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[Fallsburg]

My parents accidentally let my cat out of the house and we can't find him.  He is the least capable cat ever, and I'm pretty sure he's gone for good at this point.  I pretty much just want to curl up and die right now.

[Snail_Man]

I sort of feel bad posting here when people like framk have 'real' problems, but here goes.

First of all, I've always had a bit of a motivation problem. I find working on games fun, but only when I'm in a certain mindset. When I'm not, I literally can't get anything done. I usually end up staring at the screen for about 15 minutes, make a sprite, then quit.
I suppose at least on my current project, I can chock that up to my being in a particularly un-fun bit of the development (There is still a lot of fun stuff to do, but first I have to get an interface & UI working, and I generally loathe those parts and put them off until the last possible minute), but I'm always afraid that it won't get better, and I'll either be forced to give up and waste a perfectly good game idea, or I'll just slog through the development, and come out with a lackluster and unmotivated product.
Probably, the rest of my woes stem from the fact that I have a bit of an inferiority complex regarding my game dev tools. Primarily that I use Gamemaker as my main tool, rather than a 'real' language. I've attempted to learn other languages a few times, and usually given up a ways in. I did successfully get enough Javascript to be able to make basic games, but I dislike it as a primary tool, and use it only for small web games.

Bleugh, sorry for venting my first-world-esque problems, it just helps to get some of this stuff out there.

[framk]

I sort of feel bad posting here when people like framk have 'real' problems, but here goes.

I want to address this:

First off, things have gotten better for me since I made that post a while back. It was scary at first, but my life has more or less gotten back to a stable place.

Secondly, human suffering and misery is all relative. The whole idea of "first world problems" really pisses me off. Your problems are not invalidated just because you or someone else believes that someone else has it worse off. Things will get better, trust me, but that does not mean that your feelings do not matter in the moment.

I hope things improve for you, man. I've often struggled with motivational problems as well. The best advice I can give is to just work on small projects - or maybe work on ones that aren't your own. If you're working for a short time or for someone else's dream it is much harder to become discouraged.

Best of luck to you, man.

[Snail_Man]

I dislike that term as well, but I felt that I had to qualify that post, or I'd sound like a whiny idiot (To myself, at least).

Anyway, thanks for the support, and I'm glad to hear things have improved for you as well. 

[bombjack]

I've always had a bit of a motivation problem.

It's really hard to keep motivation all through a complete project.
The solution that worked for me is smaller objective. Go small step by small step and keep motivated for those smaller goals.

My parents accidentally let my cat out of the house and we can't find him.  He is the least capable cat ever, and I'm pretty sure he's gone for good at this point.  I pretty much just want to curl up and die right now.

Did the cat came back? One of my cats got away 15 days then came back so there's always a hope.

[Sik]

Secondly, human suffering and misery is all relative. The whole idea of "first world problems" really pisses me off. Your problems are not invalidated just because you or someone else believes that someone else has it worse off. Things will get better, trust me, but that does not mean that your feelings do not matter in the moment.

To be fair, this is probably a misuse of the phrase. The original meme was about people bitching about things that didn't matter (like complaining that you have to wait a couple of minutes when you order food or stuff like that). A motivation issue definitely doesn't fall under that category.

[rj]

girlfriend might lose her job bc her workplace might be shutting down

she has severe depression, anxiety, and ptsd from an alcoholic father which makes her go into total emotional self-immolation if i talk about alcohol or she sees or hears about me drinking so i have to keep any kind of that thing super downlow or else her night gets wrecked

and she lives two thousand miles away and has barely enough money to make it through each month, much less visit as often as we'd like

so that all sucks

also i think another one of my friends is afflicted with "nice guy" syndrome, so that's a fun interlude. also she's a lady, which makes it another can of worms because that's an unusual case that almost never happens + makes it a lot more sensitive

myself, i've got barely any cash and working on my game, much less anything, takes way more fortitude than should be necessary despite the ridiculous amount of responsibility i've got right now

i just ran out of food that wasn't yogurt or maruchan instant ramen and i have nothing to drink besides alcohol and coconut soda (which has gone flat) oh i guess i have peanut butter too

my wacom tablet kicked the bucket after four years so now i need to somehow find a way to get a new one lest i have no reasonable income stream; thankfully for the time being i can borrow a friend's but that won't last for very long

also i need to pee but i'm too lazy to move, so checkmate, life, i guess you win this match

[Impmaster]

So uh... I don't really feel like I need a hug, but I do have a problem. Anyone know how I can cure my raging addiction to competitive video games? It's affecting my schoolwork, my social life, and I don't really do anything in my free time but play games. Mainly hearthstone, atm. The problem is, I know I should stop, but I keep telling myself "just one more game". When I use software to block the games, I just feel hollow and empty. Maybe I should just delete them, but I wanna get to a reasonable level. Not go cold turkey, but maybe play like 1 hour a day, instead of the whole day.

[framk]

Are you still in school/college? If so, try to find an activity that you can do to slowly take up the normal time spent playing competitive games. For me, I used to play Rock Band competitively at quite a high rank (top 10 in the world on drums) and I just quit cold turkey one day. This tactic is not something I recommend. Most people who consider themselves or are considered by others addicts find the best course of action is to slowly ween yourself off of the thing you're addicted to. Quitting cold turkey like I did more often than not results in relapses that can make things even worse. Spend each day playing 10 minutes (or 1 game, [I have no idea how hearthstone works]) less each day. Over time you'll soon find that it's not something that you particularly crave in the same way you once did.

Anyhow, stay strong and best of luck, man.

[Impmaster]

Alright I think I'll try that then. Cold turkey wasn't working out for me anyways. Also, I'm a senior in high school, next year I'm going to go to college.

[framk]

Sorry I'm flooding this thread with replies, by the way, I just wanted to say something to you because you said you were a senior: I'm sure every college councilor in the fucking planet is telling you how important senior year is in terms of your ability to get into a good school, blah blah blah. They're not wrong. If you show that you can really buckle down and do well in school than you're more likely than not to get into a school you'll be happy with.

When you do go off into college, join a club - or maybe even two. Myself, I joined my school's game development club and met some of the most wonderful people that I still to this day work with. College is what you make of it, so don't spend all your time in your dorm room!

[Impmaster]

I very much know the importance of going to a good college, due to my strict parents constantly reminding me of the fact. My dad has always been the top at whatever he does, so he just wants me to do well as well. I'm already a fairly good student, with good scores in school and great SAT scores, but I know that if I buckled down and did more than just hearthstone, I would be a great student, and I'd have so much more time to make games and all these side projects I've always wanted to do but never started. (However, it means my hitting legend rank in hearthstone dream is gonna have to die... :p)

[Graham-]

Think of quitting an addiction as an enormous task. Your solution will be hard won.

So if you can make any improvement, go for it. Every little bit counts. One less game a week, one more bedtime on time, one more assignment done on the first day possible. The little things add up over time. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Game addiction is a serious thing.

[Geti]

Alarms to go to bed can be a very useful thing. Good luck kicking the habit.

[Praying Mantis]

Something I'd like to add, and I'm not sure how useful to you this may be to you, but try letting yourself get bored. The human mind comes up with the most interesting things when it has nothing else to do. I find it's very hard to get stuff done when the next dose of entertainment is never far, when we can essentially do whatever we want at will. This is so much so that going even a short while without something to do can be excruciating even though it shouldn't be.

What I like to do is set aside at least 1 hour a day in which I close my laptop and turn off my phone for an hour. The purpose of this is to make myself bored and see what I can do with that time. The rule I give myself is that I don't have to do something productive or useful, just spend some time doing something non-routine. Sometimes I'll just eat, lie on my bed, go for a walk, etc. But more often than not I'm drawn to doing something creative with that time, and I'll often find myself going beyond the allocated time of 1 hour because I become so engrossed in what I'm doing.

When I used to play games to the point of addiction, it felt like it was too hard to break the habit because it was comfortable to me and I was afraid of being bored. I found that breaking the normal routine helped immensely because the addiction made me feel trapped by my own compulsion. Also you don't necessarily have to spend an hour without electronics to do this, anything to break the routine will work; doing some freestyle writing, sitting somewhere else in the house, going for a walk somewhere, rearranging or cleaning your desk, falling asleep while listening to a podcast, etc.

TL;DR: Let yourself get bored.

[TSCtsk]

I think man-hug is an offensive term now, because if I remember correctly, we have a female now.


Also, I recommend not doing anything more then man-hugs, because if they're already feelin' down, and then they get emotionally manipulated...

You probably have more than one female, but I (as one) totally support manhugs!

[jiitype]

You answered a 7 year old post

[Sik]

From page 1... probably saw the NEW label and clicked it without realizing the entire thread was unread.

[Geti]

So my 3rd rental application so far has been declined. Would really like to move out of this place, towards the gym, my friends, and university, and have a little more room. Getting really ground down by the process of looking for a place I want, inspecting it, applying for it, waiting, and getting told there's someone better now.

Still, gotta keep looking.

[Tribune]

So my 3rd rental application so far has been declined. Would really like to move out of this place, towards the gym, my friends, and university, and have a little more room. Getting really ground down by the process of looking for a place I want, inspecting it, applying for it, waiting, and getting told there's someone better now.

Still, gotta keep looking.

I'm sure you'll what you want soon enough. If it's any consolation, I really liked the game you're making.  Keep up the good work!