What is the recommended schedule of working on a Unity Game?

So, I am entering high school soon, but I am currently working on a Unity Game at the moment. Do you have any advice of how I am suppose to balance high school with my game? I plan for this game to be made before senior graduation.

 

No one can really answer that, as no one knows your life as well as you do. If it is something you are passionate about you’ll find the time where you can. Start slow, make sure it is something you really want to do and don’t risk other things in your life until you know for sure.

 

Okay, thanks for your opinion.

 

make sure you still eat and sleep properly and have some spare time to do other things. let your mind rest.

 

Just avoid any romantic attractions. Many life stories begin with "I used to do this thing back in highschool, then I discovered boys/girls".

 

Make the game small. I suggest starting with something about the scope of an old-school arcade game - Space Invaders or something like that.

Work on it regularly. Note that "regular" doesn't mean "many hours per week". It means keeping up some consistent minimum, regardless of what that minimum is. If that means a couple of hours on Saturdays because that's when you have time, cool. As @zombiegorilla says, if it's something you really want to do you'll find time anyway, but don't overdo it as a committment too early.

Don't worry about your first game being good. It doesn't have to be. Just get something finished.

One last thing... there are lots of different parts of game development. Programming, art, design, audio... Most people only get good at one of those. I've been doing this for over a decade and I can't do everything. My primary skill is being a programmer, and I'm also somewhat of a designer just as a result of trying to make cool experiences out of the things I programmed. I can't art, and while I can implement audio I'm no good at making it. Figure out what bits of making games interest you, and focus on them. Non-trivial games are almost always made by teams, and you're most valuableto a team if you're really good at one or two things rather than being ok-ish at a range of stuff.

 

I try and something, anything, everyday. Design Doc, a prefab, code even a few comments, or just re watch a tutorial.
Keeps it fresh in my head.

 

Drop out of school, don't tell parents, finish game, put on Steam, become millionaire on your first game, tell parents you dropped out of school but its all good. Oh wait.... don't try that

My real answer is it is all about scope. Keep the scope small, and avoid scope creep. You'll be tempted to work on new features as you think of them, but just don't. Write them down for later after you get what you actually planned done. Or stop and reevaluate the new idea in context with the remainder of your project.

Part of establishing the scope of your project should be time estimates, and determining unknowns. For example, if you have never tried to create animations before and don't know anything about it, that is an unknown. You'll then want to do some investigation into learning about them and what it will take to learn how to create them, or how much it will cost to pay someone else to create them.

That goes to another part of scope, and that is cost. For a project that can take years you should expect there to be some tasks where it is better to pay someone else than it is to learn skills that may take years on their own just to implement something relatively simple. For example, If you want a few cute character models custom made for your game you could spend months or years learning how to create them, or you could come up with a bit of money and pay someone else to make them. So you should factor estimated costs in as well, and try to stick to them as your project develops, and consider how certain expenses will affect your estimated time (if you pay someone else to create your models, now you can actually cut that entire model development time out of your schedule, as you can work on something else while the models are being created).

So after you have some good estimates for your time and budget, you can then look at your target completion date. Build in a buffer for unexpected issues, and see how much time you have to spend per day or week on your project to hit that date. Also consider that you'll want to have a life with friends and family during that time too, so factor that in. If you need to come up with money for expected costs, then factor in the time you'll need doing odd jobs or working part time or weekends. If the time is reasonable with school homework (which will be more than in middle school) and the rest of your life, then you probably have a solid plan. If not then you need to rescope the project to cut down on the time, or consider choosing a simpler project and postponing this one.

 

Don't let school get in the way of your education.

School ends right around the time life begins. Try to avoid impulses with long term consequences. You know, like making a baby, catching a disease, moving in to a prison, that sort of thing. This way, you can control your life, instead of life controlling you. Well, to some degree.

About making a game, do as much as you care to and can. If you want a break, take a break. if you want to work all night, work all night. As long as you don't try to force things, but don't let yourself be a lazy bum either, you'll find the perfect answer for yourself. For me, eight hours a day is just about right. Sometimes I quit at 4-5, sometimes I work twelve stinking hours. Just depends on how I feel and how much time I got that day.

If working for 5-8 hours seems like pulling your own teeth, the question is not, "how do I force myself to work?" but rather, "why am I not feeling motivated about the work?"