Game Dev Nightmare: How to Avoid Losing Your Mind and Your Joy

In this video we discuss the importance of maintaining one's sanity, happiness, motivation, creativity, and inspiration while developing games.

We dive into the stress and pressure that can come with game development and how it can impact mental health and overall enjoyment. As well as the passion that drives indie game developers and how it fuels creativity and care in game development.

If you're new to our channel, we're Brandon & Nikki from Sasquatch B Studios. We sold our house to start our game studio, and work full time on building our business and making our games, Veil of Maia & Samurado.
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#motivation #indiegame #gamedevelopment

[Jonkero]

I find these mental health videos for game devs super helpfull. As a new time indie dev with a development background, I thank you.

[ludomancerstudio]

I love how this channel became sort of this mix of cool indie dev stuff but also adressing the mental health aspects which are so important but I think most channels or devs in general simply don't talk about it.

[johnleorid]

How to Avoid Losing Your Mind and Your Joy -> in 5 Points:

1) Having atleast like 70% of the skills required for a project. Otherwise you should make something smaller first to learn the required skills.

2) Structure is extremely important or you will end up with chaos. And chaos costs so much time and energy.

3) A vision of the final game is required, or you will change it over and over without going forward (think running around in a forest in cycles).

4) You should work on a game in a genre you love. Otherwise just playing the game (which you have to, thousands of times) will kill your motivation.

5) If you make a game that looks bad or is too alien for anyone to grasp, the lack of interest might also spread to you. So you should make a game that is appealing at first sight (to your target audience).

[GamesAreArt]

what keep me from burnt out in game dev is:
1- I didn't and will never think about quitting my job.
2- I take game dev as a hobby not a job so there i don't have to worry about deadlines or not having breakfast on my table.
3-coding and playing games is something i enjoy doing and i want to keep it that way i take day out anytime i want i don't force myself into Doing anything.

[HE]

When making a game, also don't forget to have the RIGHT coffee or the RIGHT kind of tea, because these things make the game development process even more fun.

[coolshrinmp]

As a game dev pushing to make my full-time decision work out in a "realistic" time frame, suddenly finding your videos are my everything ❤‍🔥

[Hashmojis]

2:33 "You were right, nicky. You are always right." Relatable, I'd cry too! haha

[vcdgamer]

There's this fine line between your game being a business and a fun, passionate project. Focus too much on the sales and it becomes a soulless cash grab. Focus too much on the passion and you lose focus. Got to learn an important lesson last week. During the times when you feel like quitting, remember the fun you had while working on it, and the amount of fun future players will have on it.

[LorneDev]

Nice video! I'm haven't experienced any motivational dip so far, but I can imagine it just exaggerates all the insecurities and doubts about the game. Hopefully I' can stay the course for another 1, 5 years :D

[chilimaan]

Your videoes have a unique twist and good production value, I always click it when it pops up. I believe in you guys 🙏

[CodeRadGames]

For me my project is taking 300% longer then expected. It's very easy to underestimate how long things take.

[maxelized]

On top of the 50% rule, it is said that the last 10% of 90% of the work.

[shavais]

Refusing to work 7 days a week - that seems wise.

I also very often find that my software dev tasks take me somewhere between 2 to 3 times as many hours as I initially guess that they will, if I don't pad my guess, which I can't do if I'm trying to get the project done asap. Not all the time, but quite a bit of the time. And that's if I work without much in the way of breaks, which I can't sustain for very long.

When you're working at home, balancing that with the rest of your life is unbelievably difficult, especially with kids and pets around, and it tends to be kind of a slowly moving target with occasional complete apple cart tumbles.

I think you have to get a schedule going that everyone knows, understands and supports, and consciously return to that schedule, or maybe some consciously altered version of it, after that week long trip to the other side of the continent to attend a wedding or a funeral or a family reunion.

Make sure the schedule includes specific times when you..
- get outside and exercise and maintain your personal hygiene
- eat regular meals with family, helping at least some with the preparation and clean up
- help at least a little with some household chores (so your wife doesn't feel Too Much like Cinderella)
- run the occasional errand (so your wife doesn't feel Too Much like Cinderella)
- spend time with your kids
- spend time with your wife (message, brush hair, watch a show together, get physical; don't neglect things)
- spend time with yourself (relaxing and doing things you enjoy that aren't related to your work)

Reward yourself for getting some hefty chunk done by relaxing for a few minutes and playing a game or watching a video, but set a timer that'll ding on you and make you snooze or stop it so you're reminded to get back to work.

One way to do the above is to basically divide your day into 3 segments. Morning, afternoon and evening. Get up, exercise, shower, help get breakfast, eat breakfast with everyone, help clean up, then get to your morning work session. Lock the study door, put headphones on, get some up beat coding music going, and work for several hours. Then come out and wrestle with the kids (if they're home) and hug and kiss your wife (if she's home) help get lunch and eat lunch and clean up from lunch, maybe run an errand (once or twice a week), then go to your afternoon work session. Locked door, headphones, music, several hours, then come out for dinner. After dinner spend time with the kids, then your wife (longer on certain days than others), then yourself, then get back to work for the night work session. Use blue blocking mode on your computer at night and avoid sweets or caffeine so that when you do get to bed you can get to sleep quickly.


If interrupted while working, use body language that let's them know you love them, but you're in the middle of something and you really need to keep it brief and you really need to minimize interruptions. Open but hold the door, hold your body sideways like you're about to shut the door again, put your headphones around your neck, smile, but use a pose that says "I need to shut this door now and get back to work." Remind the kid "Daddy's working. Don't interrupt unless it's really an emergency, ok?"

[Jumph]

You hit the nail on the head with this video, I've been working on this "small" indie game for a team of 4 people to boost my portfolio for jobhunting jr positions, and me being the only programmer in the team, I was responsible for creating all the systems and mechanics.
At the time of me joining the team and working as a contractor, I was supposed to jump in and get the game completed in a month, unfortunately the game needed a lot more time than anticipated, and fast-forward to today (6 months) the game is still incomplete.
Saying how working on this game was really stressful is an understatement, even more so if you add on top of that me being the one and only programmer in the team, an inexperienced one at that actually, meaning I've always had to spend extra time learning how to approach and design implementations for everything we wanted to add to it.
It's very demoralizing hopping on a progress meeting and telling the rest of the team how I wasn't able to meet the deadline I set up for myself the last time I saw them. I'm also finding myself working and thinking constantly about the game, I had to fast 3 months ago and still work on the game, I got seek last weeks and still worked on the game, I'm gonna be visiting my sister for 2 weeks soon and I'll bring my laptop with me to work on it even more.
At this point in time, I can't wait for it to be over, so I can move on and do something more stress free.. I do agree with what you say, but I gotta say, it's not easy to put the work at the back of your mind and not stress over it when you know you're months behind schedule. 😅😅. All I hope is that it'll pay off in the end, I mean considering what I've managed to do now, I know that I've learned quite a lot regarding Unity game dev.. So I'm getting something in return even now actually...

Anyway, thanks for making this video, it's good to be reminded of the reason why I decided to jump on this journey in the first place.

[brightside]

I find filming myself as if I were making a devlog a big help at keeping the magic

[xderpassassinx]

Why do you always have the perfect video for the perfect day lol

[lisa_jeffs]

Inspiring! Every creative or entrepreneur should watch this! So important to remember why we started... when things get stressful or don't feel fun. Which is more times than most people let on lol! Thanks for another great vid!

[After_Pasta]

Fun fact many of our old nintendo games --- the devs had no
idea what they were making or the specs of the console
when you feel its an up hill battle remember the best games were made the same way

[animedreammachine]

Give yourself extra time, and take breaks! Making even a smaller game is so much work.

[vergilw]

me as an indie game dev who is very like you, who quit my job at last year and dive into the indie dev journey, who wish to became a game dev since I was 6, who already 30+ and having almost 20+ years of non-game dev related job just for living, I hope both of us able to finish our game and fulfill the dreams .