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[gunswordfist]

work all day at a big game company making something, that is not yours. then when you go home, and decide to work on something that is all yours you will be super happy.

- although..... given more freedom you tend to take advatage of it and need to keep yourself in check. "yeah thats right ill make a 200 hour RPG where the main character is Conan o'Brien and you have to save a horrible dragon from a beautiful princess."

also i listen to music, but i do instrumental, and try and find something in the vein of what I am doing. I am listening to the game soundtrack for "Henry Hatsworth". surrounding yourself with somethign helps you focus on it. 

So when's 'Conan O'Brien Saves Horrible Dragon' coming out?

[JasonPickering]

spring 2012

[gunswordfist]

spring 2012

Very funny. heh heh

[Golds]

so, how do you focus on a project?

Stress.

[Ivan]

Stimutacks

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

The Cult of Done Manifesto

1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

Source: http://www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/3/3/the-cult-of-done-manifesto.html

[Mr. Yes]

I-I love it.

That poster is pretty damn neat, too!

Hm. Now I'm in the mood to be done with something.

[moi]

intmerestning

[rogerlevy]

SO COOL!  I love it!  what's crazy is that most of those things, are things I already know!  Actually they are probably things I came to relearn in the past year or so, and, realizing these things were stuff I used to think when I made stuff when I was really young, but year by year I gradually forgot, most likely because of school, I think.  (violin plays.)

But there are a few new things, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 12, which I don't know if I agree with off the bat but I'll certainly think about them! Personally I think perfection is rad. Especially if you can do it quickly.  Then it's skill, and it's one thing I strive for.  But come to think of it I do Imperfect just to be able to do something else a lot and that's something.  Imperfection is a part of perfection? 

 

[agj]

I think I only disagree with number 7, but that may be because I like to keep track of what I've done. Maybe the point is that you shouldn't go back to what you've already finished, in which case I agree.

[aeiowu]

awesome paul. That hits the nail on the head.

I think I only disagree with number 7, but that may be because I like to keep track of what I've done. Maybe the point is that you shouldn't go back to what you've already finished, in which case I agree.

I think it's a state of mind type of thing. Simply moving on to the next thing isn't enough. The idea being to retain the knowledge and experience from completing the project and discarding the physical project itself in order to move on to something better. For instance, if someone deleted everything I ever did from everywhere in the universe it wouldn't matter since they haven't taken all the experience. Like a character level versus the gear they have equipped.

But there are a few new things, 3, 4, 7, 8, and 12, which I don't know if I agree with off the bat but I'll certainly think about them! Personally I think perfection is rad. Especially if you can do it quickly.  Then it's skill, and it's one thing I strive for.  But come to think of it I do Imperfect just to be able to do something else a lot and that's something.  Imperfection is a part of perfection? 

 

Perfection doesn't exist, i think that's the whole irony there. #4 is especially important to becoming a badass IMHO. The sooner you realize it's time to just jump in, the sooner you'll get your failures out of the way. Those are inevitable.

EDIT: oh, and I focus by staying up all night and listening to ELUVIUM - Copia on repeat.

[Xion]

that is awesome.

[AaronAardvark]

Write it down.
I find the act of writing on paper gets my mind-juices flowing and motivates me to translate paper ideas into digital ideas.  That's perhaps a backwards procession, but it makes sense for us, I s'pose.

[ChevyRay]

Write it down.
I find the act of writing on paper gets my mind-juices flowing and motivates me to translate paper ideas into digital ideas.  That's perhaps a backwards procession, but it makes sense for us, I s'pose.

That's what I do

Get a nice pad, some pens+pencils, stuff my pockets and go out for a walk. I find a nice park or local area (preferably with lots of pretty girls passing by) and relax. The fresh air, sunlight, and change of scenery really helps to stimulate my brain and get rid of any sittin'-around funk that's built up

[David Pittman]

Heh, I kinda like that Cult of Done Manifesto. Especially this one:

Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.

Having grown up programming games without the vast amount of printed or internet resources available today, I had to solve a lot of already-solved problems on my own. When I got into game development as a profession, I was shocked that my solutions to problems were not only valid but sometimes even the accepted "correct" ways of doing things. It took me a long time to accept that, but I think it's critical now. It's a waste of time to ponder whether a path is the best path, or the path that someone smarter than me might follow; if it's going to get me where I need to go, that's good enough. If it turns out to be a dead end or full of pits and spiders, I can backtrack; but I'd never have known if I didn't start walking.

Incidentally, I just broke through a "coder's block" that was going on three weeks now. As usual, I found that focusing doesn't start in front of my keyboard with Visual Studio and NotePad++ open; it starts somewhere else, probably somewhere quiet and away from my computer, where I can reflect on my project, determine the next step I should take, and work through any fundamental issues of its design in my head. I've had "implement an AI spawner" on my to-do list for weeks now, but I kept procrastinating because I hadn't considered what all that entailed. This evening, I was finally fed up with myself for being such a slacker, so I sat down and made a mental checklist of features I wanted from an AI spawner. That was all it took to get myself focused. With the full scope of the problem in mind, solutions and deeper issues and architectural considerations began to flow freely. Fifteen minutes later, I was writing code. Now I have a fully-functional AI spawner.

[Loren Schmidt]

One thing I've noticed is that working with another person can be a great motivator. If I'm working on a solo project, I tend to spend more time than I like in unproductive perfectionism. I love doing solo work, and I plan to continue to do it, but I've noticed having someone else there who's invested in the project and cares about what you make can really help with focus. I find myself more naturally working with a healthy schedule and a good set of short term goals when I'm working with someone else.

As a caveat, an unhealthy group project could be a big downer...

[AaronAardvark]

ChevyRay and David Pittman hit the nail on the head. When I said I write it down, I neglected to mention that I do it away from my work area.  My work area is where I implement ideas, not where I come up with them.

Sparky's got a good point too.  I've hit a few walls that magically disappeared after casually mentioning the gist of a problem with a coworker.  These haven't been times where I've really been thinking about the issue and asked a coworker what they thought - it's been far more casual and natural; usually just normal conversation where I happen to mention what I did the day before.

[bateleur]

When I got into game development as a profession, I was shocked that my solutions to problems were not only valid but sometimes even the accepted "correct" ways of doing things.

Also, computing changes over time. Sometimes the received wisdom concerning how to do something is actually bad because things have changed since Donald Knuth wrote the algorithm in the 70s (or whatever).

[Cymon]

I saw about the procrastination killer timer on lifehacker this week, tried it out and was pretty impressed. Of course I need more like 5 minutes break between, but it's fully adjustable and it does keep you on track.

[elierodrigue]

I saw about the procrastination killer timer on lifehacker this week, tried it out and was pretty impressed. Of course I need more like 5 minutes break between, but it's fully adjustable and it does keep you on track.

There's also the iPhone / iPod touch version of this app that is quite usefull http://procrastinationkiller.wordpress.com/2009/03/20/procrastination-killer-for-iphone-and-ipod-touch-v10/ it does saves you a lot of screen real estate!