Time Management & Game Design
Phil Steinmeyer talks (with tongue-in-cheek) about the difference between goofing off and designing a game. I like his take on it. It’s something I hear a lot of indies, particularly those who work alone, complain about. Time management, motivation, and discipline are common topics in the Indie Life forum over at Indiegamer.
I’m usually fine with how I spend my time each day. I’ve got a regular schedule I stick to. It helps that I have a large amount of time to direct toward game development outside of my ‘real’ job. There are days when I get caught up reading blogs, forum posts, news, or articles on one subject or another and go well beyond the time I alloted myself to do so. That most often happens when my TODO list is full of items that are complex or just not ‘fun’.
Of course, some days it really helps to just put the project aside and goof off for a day or two. But everyone is different. When working alone and self-funded, particularly from a home office, discipline is hugely important to productivity. You don’t have anyone to answer to but yourself. You aren’t going to get fired or lose your funding if you don’t meet the next milestone. There’s no danger of anyone pulling the plug on your project. There are no immediate consequences. The consequences come down the road and aren’t immediately obvious. Some people have to work at it more than others, but most just don’t have what it takes to get a project completed and released. It’s not all fun and games.