Game Dev Block? (Idk if this can be posted here)

Hello friends, My name is Jeff.

I have recently picked up unity and I have a few very simple idea's for games(2D) that I want to make. I have very little programming know-how and I am learning. I used to be better but I haven't touched it in years so It's pretty much darkness to me again XD. My issue that I've run into is every time I open up unity I find myself un-motivated, overwhelmed, and cannot think of ideas and ways to implement my games(if that makes sense). Any of you guys get this? How do you overcome it?

Thanks for reading, this is my first post, I look forward to spending time with you bros.

 

Hi and welcome!
Just curious but why do you want to make games if you are unmotivated?
I mean being not motivated is a normal thing for people who have been doing the same thing for a long time and they get bored of doing the same thing or tired because they don't see the end of the project.
But being unmotivated at the beginning is a really bad sign.

If you are doing it for money, unless you have the idea of the century and the skills to back it up I would say forget it.
If the lack of motivation is just because you don't know where to begin, the answer is only one :STUDY!

These are years where learning has never been easier, you can learn to do anything if you have the motivation(again it must be there to begin with, otherwise...).
In 1 and half year I learnt to use Maya, Cinema4d, write fairly advanced shaders, refreshed a bit of math( Oh god, I hate quaternions and matrices) and I am studying music composition recently.

I wanted to have fairly complex clothes in my mobile game, but the asset I was using while running perfectly at moderate speeds was making the clothes vibrate crazily at high speed.
I saw in the comments of the source something about verlet integration, had a look on google and found many tutorials explaining the math behind that and now I wrote my own cloth simulation.

So start by watching the video tutorials on the Unity help page and you will see that ideas will start coming.

 

If it's the engine that's overwhelming you could drop back to a simpler system like game maker. Work you way back up to Unity and the like.

 

I guess that was a bad choice of words, I just find my self staring at the screen and getting distracted.

Are there any decent 2D design programs out there that isn't adobe? Preferably free, I think that might be my biggest issue XD.

I started with Cinima 4D! Great program!

I used Game Maker before I stepped into programming back when I was first learning, I love that program but I just could never get anything very smooth out of it. Unity isn't very intimidating to me while I'm making such small games, I think I'm having issues outside of Unity(Making 2D art with a mouse)


Thanks for the replies!

 

https://www.gimp.org
https://krita.org/

 

I've been trying to use Gimp, very difficult to make anything that I plan to animate, great for static objects tho! I just cant stand using a mouse to draw XD I miss my wacom tablet :

 

Krita is better for drawing, both with tablet and mouse. If you're looking to make pixelart, GraphicsGale is a good choice (and it has features for animating such as onion skinning and animation preview).

//edit: Also I'd suggest learning Blender. While it has somewhat steep learning curve (but not as steep as it once had), when you learn it you'll find it to be much more powerful and faster to work with that any other graphics program. On top of that, it's completely free and available for all major operating system (even for Windows). Just like for unity, there's a ton of tutorials for Blender on youtube!

 

Precisely feeling overwhelmed is what unmotivated you. There's so much you want to do, but the process is so slow.

Only cure for this is to set yourself a small quick goal. Start with very simple things.

For example, today, try to figure out how to make a gameObject, add a script to it, and make that script do something simple, like making the object spin. Or make the object do something on input.

Accomplishing little things cures anxiety. When you feel less anxious, you have patience to do few tutorials. Then small functional games. And so on.

Long story short: baby steps.

 

When I feel unmotivated, I usually force (yes force) myself to work on a project for about 5-10 minutes. In most cases I find out then that I've worked on it for 2+ hours. The most important thing is to get into "zone". Upbeat music works very well for this, for myself I've found Powermetal works best, though YMMV).

 

Or go back to basics and write some c++ code. You could even end up with a unity plugin!

 

This.

If a goal is overwhelming then that's because it's too big. Break it down into smaller, shorter term goals, until they're not overwhelming any more. Then pick one, and do it.

 

@BoredMormon is right, it's the engine that's overwhelming you. You should first be used to it. All those thousands of buttons can overwhelm anybody so instead of focusing on how to create games, first learn how to use Unity, there are some pretty decent tutorials which would introduce you to the interface. Watch them if you haven't already. Once you feel that you are comfortable with the engine, then set on to your goal.

 

Any tips on overcoming the stress of picking one to start with? I'm dealing with that at work right now. There's an ever growing list of tasks to do and we can start on any of them. How does one go about choosing?

 

Pick the shortest one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shortest_job_next

 

A way to see it, is like reading a book about you making a game, lol.

Read it at your own pace. The story is there, waiting.

 

I'd pick either highest risk or biggest impact, given a lack of other influences. Aside from that, ask other stakeholders what will be of value to them at what time, look for opportunities to align with, and maximise the productivity of your team.

 

Your first task is to take a look and breakdown what each task on your list requires. With that info you can make a decent estimate for effort and time for each task. Then you can look at the outcome (end result) of finishing each task and weigh that against the amount of effort & time it will take to figure out which are the biggest bang for the buck.

Taking the time to break the list of tasks down is also beneficial because you'll likely find some common denominators. By that I mean you'll see how a single thing can be created that can be used to handle (at least a piece of) two or more of the tasks. Sometimes even a large list of tasks represents only a few common components you need to build and a bit of customization here and there.

Of course anything that is a fairly annoying bug is weighted more. Critical bug is always top priority.

 

I'm playing a game of

"Find the commit where that critical feature and all references to it disappeared"

 

On top of what the others have said I would also suggest working out a critical path. In most projects there is one sequence of tasks that determines the rest of the time line. Working on critical path items is almost always a good choice.