Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

How do you pace yourself?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by GazingUp, Jan 23, 2021.

  1. GazingUp

    GazingUp

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2015
    Posts:
    271
    I'm curious about other developers' workflows on how to prioritize and pace one's self while keeping a work/life balance.
    For instance, when you work on a particular feature say - Enemy chasing the player, or player/enemy attack animations, or even making puzzles in the game - do you say "Okay, I got this and this down maybe I should move on and come back to the rest later" or do you say "I'm gonna move to the next thing once I'm done with all different types of xyz".
    There are several types of enemy patterns to chase a player, different types of 'attack animations', so many types of puzzles. Do you finish all the patterns on one sitting or do you finish little of one thing and move to the next thing and come back to the previous thing later? I feel the latter approach is a bit easier and keeps things interesting as I iterate myself again and again without getting muddled on one thing (as it has led to a burn out that lasted for months ... hated that), but I'm just curious what factors do others take before going to the next thing.
     
  2. MDADigital

    MDADigital

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2020
    Posts:
    2,198
    It's called divide and conquer and is actually the most important aspect of software design. It something you either got or does not got from the start and it can somewhat be learned from experience.
     
  3. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2017
    Posts:
    5,181
    Time management is just a skill you learn like anything else.

    For myself it's important to plan the day because otherwise I'll always work too long hours which hurts productivity.

    It is also important to have at least one hour at end of day to write done what was done and what needs to be done tomorrow.

    There isn't a set formula that works for all occasions, so it's important to schedule regular "meetings" in which you reassess how things have been going, take account of anything new you have learned, and decide if its best to stay the original course or change things up.Once the project gets too big to hold in the head you got to take time to draw out charts. Weigh pros and cons. Prioritize which problems can be put off to solve later in order to save brain energy for the bigger decisions.


    It sounds dead simple but in my experience the people who struggle to finish work don't do these things. They just wing it and make all decisions based on how they feel at the moment. At the minimum you should sleep for 8 hours before making any important decisions.
     
  4. GazingUp

    GazingUp

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2015
    Posts:
    271
    While I don't have trouble with sleep just yet , lately I've been in some kind of 'zone' where all I can think about is the game, features, future features, implementations, characters, more features. It is pretty daunting and it's never been easier to go crazy with the scope but I'm trying to hold onto not scope creeping. I write completed, todos and current progress on Trello to keep in track.
     
  5. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

    Joined:
    Jun 1, 2017
    Posts:
    5,181
    yeah i am similar personality type. i just sit and work all day, day after day. Got to be serious about taking breaks. Go bother the wife from time to time.

    It's good to have a side gig job too. Diversify your skills. something to break up the pace.
     
  6. GazingUp

    GazingUp

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2015
    Posts:
    271
    I literally have no time for side gig jobs since I work as a full time senior app developer for a global corporation. This was good for me last year as it helped a lot with the coding but it's been challenging to get creative because now I don't have the time I used to have for video games after being married as you would know, gotta give the wife that attention too or else that contributes to later problems.
    So now I work my job watch gameplay videos of games during the day to really learn what people like/don't like about other games I'm inspired by, learn enemy patterns, and some kind of coded pattern in games I can maybe think of. Some time in the evening I spend time with the wife/house chores. I still need to make this a discipline as it is still challenging to get right.
     
  7. MDADigital

    MDADigital

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2020
    Posts:
    2,198
    I have a dayjob a wife and two kids. It's just a matter of routines. For example sit atleast one hour every day, never less. No excuses.
     
  8. GazingUp

    GazingUp

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2015
    Posts:
    271
    I'm not sure why all your responses are snappy. I've read your posts in other threads too. I didn't say I didn't have time for game dev, I said I didn't have time for a side gig job while having a day job, family life, and game dev on the side. I spend at least three hours every day for game dev. Lol no compromise there. I meant I didn't have time to play video games as I used to.
     
  9. MDADigital

    MDADigital

    Joined:
    Apr 18, 2020
    Posts:
    2,198
    Sorry i didn't ment to come out as snappy. I just ment that you need to have routines for it to work. And don't set to big goals. Start with one hour per day, the important part is to never break the rule and always do that one hour.see additional hours as a bonus.
     
  10. Martin_H

    Martin_H

    Joined:
    Jul 11, 2015
    Posts:
    4,436
  11. GazingUp

    GazingUp

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2015
    Posts:
    271
    That's alright. Yes I completely agree. Game dev definitely requires multiple skills plus routine oriented workflows. I'm very routine oriented but even I find it challenging at times when I accidentally get stuck in 'polishing' something before even beginning creating the game. I spent months trying to get the perfect jump before, and this killed my motivation eventually as nothing was interesting. I learned it was wrong and started 'pacing' myself by moving from one new thing to the next and leave the polish for last (thanks to Unity forum members for this advice many times too.) Pacing is definitely key so I was genuinely interested what other devs' techniques were for pacing themselves.
     
  12. GazingUp

    GazingUp

    Joined:
    Jun 16, 2015
    Posts:
    271
    Thanks for the video. Currently watching it. Really helps knowing others have gone down this road before and I'm not the only one.
     
    Martin_H likes this.
  13. cyangamer

    cyangamer

    Joined:
    Feb 17, 2010
    Posts:
    234
    I've struggled with this too. I what I started doing was managing a HackN Plan board (similar to Trello) and would periodically assess priority on features. Especially now that I'm reaching the end of development for my game, there has been a few times when I've had to move from a bug fixing task to a feature task like say, saving one's game, because I feel it's a more important milestone to have the game feature complete first, and then do all the remaining bugs.

    Making it a point to do something for the game every day also helps. I'm not sure about switching features you're working on all the time unless there's a priority shift. In my experience it gets harder to go back and finish feature if I left halfway to work on something else. After a while I usually get into a groove or sorts.