Hello folks! I’d like to use today's blog entry to discuss some motivational tricks I’ve learned about game development. I create games as a hobby in my spare time, and am actually a mental health professional in my daily life. It’s amazing how many parallels I’ve found between game development and counseling. I often work with individuals on setting goals and see lots of struggle, triumph, and challenge along the way. I’ve come to find there’s both an art and a science to staying motivated to achieve long term success, and below I highlight three tips that were specifically relevant to my experience in development this past week.
Development Tips
1) Use imagery to create a mental image of the day your game is complete
2) Slow down to speed up
Tip 1: Use imagery to create a mental image of the day your game is complete
I heard a TED talk the other day about motivation. It turns out that humans stay more highly motivated when we conjure up images of successfully completing a goal and then stay focused on that image. This process makes goals seem more achievable and in turn bolsters motivation. If you find yourself struggling with motivation of any kind (to work on the game, to finish the game, etc.), I encourage you to sit quietly for ten minutes and think deeply about where you see yourself and your game when it is completed. Hold on to this image anytime you find yourself struggling with motivation, and review it after every time you work on your game. My prediction is that you will find yourself more motivated and overall more hopeful.
Tip 2: Slow down to speed up
Mindfulness is a common term these days, and refers to the ability to be aware of our thoughts while simultaneously calming the body. When working hard day in and day out on the same project, it can be easy to try and work harder and faster in an attempt to finish quicker. While I don't believe working harder is a bad thing, there’s an old saying that goes “work smarter not harder.” This is exactly where mindfulness comes into play. In my experience, deep breathing relaxes the sympathetic nervous system and calms the mind, thereby improving creative problem solving, enhancing perception, and restoring a level of relaxation and balance; challenges become much less challenging, solutions reveal themselves, and creativity has an opportunity to bloom. I encourage you to put on some calming music, and come back to the breath every couple minutes.
Tip 3: Set SMART goals and share them with others
SMART is an acronym that stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timely. In addition to staying focused on the end result, setting small goals that can be achieved in a relatively short amount of time rather than large goals that take days, weeks, or even months to complete can enhance the feeling of accomplishment. Try breaking down each development session into a smart goal. For example: make at least two new animations for one enemy character by the end of today: specific – yes; measurable – at least two animations; achievable – yes; relevant – yes; timely – yes. Once you've created the goal, tell someone about it! The act of having someone check in with you and ask questions about your progress will make you accountable to more people than just yourself.
Game Updates
Development hit a few snags this week when I started having major problems with enemy characters. I’ve been working on bug fixes over the past couple weeks, and realized this week that the enemy code is confusing, unnecessarily complicated, and needed an overhaul. After developing a personal rule of not changing core game mechanics this late in development, I was hesitant to scrap the current code and start over. Sadly, there was no other choice. I spent a good bit of time reading up on the Animator Controller, and ultimately created a solid script that allows enemies to perform the same actions as before, but in a much easier to understand and efficient way.
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As always, thank you for reading. I would love to hear from you and would love to hear any comments or ideas you have. Feel free to leave a comment or email me at watermoongames@gmail.com.
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***Original blog post can be found by clicking HERE***
