How I Finished My Indie Game (Even When I Hated It)

[Music] when I started asking other developers their biggest problems with making a game there was a single answer I kept hearing over and over again David how did you stay motivated when I asked other devs to fill out my survey it was by far the most common question I saw as for the first tree there are three reasons I was able to finish it even though it was probably the hardest creative project I had ever attempted reason number one I knew I could do it how did I know well I had already released my first game home is where one starts well how did I finish that game it all started with a lot of inspiration not only had I played a lot of small experimental indie games like dear Esther I'd also just seen indie game the movie at the Sundance Film Festival after the showing and if you haven't seen it you have to it's incredible Jonathan Blow was in the audience taking questions a person stood up and asked him how to get people interested in his game Blow asked them well is your game done and the guy said no Blow responded with well nothing can happen until you finish your game so finish it no matter what that answer told me what I needed to do was finish my game for me and not for everyone else it also told me how important it was to finish something even if it was small I used the tips I talked about in the idea module and decided I would make something small inexpensive and simple so I could actually finish it that's why I encourage everyone here to keep their first game small and simple and actually go through the steps of releasing it it will teach you tons and will motivate you for your next project reason number two I compromised my vision now I'm sure some of you don't like the sound of that but I don't mean it as a like a lack of artistic integrity kind of thing what I mean is if you're a solo dev or even part of a small team you need the wisdom to know what in reality you can or can't accomplish for me there was finite time and money and I also treated my motivation as an expendable resource too sometimes it hurt and was a bit embarrassing but I knew I couldn't make the perfect game and I couldn't work on it forever for instance when I exhibited my game at PAX West in the indie mega booth had an opportunity to show it to a big in the superstar so naturally I was very nervous to talk to him but I wanted his feedback he played it and he gave me tons of constructive criticism stating ways the controls could handle better and how I really needed an edge grabbing mechanic with the rocks after he finished playing he actually looked at my booth sign and noticed my game was coming out in two weeks said it right there he said now I feel like a jerk I didn't know you were pretty much done I laughed and told him it's okay and that would still be improving and after launch and thanked him for his help even though I totally agreed with his feedback I knew it just wasn't feasible with my skill set and my burnout I was in danger of never releasing my game if I didn't compromise the small parts and to me that was the biggest threat reason number three I kept a schedule it was hard working on my game with kids in a job but I found small brain hacks that seemed to keep me working consistently because my wife needed time to work on her art work during the day she hired a neighborhood team to watch our kids while she worked we were able to time it so I could get some time to work on my game right after I got back from my day job at 5:30 p.m. sometimes it was only 30 minutes maybe it was an hour but right there I was able to fit some time and after thinking about my game all day I would work in the evenings and weekends as well for a total of about ten hours a week my life motto which got me through development was never have a zero percent day I worked on it every day even when I didn't want to and I hated it playing games and watching TV had to wait because I had a strict schedule that protected me from losing motivation and I didn't want to screw it up as a final side note what helped me to work on it every day was loving the idea I was passionate about the story and I knew it could emotionally affect people and maybe even make them cry in a good way mostly I just really wanted people to experience that because I believed in it if this helps at all please know you are not alone making a game is hard I almost couldn't do it and it stopped being fun very quickly but it was worth it and I hope you find something that can help you stay motivated [Music] you

Channel: David Wehle

Views: 315,973

Keywords: game development motivation, staying motivated indie game, how i stay motivated, indie game dev mindset, unity game, finish making games, releasing a game on Steam, game development tips, independent game development, get paid to make games, games job, game artist, don't give up, ideas to stay motivated

Id: zoG-uwWaJJM

Length: 4min 36sec (276 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2020