I think you’ve hit on a winning formula for a game, when you find yourself playing, even the completely unfinished version, without even realising it.
I just finished coding all the three levels of the hinting system, and while testing them I got lost in trying to solve the puzzle without even noticing. When I finally stopped, and thought, okay onto the next task, 46 minutes had passed. LOL
I’ve written and published a lot of SCI-FI and Fantasy novels, and my advise to people wanting to write, is write a book your want to read. I think the same goes for game dev. Build a game that you want to play, if you get lost in it, even in it’s alpha stages, that’s a good thing…
As it happens, I had the same experience yesterday with a game I’ve been working on for a couple of months, when the card-playing mode finally came together… truly a great feeling
i think for this kind of event to happen - you need to have playable version that takes more, i’ve experienced playing instead of developing only few times, and in all of them - game was fun but playable
EDIT: As i’m trying to make a game now… i think your word hits differently xd, because i observed every project i force myself is always failed - but if there’s something i see meaning in, like game i like, and i like playing it, not the idea itself, i know i’ll finish it
I was doing my morning journaling today, I and I was writing about the fact that I had fun programming a little plugin for a carousel menu. I spent the whole day adding examples. I put it up on itch, and I am struggling today with whether or not to charge money for it, or just make it free and focus on my games for income.
I realized after a discussion here yesterday that perhaps I don’t value my time enough in game dev and just because I was able to make a plugin in a day doesn’t mean it’s not worth something. But on the other hand, I like that there are lots of open source plugins and tools in this community.
Not at all and I guess this is where we need to agree to disagree. As I stated originally, when I give lectures on creative writing, my biggest tip is to write a book you want to read, it’ll show in the prose if you don’t. If you don’t enjoy the story, it won’t be fun to write.
I believe the same is true of game dev, if you enjoy the genre of the game you’re creating you’re probably going to enjoy the process of creating it more, and getting lost in the gameplay during development is a bonus.
Personally I don’t enjoy FPS or PVP style games, I doubt I’d find the process of creating something completely outside my preference/comfort zone, as enjoyable as one within. Could I be wrong, sure, could I learn to love those genre during the process, maybe, am I going to start down the road of creating such a title, probably not.
You are the biggest critic of your work, and you have to be happy with the result before anyone else.
I’ve been a professional coder for a very long time, and there have been times when I’ve not enjoyed the process as much, but mostly it’ s been enjoyable. Taking pride in what you create, hobbyist or professional, is where the enjoyment lies, imo.
To quote a line from a favourite episode of Star Trek.
I don’t think you meant to punch down with this remark, but I’m not a fan of this sort of talk. Before I got a job at Media Molecule, I would often see sentiments like this online by “professionals” and it just always came off as them really liking the smell of their own farts. After Mm, I realized they’re just regular people like anyone else. Everyone is just making it up as they go along, some with a bit more experience.
EDIT: To be clear, I do agree that professionals don’t NEED to enjoy it. But bringing up the distinction at all just feels unnecessarily “us vs them”.
There are some very dark and deeply themed episodes in STNG, Voyager, DS9 and the last season of Picard. I didn’t enjoy the original series, barely watched it.
“In the Pale Moonlight.” episode 19 of season 6 of DS9 is very dark and thought provoking.
We once had a developer on a team who like to write needlessly complex code, not because it needed to be but because he could. His opinion was programming was difficult so it should be difficult to understand. Same sort of sentiment. I think he was just trying to writing himself into a guaranteed position, being he would be the only one who could support it.
Maybe it’s semantics. I don’t think enjoyment is the right word to describe what is aimed for here.
Enjoyment is an emotional response. And that, for better or worse, is an amateur’s game. Emotional responses cloud judgement, hinder performance and dissipate energy. I see enjoying it as detrimental as hating it. Being indifferently enthusiastic is more likely where it’s at, especially if it needs to be sustained long term as is the case with writing books or making games.
“Just enjoy it”, especially when given out as a blanket advice, also implies that no effort is required. Which is misleading and not conductive to individual’s skill growth.
The desired mental state imo is what is known as flow. It presupposes challenge, requires effort but it’s also rewarding in subtle ways. I wouldn’t equate flow with enjoyment though. The latter is frivolous and shallow, like drinking a beer. Flow is sublime. They are different beasts.
It’s also the purpose of games and entertainment in general, so not unwanted to find in one’s game
Flow (as coined and described by Csikszentmihalyi) is itself an enjoyable state, so you can’t really have it without enjoyment. Without it, you’re simply experiencing focus.
That’s madness! Are you saying you’d feel equally motivated to do something you hate, as something you love? I can assure that most human beings do not feel this way, and that motivation is of key importance in doing any task. Enjoying what you’re doing doesn’t cloud your judgment - but disliking what you do will statistically make you more likely to cut corners and generally not care about your job. That’s basic work psychology you’ll find in any handbook on the subject.
“Energy” comes from positive emotional response - a professional life without positive emotional responses leads to stress, burnout and general job dissatisfaction.
My point was that enjoyment alone is not sufficient and hence shouldn’t be advocated for as the primary, or even worse - the sole factor for success of individual long term endeavors. Flow has prerequisites and consequences. Focus is one of prerequisites while enjoyment is one of consequences. You don’t enter flow by the means of enjoyment.
No, you’re saying that. I said that emotions are detrimental to focus and are generally an unreliable source of long term motivation as they tend to fluctuate, regardless of them being “positive” or “negative”. You’d need a much more stable motivator than enjoyment, though I’m not saying that enjoyment cannot contribute there, to a varying degree depending on personality. I just don’t think it’s the key factor. However, relying on it as the key factor can have a counter-effect and ultimately lead to failure. That’s my main objection. What do you do when enjoyment runs out and you’re not halfway there yet? Force yourself to enjoy?
Energy comes from food.
You’re conflating meaningful work with a job. Job is a mere contract in which time is exchanged for wages. That time can be filled with meaningful work but can also be completely devoid of it. And I have zero interest in discussing jobs.
