Breaking the Habit

ID:116384
 
Jul 26 2011, 6:10 am
In the last few months I've made constant attempts to start working on a couple of game ideas I came up with. The result is numerous folders on my desktop containing a small skeleton of an engine. I literally cannot make myself get any farther than this because many things cause me to doubt my ability as a programmer. I want to make games, but I just... can't.

  • Programming in general is a thing I struggle with. I believe myself to be fairly competent with DM and have been trying to improve with it over the last year, but when it comes to actually creating a system or such, I basically hit a brick wall. I can never decide on the best way to handle something. This mindset partially comes from some older projects I did that were... complete messes when I got any progress in them. I'd rather do it right the first time than end up with a huge convoluted pile of garbage that I have to fix.
  • Motivation is another. When I have an idea and work on it a bit, then stop and start again another day, I always sit back and go "why bother? Who would think this is fun? Would someone pay for this if I wanted to try to make money off of this?" Even with simple ideas that I know for a fact I could create, I always run into motivational problems.
  • Teamwork, when looking at it, is something I've never been able to do. All of my projects thus far have been pretty much myself without help. At a point, I go "I wish I had someone to help me", and even attempt to seek help. When I get help though, I honestly don't know what to do with it because I prefer to write everything myself (a faulty reason behind why I don't use libraries, I've never felt comfortable using another's code due to how I like to format mine). Working on a project alone is certainly a motivation killer for me.


I've wrote down on a notepad that sits on my desk that says "FINISH A GAME BY SEPTEMBER 15TH YOU LOON", and every day I look at it. I want to finish a game by September 15th, but I cannot make myself do it. I have no incentive, no drive, but I want to do it. Something is horribly wrong with me.

In other news, I beat Regressia about a week or two ago and I must say it was a very fun ride. Never before have I been so into a game and the mysteries hidden within it. I whole-heartily recommend it to anyone that likes RPGs, etc.
Jul 26 2011, 6:23 am
Cool. Go go go!
Jul 26 2011, 6:42 am
Start simple!

I have the 'exact' same problem you have. I doubt myself, wade through the piles of folders that litter my desktop to no avail. Then, I decide on something small.

Start small, even if it never sees release! I have a few small projects that sit on my desktop. I have checkers, chess, a few PvPs, all kinds of stuff. I knew I wouldn't release them when i designed them. They were practice runs.

Start with something like checkers. Make a chat/checkers game. Add chess later. Add an AI to play against later. Hell, add a narto frog, who cares?

Make something 'you want to make' regardless of how you feel others will react. It's a practice run. Get comfortable then go for the homerun!
Jul 26 2011, 7:02 am
Goooooo! and good luck!

Jul 26 2011, 7:17 am
This sounds an awful lot like a Geldonyetich blog post.
Jul 26 2011, 7:18 am
Cody123100 wrote:
This sounds an awful lot like a Geldonyetich blog post.

Jul 26 2011, 7:28 am
You any good at pixel art?
Jul 26 2011, 7:34 am
SuperAntx wrote:
You any good at pixel art?

Nothing outside of simple 8-bit stuff, and I don't really feel confident in my ability to do that either.
Jul 26 2011, 7:52 am
For programming, just pick a way to do things and understand that you can always fix it later if you realize a different way could be better. Sometimes you just have to make a mistake to learn what the better way is. You just need to be motivated enough to not mind having to fix up code as you find more effective ways to do things. Don't say that the goal is to make a game. If that's your goal, cleaning up code will feel like a waste of time and drain your motivation. If you can find a way to get excited about fixing up code you'll address your first two points - you'll become a better programmer and it'll be a source of motivation.

For example, I've put a lot of time into my Sidescroller library. If I had no intention to release it and just wanted to make it for my own use (in other words, if my goal was to make a game) I wouldn't have spent nearly as much time working on it. If my goal was to make a game I wouldn't have the motivation to work on the movement system as much and it'd be messy, hard to use, and the game would suffer.
Jul 26 2011, 8:00 am
Jonathan Blow, the creator of Braid, mentioned something similar to what Forum_account said during his lecture on how to program independent games at UC Berkeley. Basically, what he said was you shouldn't prematurely optimize your systems.

Games aren't static objects, what you have in your design document doesn't always translate well. They're constantly changing and when you prematurely optimize something you're setting yourself up for a headache when the specifications change later.

It's alright if things aren't absolutely perfect, what you should be focusing on is actually completing your project. This doesn't mean you should just go around slapping things together without regard for bloat or quality, it just means don't sweat the small stuff.
Jul 26 2011, 4:44 pm
I feel the same way.
Sep 18 2011, 3:31 pm
Exactly :c , Motivation is the same with me.
Sep 22 2011, 11:42 pm
Did you manage to finish one?