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[Inanimate]

It's not as easy as just "getting over yourself", though.

And just because you think someone is an idiot (which I disagree with, but okay) does not give you the right to be disrespectful. There's no need to be insulting or rude to someone who has done you no harm. Especially if you're trying to get them to listen to your advice.

[Liosan]

I'm going to see if I can find someone to talk to for free because I am currently broke, but I will try to get some help.

I don't know what's your attidute towards this kind of thing, but if you need help and don't have any money then a nearby church could probably point you in a good direction. Just sayin, quietly.

Liosan

[Graham-]

It's tough knowing at which points you need to be tough on yourself, and at which points you have a deeper problem that needs more attention.

Mistaking one for the other, in either direction, is destructive. The trick is figuring out which problems are which.

[bento_smile]

I'm going to see if I can find someone to talk to for free because I am currently broke, but I will try to get some help. I'm in a really dark place right now, but maybe, just maybe, I can pull through. Thanks TIG, you guys are awesome and have always been here, I've gotten through a lot of problems by coming to this thread and hopefully ill get through this one too.

I don't know exactly how the situation is where you are, but there may be some mental health charities which can help with counselling. Sometimes these charities are tiny and local though. Your doctor or google may be able to help more. 

(I will contradict Danrul and say get it seen to NOW, or it can bite you in the arse when you're older. If you have to take/do whatever to push stuff away, trying antidepressants may help with the annoying tiny circular thoughts while you deal with the big proper issues which are depressing you.)

[Kramlack]

@Danrul: I'm pretty much shitting on my previous statement of "Humility and good will hardly get the point across a lot of the time", but I believe that each person handles realization of their problems differently. I'm sure you'll disagree with me on this considering you just compared your own problems with pixhead's, calling them "the exact same thing". So while I agree that in some cases, it's nice to have a wake up call from others by being told you're overly dramatic, I prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to mental issues specifically, especially since those kinds of tactics have never had a positive effect on me personally. I will totally agree with you on your third point about not eating random pills and self harm because you'll regret it later. Seriously @pixhead, cut that shit out and go out and get some help instead.

I don't think anyone here is "backpatting with sympathy and soft words" either, at least not in pixhead's case. I know I tried to make it fairly clear in my earlier post that I wouldn't bullshit it with the whole "things will get better" line, because I honestly don't believe they ever do, people just find ways of dealing with their issues. It seems like a lot of users here are throwing out legitimate ideas for help.

With that said, at this point in time I still wouldn't give any other advice then what I've already given and what others have said about seeking someone to communicate with, as well as socialaising more. There have been plenty of ideas discussed here about various ways to go about doing this and I'm sure more people will post other methods. Best of luck and again, keep us posted on the whole self help thing.

EDIT: I see you're from Ontario, I'd completely forgotten. We have free therapists at local health clinics that you can see (although it's by appointment only and our shitty healthcare system takes forever to get into). That's a thing you can do since you're strapped for cash though, so look into it.

[Dacke]

@pixhead:
Tell your friends and family about your problem! Tell your parents! Tell them now so that they can keep you safe!

[Nix]

Hugs. Angry drunks are the worst drunks.

[Conker534]

Already so much mental stress because of school. I really dislike the way things are going, was hoping my senior year would be a nice, peaceful year.  My school refuses to let this happen.

I was placed in Algebra 2, which wouldn't of been a big deal, but the last time I've seen algebra was 3 years ago, thanks to that I've forgotten the fundamentals. Explaining this to my teacher, she called my counselor, attempting to get me moved into an Algebra 1 class, and then taking Algebra 2. He refused right away, saying I need this class to get into a university. While that may be true, I have no way of passing a class, when I don't even understand what to do to begin with. I've had trouble with Math ever since I was a child, so this is not good. I just want to retake a class, so I don't fail :/

Also same story applies with Spanish 2, as I had a teacher who was so terrible that she created an appointment to talk to my father, then bailed on the appointment, and blamed my father for not setting up an appointment. (It was funny though, dad resent the email she sent to us, and she was embarrassed. Hahaha.)

Anyways my head is going to explode.

Ugh. At least its the last year of dreadful Highschool.

[ink.inc]

maths is important!!

hugs though

[Daniel Seabra]

Hugs! Try getting a volunteer tutor! Someone at your school might be willing to put in hours to help you. Talk to your teacher, and talk to your previous teachers that were nice to you - even the ones that weren't, because people help when you ask them to. Get a friend who'll actually help you do math. Those exist.

Good luck! And more hugs to you! Maths IS important, and you'll get through it!

[Blademasterbobo]

You could also use the net to brush up on your skills. There are ~200 trillion math tutorial / helper websites, not to mention the millions of youtube videos that go over specific math concepts. Or you could just order an algebra 1 book and go over it for a week or two. If you're not self-motivated enough to do any of that, then yeah, get a tutor or something.

[Tumetsu]

KhanAcademy might be able to help you. They have lots of free learning videos about Maths and other sciences.

[Manuel Magalhães]

Yeah, I tried KhanAcademy, and from my personal experience it's pretty cool. I knew of a similar service in the past, but it was paid only (and for each subject), while this is completely free.
 
Either way, hugs Conker. Aside from KhanAcademy try to find a volunteer tutor or a classmate that can help you, and always believe in yourself to get through this, school can be quite stressing sometimes.

And to quote Parappa the Rapper: "You gotta believe it!".

[Shackhal]

Try to read some algebra books and check the basics. It could refresh your memory. I always do that when I don't remember what I have to do.

Hugs to you, Conker...

"And the force be with you"

[Daniel Seabra]

Not quite on par with all of you guys' problems, but I need to unload a bit so here goes.

I've become disillusioned a bit with the game I've been making for two years. I believe, and so do other people, that the game is fun, and I've enjoyed watching people's faces betray their emotions of anxiety, frustration, happiness, whatever, when playing it. Most importantly, I laugh and have fun while playing it, and that was what drove to start making it in the first place.

However, I don't think I have the skill to design the game, to put it all together. What I have right now is essentially a very smooth, polished prototype - a mechanic with 40 pretty cool, challenging levels, but no story, no sounds, no cohesiveness, so to speak. I'm mostly a programmer, and I dabble in pixel art, and I can sort of put some levels together if I try, but rounding-off the edges of a game, creating a branching narrative (which I do have the ability to do with my engine, now), uniting the entire thing into one experience - I have no experience nor talent in the area, I don't think.

When I ask for feedback on how to improve the game people don't tend to offer design suggestions. I've gotten, "fix this bug here," "improve the graphics," "add some sound effects," and etcetera, which are fine suggestions, and things I can certainly do, but it feels like whenever people try the game they stop about halfway through because they fail to see what I want the game to be - by no fault of theirs, since I haven't been able to shape the game in the direction I want.

I added all these (to me, cool) things, like being able to program your own things into the game through a mod interface, and texture packs, and so forth, but it feels like nobody cares because I'm still the only one changing anything. Why have mods if I can actually work with the source code, you know? And I don't blame other people, it's just that I wish I could give them something that they would want to mod, and that they would have fun with, and I don't seem to be able to do that.

And so I've been putting working on my game off for a while, and I've even started working on mockup art for another game, because art is really cool in that I can just draw it and people will say, "Oh, good job, I can see myself playing this," and I don't have to do any design, story, or whatever that I can't seem to do. I really want to finish my game, but I just don't know what to do anymore. It's like the game feels finished but it's not done. I've tried making a feedback thread here and elsewhere and I've gotten some good responses, but I feel like none of that will make anyone want to play the game more, which is essentially what I want. I want people to play it and like it and share it with their friends.

It's not my first long project. I've worked on games this long before. But this time it feels like I can never finish, and it almost makes me not want to even start making another game either, because what if I spend a long time on that too, but am also unable to finish it? May be just a phase, but I almost feel like I want to stop making games. I feel terrible, since it's been something I've always liked from the beginning - both the good times and the wild crazy bugs that I've still not been able to fix and the weird programming errors caused by using a > instead of a <. I don't know.

Summary: Writer's block, but for games. First time it's happened to me, and I'm a bit depressed and I'm not sure what to do. Right now I'm concentrating on work and getting ready for school and procrastinating on working on my game. Although I still play it from time to time.

[Graham-]

Getting people to mod your games is a very tricky path. It is beyond being just normally successful. If you want to make a living the better bet is just to make a good game.

You need to make smaller games. The "dry up" of inspiration comes from committing yourself to a project way too large, getting bored part-way through, then not understanding why. Start super small. Be small and robust. Super, duper small.... really, really small.

p.s. Be small.

edit:

Getting people to mod your game requires a growing community. For that you need:
  1. Regular updates.
  2. A good game.
  3. A way to communicate with players, and a habit of using it.

Minecraft is a good example.

[Daniel Seabra]

Getting people to mod your games is a very tricky path. It is beyond being just normally successful. If you want to make a living the better bet is just to make a good game.

You need to make smaller games. The "dry up" of inspiration comes from committing yourself to a project way too large, getting bored part-way through, then not understanding why. Start super small. Be small and robust. Super, duper small.... really, really small.

p.s. Be small.

edit:

Getting people to mod your game requires a growing community. For that you need:
  1. Regular updates.
  2. A good game.
  3. A way to communicate with players, and a habit of using it.

Minecraft is a good example.

Thank you toast_trip!

Thankfully I'm not yet at a point in my life where I need to make a living with my games. Right now I'm just trying to make them as good as I can and hoping people will play them.

I decided to follow your advice and start on a really small project with a simple world and a simple story. It feels really good to be doing things again and to have my feet under me. It especially feels good to have the entirety of the game' s story and design figured out before starting.

I'm going to take a hiatus from my previous game until I have more experience and it's natural to know where to go with it.

Thanks again!

[Graham-]

Your welcome.

[droqen]

CAN I HAVE A HUG; I HAVE FINALLY LEARNED THAT BREAKUPS SUCK AND WHY

how have i never known what this feels like

):

[Inanimate]

I'm sorry, Droqen.  

One extra big hug. Hopefully it works out, or you find someone else.