Anything from 40-60 hours a week. But we make educational software.

Then I go home and work on my game development in my spare time.

How do I do it:
- reduce / eliminate distractions
   * canceled netflix
   * cancelled WoW / MMO subs
   * finish the game I've been playing and not start others
   * stop logging into social media constantly. IF necessary set a "two times a day" rule or something
   * stop watching TV (I haven't watched TV since about 1989)
- make time for real life & family
   * seriously set specific time aside so you are not ignoring your real life obligations, these come first!
   * getting serious about success means taking care of *all* sorts of obligations in life
- realize you are going to fail
   * you will fail to meet a goal somewhere along the line; your wife/parent/so will want you to spend the entire weekend doing something when you had a goal to program in the new Loot System!  ITS OKAY! Failure happens constantly; the only thing that matters about failing any goal in the long term is you got back to following your plan as soon as you practically can.  Some people use failure as an excuse to quit. "Oh darn I missed this goal, now I can't do it!"  
- always try to work when you can
  * there are nights you sit down and say "im too tired, I don't know if I can do this" ; that's okay.  But just give it 1 try.  I can't tell you how many times I just gave it 1 try and an hour and a half later I had done something very productive!
- allow yourself rest
  * study after study shows your brain works better, and learns more when it has rest.  Those synapses need time to form connections!  Get rest, schedule a bedtime and don't make it too late.  Sleep is incredibly important to your productivity. Don't skip it.
- do something else
  * it will come as a shock to some; but you may find yourself getting your most brilliant ideas and inspirations when you are NOT programming / working on your game.  Go on a walk! Grab a meal with your friends!  Even if inspiration doesn't come your brain does need to switch gears.  Sometimes you'll come back to your desk after having been stuck and all of a sudden you have the solution!  All you needed was to let your brain do its thing without interrupting it constantly by over using it
- allow breaks
 * take a 5-10 minute break every once in a while whether its once an hour or after you finish a 'task' whatever that means

Hope that helps, good luck!

[yigitcan]

Its funny the way you asked your question ..

My question is for pals and gals who has a day job(except anything related to game/software development) and loves making games.

I'm going to make an assumption you meant that it is my day job to make the games.. which for me it is not!

(...)

Noting everything in this list down. It looks like the best solution of my sleepless nights and tiring days.

[s0]

funny thing is, a shitty day job was actually what got me back into game dev (i'd been taking a break from it for 2 years before that). the job was completely mindless office drone bs and i needed a mentally stimulating hobby to pursue after work.

[Alevice]

I used to work 14 hours a day and still dedicate all my free non sleep-time to my projects. If you love what you do you will find a way.

Holy hell, 14 hours. More than half of the day.
Can you tell me about your social life back then ? Just wondering.

I had quite a  remarkably active social life, interestingly. Mostly with work mates outside work hours, admittedly, as those were the only ones available on such schedules.

[Snow]

How do I do it:
- reduce / eliminate distractions
   * canceled netflix
   * cancelled WoW / MMO subs
   * finish the game I've been playing and not start others
   * stop logging into social media constantly. IF necessary set a "two times a day" rule or something
   * stop watching TV (I haven't watched TV since about 1989)
- make time for real life & family
   * seriously set specific time aside so you are not ignoring your real life obligations, these come first!
   * getting serious about success means taking care of *all* sorts of obligations in life
- realize you are going to fail
   * you will fail to meet a goal somewhere along the line; your wife/parent/so will want you to spend the entire weekend doing something when you had a goal to program in the new Loot System!  ITS OKAY! Failure happens constantly; the only thing that matters about failing any goal in the long term is you got back to following your plan as soon as you practically can.  Some people use failure as an excuse to quit. "Oh darn I missed this goal, now I can't do it!"  
- always try to work when you can
  * there are nights you sit down and say "im too tired, I don't know if I can do this" ; that's okay.  But just give it 1 try.  I can't tell you how many times I just gave it 1 try and an hour and a half later I had done something very productive!
- allow yourself rest
  * study after study shows your brain works better, and learns more when it has rest.  Those synapses need time to form connections!  Get rest, schedule a bedtime and don't make it too late.  Sleep is incredibly important to your productivity. Don't skip it.
- do something else
  * it will come as a shock to some; but you may find yourself getting your most brilliant ideas and inspirations when you are NOT programming / working on your game.  Go on a walk! Grab a meal with your friends!  Even if inspiration doesn't come your brain does need to switch gears.  Sometimes you'll come back to your desk after having been stuck and all of a sudden you have the solution!  All you needed was to let your brain do its thing without interrupting it constantly by over using it
- allow breaks
 * take a 5-10 minute break every once in a while whether its once an hour or after you finish a 'task' whatever that means

Hope that helps, good luck!

This list is spot on.

I pretty much do the same thing as above, however, I have a difficult time because I have a family which takes up a lot of free time. They understand that I need time to work on my creative projects and leave me be when I need breaks.. well, except for one family member. At the moment we have a pretty demanding 3 year old who NEVER wants to go to sleep until past midnight. If I'm lucky I get maybe an hour or two a night to myself, but then I'm so exhausted that I really have a hard time pushing myself to get to work. Everyday I drag myself out of bed at 6:15am after usually only 5 hours of sleep, when I clearly need 8. By the middle of the week, as soon as I sit still I fall asleep.

I work as a support tech for a machining program in a post secondary school, so my work can be very physically demanding - which only further exhausts me. It's a good job actually and I'm grateful for it, however, if I had my choice, I would be at home working full time on my creative projects. This is why I too got bitten by the stupid app store bug and thought I could make some decent starter income with a 5 minute time waster app. I was hoping a few years ago, if I could just make enough to quit working, then I could get enough rest and release my full creative potential and do what I really want to do. At least I didn't make some shovelware piece of shit with clipart graphics. Ugh. I'm a story teller, writer, artist, game designer, plant addict (as in growing flowers, house plants and garden plants) and explorer. When I grew up, I not only walked through the woods daily, I was exploring everything.

Like I said, I'm grateful for my job, but I can't help but feel it robs me of the best hours of the day and it robs a lot of my creativity or at least opportunity to put in some creative work. There are of course alternatives. I could get a job where I might be able to bring a laptop to work and do some programming during dead hours. The only problem there is that most of those jobs here pay a lot lower. I wouldn't give up what I got at the moment unless I was sure that I was pulling in enough income. One of the best jobs I've ever had was working the help desk for a usually deserted computer room. All I had to do was help students in case they didn't know how to do something on a computer. Most that came in knew what to do, so I had days without once being needed. During that time I did all kinds of creative work.

[erebusman]

This list is spot on.

I pretty much do the same thing as above, however, I have a difficult time because I have a family which takes up a lot of free time. They understand that I need time to work on my creative projects and leave me be when I need breaks.. well, except for one family member. At the moment we have a pretty demanding 3 year old who NEVER wants to go to sleep until past midnight. If I'm lucky I get maybe an hour or two a night to myself, but then I'm so exhausted that I really have a hard time pushing myself to get to work. Everyday I drag myself out of bed at 6:15am after usually only 5 hours of sleep, when I clearly need 8. By the middle of the week, as soon as I sit still I fall asleep.

Hey I totally feel that! My son is 5 right now and every minute he is awake is a constant list of "look at me! look at me! look at this thing I drew!" etc. 

I set aside dedicated playtime with him every day, and also allow for lots of interruptions but if he's up and about its pretty hopeless to be able to do anything that requires concentration (even if we've agreed its 'dads time' lol).

[ryansumo]

Seems like Alevice is the outlier here.  14 hours makes my head spin just thinking about it.

Top notch advice from Erebusman.

My only additional advice is to try to structure your day as much as possible.  It seems that structure and repetition is boring but setting aside a specific time to do stuff (eg gamedev) and doing it on a regular basis helps you to focus on doing just that for a set amount of time.

As an example, I'm a freelance artist, and that means lots of opportunities for distraction (I'll be playing Eurpar Universalis IV in a few minutes in fact) so I set aside specific times to do things that I think are important for me or hobbies that I have.  Right now that means exercising at the gym after lunch on Thursdays or Fridays and doing Japanese lessons online Saturdays and Sundays.  If you stick to that schedule you will eventually build up a solid amount of time devoted to that hobby/gamedev, and you are emotionally incentivized not to break that chain of gamedev hours.

Good luck!

[ComRidley]

I've only recently been figuring out ways to balance my 10 hour a day job and gamedev on the side. I still have a lot of trouble because my job demands my time during the week, and my girlfriend on the weekends, but one thing I've been doing that really helps is to do fun work in the evenings during the week, and save the weekends for the boring, grind-y tasks that'd feel like punishment after a full day's work, instead of just being the grind that needs to be done.

Also my first post here on TIG! Yeee

[AKRansom]

I worn an early-morning shift at a large-scale warehouse. It's a horribly stupid job where I just move boxes from one place to another, and that's why I took it. I can think about my designs all day. Once I get home (and after a nap), my sheer hatred for my day-job fuels and inspires my coding/art/whatever needs to be done.

[Jungletoe]

Swim Practice 4AM-6AM
Classes 7AM-2PM
Swim Practice 2PM-6PM
Program til I pass out

I don't really see why it's so hard for some people. Then again, I don't have to worry about finances or anyone besides me.

[Richard Kain]

I work eight hours a day as a contractor on web development. It isn't even slightly stressful. If anything, my greatest enemy is monotony and boredom. And thankfully, there are usually enough podcasts to keep those threats at bay.

It can be a little challenging to motivate myself in the evenings to develop software. But normally once I've gotten myself started all of that melts away. I have a natural tendency to focus and work on tasks quite calmly, I just have to get myself going. This is a real strength for my personal development as well as my day job.

Because I'm a contractor, I get paid for every hour I work. If I work overtime, I get paid for it. There are drawbacks, but my personal circumstances mitigate most of those. On the whole I am quite comfortable with this arrangement, and very much enjoy getting to go home at 4:30-5:00 every day.

My day job prevents me from accelerating some of my personal game projects. But I'm fine with that. I'm not really in a hurry. The trade off of having stable employment that pays for my mortgage is well worth it.

[Ky.]

I work as a full time web developer professionally for a company known as Fortinet (read: non game dev). I also have a wife, and a (as of this writing) 1 year old daughter who keeps me busy day in and day out.

The fact is, if I'm not passing out trying to put my daughter to sleep, and if I'm not spending some family time with my wife (usually watching Netflix these days, after all: kid), and if I'm not also doing house hold upkeep and chores, and if I'm NOT working on an existing freelance opportunity for some extra help with some bills: I am trying to make video games.

It's a constant battle for free time to do this, sometimes I'm successful, most times I'm not.  And 99.9% of the time I do get a chance to sit down and focus on a project, its usually about 11PM or so. And by the time 12AM hits I'm usually yawning beyond self control and eventually give into the need to sleep.  When I combat that with Coffee or Rockstar Energy Drinks, I can usually last until 1AM  



I have a really simple android game project still on my plate, that I was commissioned to do months ago, that’s still sitting there, waiting to see the light of day.


But I keep doing it, because it's so much fun to do  

[Snow]

I work as a full time web developer professionally for a company known as Fortinet (read: non game dev). I also have a wife, and a (as of this writing) 1 year old daughter who keeps me busy day in and day out.

The fact is, if I'm not passing out trying to put my daughter to sleep, and if I'm not spending some family time with my wife (usually watching Netflix these days, after all: kid), and if I'm not also doing house hold upkeep and chores, and if I'm NOT working on an existing freelance opportunity for some extra help with some bills: I am trying to make video games.

It's a constant battle for free time to do this, sometimes I'm successful, most times I'm not.  And 99.9% of the time I do get a chance to sit down and focus on a project, its usually about 11PM or so. And by the time 12AM hits I'm usually yawning beyond self control and eventually give into the need to sleep.  When I combat that with Coffee or Rockstar Energy Drinks, I can usually last until 1AM  



I have a really simple android game project still on my plate, that I was commissioned to do months ago, that’s still sitting there, waiting to see the light of day.


But I keep doing it, because it's so much fun to do  

Yup. I can 110% relate to this. There were days when I was congratulating myself in getting a single 16x16 tile done.. then, *SNOOOOOORRRRE*.

[Belimoth]

CAFFEINE   CAFFEINE IS YOUR FRIEND  

1. Never watch TV again, and don't lie to yourself about mindless activities being stress release. If your job is mindless that's all the mindlessness you need in your life. Find ways to make your job MORE mindless in fact, never aim for promotion.

2. Find out when in your day you have the most thinking energy to spend and use that to make to-do lists for when you are a zombie.

[Glass_Ghost]

For me, because I am a single guy, I would devote pretty much my entire 2-day weekend to development.

I'm a morning person, it's just when I'm most productive and inspired. Put me in front of a computer screen to do work after coming home from an 8-hour work day and there's not way I'll get anything done!  Just can't do it, unfortunately :\

[Ky.]

I work as a full time web developer professionally for a company known as Fortinet (read: non game dev). I also have a wife, and a (as of this writing) 1 year old daughter who keeps me busy day in and day out.

The fact is, if I'm not passing out trying to put my daughter to sleep, and if I'm not spending some family time with my wife (usually watching Netflix these days, after all: kid), and if I'm not also doing house hold upkeep and chores, and if I'm NOT working on an existing freelance opportunity for some extra help with some bills: I am trying to make video games.

It's a constant battle for free time to do this, sometimes I'm successful, most times I'm not.  And 99.9% of the time I do get a chance to sit down and focus on a project, its usually about 11PM or so. And by the time 12AM hits I'm usually yawning beyond self control and eventually give into the need to sleep.  When I combat that with Coffee or Rockstar Energy Drinks, I can usually last until 1AM  



I have a really simple android game project still on my plate, that I was commissioned to do months ago, that’s still sitting there, waiting to see the light of day.


But I keep doing it, because it's so much fun to do  

Yup. I can 110% relate to this. There were days when I was congratulating myself in getting a single 16x16 tile done.. then, *SNOOOOOORRRRE*.

gawd, Right?! I was soo super stoked one night when I hurridly cranked out a UI and Dialog system for my current project. It was 4AM by the time I finished it, and caught crap from the wife for being stupid enough to pull that on a work night hahaha but oh so worth it

yay for little victories