Staying motivated?

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    • Staying motivated?

      (Forgive me if I put this post in the wrong place...I had trouble deciding where it should go.)

      For me, the most difficult part of progressing as a game programmer is staying motivated. I'm competent enough at my job, but I still want to learn more and progress to making better games, and that means learning stuff on my own that isn't really work-related. I know I _should_ do this, but some mornings it can just be hard to get the compiler started, and it's so easy to find a way to distract myself from what I _know_ I need to be doing.

      Does anyone else have this problem, or am I just a lazy freak? And if you guys do sometimes feel like this, how do you fight it?

      --------------------------------------
      "Premature optimization is the root of all evil."
      - Michael Abrash
    • Easy, I whip out the old Nintendo 64 and start playing Goldeneye 007. It reminds me in an instant what I want to achieve... which in my case is to be able to build a game that can make people as happy as goldeneye did. It reminds me of those times when my friends and I filled a room and played round robin 4 player in licence to kill mode. Those were some of the most fun times of my life thus far. Might sound boring to some, but not to anybody that was there.
    • Heh, looks like you gave exactly the same answer just before me! At least that proves it works for more than just me.

      I find its also useful to have more than one project, or at least to be working on two seperate parts of one project. Then, instead of going nuts when you get stuck you can relax, work on something else, and come back later refreshed.
      pan narrans
    • Yeah I know, less than 2 minutes difference, how funny was that. Yeah, just going back to the fun parts, remembering what inspired you in the first place always help. Also if you have created something that you still find hard to believe you created that helps heaps.

      I find its also useful to have more than one project, or at least to be working on two seperate parts of one project. Then, instead of going nuts when you get stuck you can relax, work on something else, and come back later refreshed.


      Soooooo, true, I do this with my Spherion (ummm, for those who don't know, it's a computer training institute) work. I'll do it till I get bored, then I'll move onto a PHP chat script that I'm working on, then into photoshop to finish off som icons, then attempt do some more game programming. Every time you swap over it's like you hadn't just been working for hours.

      It's also is the best thing when you get stuck. 90% of my sucessful debugging or implimentation of cool feature is done when I'm working on a totally different project, you brain works wierd like that.

      But when you are ready to go back to that annoying work (in my case Spherion), but don't picture it as annoying, get yourself excited about the code while your working on your other projects. If you can't do that, then try treating every experience as a learning experience and if you treat learning as fun (which you should, because it is) then your life will be a whole lot easier.
    • RE: Staying motivated?

      Yea, I face this problem all the time. It's even worse when you don't make games for a living and your programming stuff people can't even pay you to like. Ironically enough, I think what motivates a lot of us is getting a job in the gaming industry. But, I also play my favorite games for motivation and work on multiple projects to avoid burnout as well.

      To come full circle though, speaking and working with others helps immensely. I'm working with an artist right now on a demo project and we help keep each other motivated. Chances are we won't get burnt out at the same time all the time.This forum of course helps a lot and may be why we're discussing this here in the first place =) I'm looking into joining IGDA as well.

      In short, I've found being surrounded by motivated individuals always helps. Even just to bounce new ideas around and perhaps a new view on current one's. Kind of like extreme programming I guess. I hope this helps.

      cheers
    • RE: Staying motivated?

      I was just about to echo the same thought - it's much easier for a pair to stay motivated than an individual - it will be much less likely for you to take a day off if you know your bud is going to have tons of stuff ready...

      A friend of mine and I are playing around with some C# ASP.NET stuff that, while is within the realm of possibility that we'll get filthy rich when we sell the idea, is much more likely we'll simply learn this new language and see what makes it tick.

      The two of us have very different skills, so we work on different things, but knowing that one of us is outworking the other usually provides enough pressure to keep both of us busy.

      Also - set some reasonable goals and try to stick to them. Even if they are tiny - goals are good.
      Mr.Mike
      Author, Programmer, Brewer, Patriot
    • Replying to my own question :)

      One thing I DO find motivating is reading things about or by people who inspire me. There are a ton of good video and web lectures available at gamasutra.com/php-bin/article_display.php?category=25 - my favorites are the ones by Michael Abrash, Jason Rubin, Mark Cerny, Harvey Smith and Rob Fermier. Also, things like Naughty Dog's corporate website (naughtydog.com/Main.html), where they talk about the history of the company, are very interesting. I also enjoyed reading Steve Jackson's developer diary of Black & White (gamespy.com/legacy/news/March00/3-30-00-1.shtm). Plus of course, interviews and designer diaries from sites like Gamespot or Gamespy.
      "C'mon, you can't show the player a giant bomb and then not let him blow it up."
      - Gabe Newell, Valve