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Thanks for the tip, 3Ddreamer, focusing on results could be a good motivation.
@TheChubu The engines seem to help a lot, to be faster and more efficient, especially as a beginner.
@ Nobodynews, indeed I suspect I have a less severe form of depression, but I fight it every day, and mostly succeed, sometimes with a little help.
Breaking everything down into small, manageable pieces really helps with motivation, I think.
I often employ a Get-Things-Done strategy when I loose my motivation due to the huge scope of my project, and/or the sheer amount of stuff I need to do.
Checking those boxes really motivates!
Whether you use TaskWarrior or Excel or one of the many GTD apps, doesn't matter. Pencil and paper is also nice.
Just break it down, and you will have many, many ultra-small victories.
Could be combined with the Pomodore technique where you set the timer at 25 minute chunks where you just bite the bullet and start cracking.
This is where ignorance can be bliss. Believe it or not the ignorant person who thinks they can make any game even starting out has it easier as they will just dive in trying to make the next top FPS. Eventually they'll learn the task is more than they can do but they will have learned a ton on the way.
I installed both Unity and Unreal Engine... Thinking about how much there is to learn, and that it will probably take years until I am able to earn something from game design, my motivation drops to zero, and I simply start playing something, or do something else...
How did you get motivation to start out in game design? Also, what kind of schedule did you make for efficient learning and practice of game design?
I get what the OP is saying. When venturing into something brand new and that has a steep learning curve, it can feel very overwhelming. So much so, that it can induce a paralysis at even starting.
But what has always helped me in these situations is rather than looking at the entire mountain of knowledge all at once, focus on the smaller incremental hills.
I recently started learning C# and XNA/MonoGame. Rather than focusing on building a fully complete game right off the bat, I broke it down into small, short-term goals. First, I wanted to figure out how to display a 2D sprite on the screen. Next, how to animate that sprite. Then, how to control it with the keyboard or mouse.
Each of these provide a short-term sense of progression and accomplishment, which fuels motivation for the next short-term goal. And at the same time, they are part of my progression to the larger goal of making a complete game. Over time, I'll have climbed up the mountain of knowledge but it will be gradual enough that it won't have felt too daunting.
Rather than focusing on building a fully complete game right off the bat, I broke it down into small, short-term goals. First, I wanted to figure out how to display a 2D sprite on the screen. Next, how to animate that sprite. Then, how to control it with the keyboard or mouse.
Yes, that's exactly how I like to learn. I've done more generic programming tutorials before, like programming for dummies and they just dive into heaps of code, learning how to manipulate strings and stuff. Strings?! Putting a character on the screen and making it move is so much funner when getting started. Strings can come later. Move a mountain one stone at a time, and all that.
I never liked the idea of building a physical prototype it seemed too clunky and complicated as a process. Me and my friends would play games and I would be the architect of sets of rules that would create new games. Writing rules is a certain kind of game design that I've always been interested in. Then came computer programming and you didn't just create rules but art as well. Then the whole industry hiccuped out of its own butt and became anew and I didn't manage to learn a relevant programming language, so here I am late to the game pushing myself to read up and tinker with python every day. My motivation is the game designs that I've been scratching together - all very conceptual stuff. That I'm hankering to put together and playtest. My motivation is a break from the usual kind of writing that I do - young adult novels and film scripts.
To me it doesn't really sound like motivation is your issue. If you had no motivation at all then you wouldn't have installed those engines and posted on this forum. I've been through similar experiences myself and although motivation was a part of it, it was much more a problem with lack of focus and an inability to actually 'do' something. Perhaps not a particularly useful response but in my case getting a diagnosis of (genuine) ADHD at the age of 30 changed almost everything. After making many lifestyle changes and starting stimulant medication, which in itself I am not particularly fond of, my ability to get things done started to improve significantly.
I started programming at the age of 13 with the sole intention of becoming a game developer and thankfully I really clicked with the subject. However things didn't really pan out as I would have liked. As I got older the stresses of modern day life combined with several undiagnosed 'issues' (including various 'xias) really impacted upon my motivation & ability to really achieve anything - after all it was hard enough just keeping the pace let alone succeeding in a field such as game development. There were times when my motivation did rear its head above the fog and inspire me to work on something but most of the time I would just feel spectacularly overwhelmed and end up paralysed with "blank-page syndrome". I made a few tech demos over the years such as a Doom 3 model viewer for the original Xbox (I bought an XDK set off of Ebay) but none of it ever went anywhere and I eventually gave up on my dream. There was a time when I didn't touch a line of code for about 5 or 6 years.
Skipping ahead to today at the age of 32 and I'm now a self-employed software developer and I hope to release my first game or two this year. I don't get as much time as I would like to spend on game design/development as I'm married and have bills to pay but I do put a lot of effort in between contracts. I'd love to work on them in the evenings but anyone who has been on Ritalin will tell you about the awful rebound - after 5pm or so I am completely and utterly useless. But saying that, I'm just happy that my ideas are finally getting worked on. If it takes me a bit longer than the average person to get something out the door then so be it!
When I do get some time to work on games do I still struggle with blank-page paralysis - The motivation was there but the difficulty was breaking through the barrier and actually doing something, though this is a problem I struggle with in every factor of life and not just game development. However I did find that drawing inspiration from my own life experiences REALLY helped a lot, such as past relationships, love & loss, places I've been to, previous pets I've had etc. Once I had that single spark of inspiration it was much easier to put pen to paper and start designing. At this point I should mention that I'm a big fan of documentation before development. I find that if I have something written down then I no longer have to worry about remembering it, helping me to focus on the greater project rather than juggling dozens of individual components in my head at the same time.
The point I'm trying to make is that everyone is wired differently. For some people focus and motivation come naturally whilst for others, such as myself, it has to be consciously endogenous. My suggestion, and feel free to disregard it, would be to not let anyone tell you that you cannot, or should not, do something just because it may not come to you naturally - Good things have come from people who struggled to work on them! I also cannot overestimate the importance of focus and scope. Perhaps trying to figure out what you want to make rather than how to make it may be a good next step? Be realistic though. Don't make the mistake that so many (including myself) have made by trying to make the next big thing right from the get go - Chances are you'll either never get started or fail spectacularly!
