exelotl wrote:

The silver lining was that I was able to negotiate Fridays off, which I dedicated to working on the game. If you ever have this opportunity and can afford to, freaking take it!

Absolutely agree with this, after some redundancies at our place I went down to 4 days, and it was great. It's not quite so clean now I've got a team, but I still get flexible time on Friday.

SkyLyrac wrote:

Oh, for sure, but even the less fun parts shouldn't be too bad. I even enjoyed the parts about creating the build system of my games, converting assets, etc. But I don't think I'd work on such a big project for a game jam again, I would try to keep it simple so that I can work on it when I actually feel like it.

Oh yeah, agreed.
I think I've also discovered that most of the projects I want to do are probably well out of my scope unless I can find others to do things like graphics and audio

pmprog wrote:

I think I've also discovered that most of the projects I want to do are probably well out of my scope unless I can find others to do things like graphics and audio

Yeah, that's very true. Usually a team of an artist plus a programmer can create a pretty good game, but it's hard to find someone that can do both. If you're mainly an artist, writing code will take 10 times longer than creating art. If you're a programmer, the other way around.

e9zyI39w3 wrote:

Do you guys have full time jobs outside of game development?

Yup, 40 hours a week. I would work less, but 40 hours gives me enough extra money to commission art for my projects.

I work full time, and have been going to college part time, so it's difficult for me to make real progress on my work outside of weekends. Even those days can quickly clog up with non-GBA errands :sweat_smile:

That's a lot! I didn't really delve far into creative stuff until I graduated from uni, just because of how much time and brainspace uni took up.

How do you find the time to work on your passion projects?

My job isn't very demanding (thankfully), so I spend a lot of time at work thinking about how I'll approach problems for when I get home. Half of programming is just figuring out what you need to do in the first place.
Friday to Sunday is when I get the most stuff accomplished, but I try to knock out a bit each day. Slow and steady wins the race!

I try to schedule days after my job to sit down and do nothing but try to learn or create. It always feels like this should be my last priority, but it's honestly a great hobby that brings me a lot of joy.

Honestly, game development is the most important thing in my life. It's what gets me up in the morning. I think creative expression, in any form, is one of the best things that someone can do for themself.