I’m curious how long you’re working on your games,because i personally usually work from 15-30 minutes daily but almost every 2 days, how different is your schedue?
Since I’m indie full time, I try to do at least 8 hours every day, but when I’m feeling good or I work on a fun problem (or when deadlines are close), I can do 10 - 12 hours too. Although I really don’t recommend that.
3 Likes
do you think that spending half an hour is terrible then? cuz i don’t think i can get more time but i really want to finish my game in a year, not 10…
It depends on your goals. I do not recommend going indie, even if you have a pre-existing fanbase / community, the stress will slowly eat away at you because you constantly feel like you need to prove yourself, and each update must be massive for your supporters.
If this is a hobby for you, that’s great! Enjoy it, and put in as much time as you feel comfortable with!
3 Likes
varies, i literally dont keep track lol
Life happens, I try to do as much as i can when my mind is unlocked
if i want to publish game one day, but as i’ve said don’t have time to do it - should i worry about so small work daily on my game? i’ve heard many devs(including you now) work usually from 4-8 hours on their games - something i would never achieve even during holidays
Part time hobbyist, 2 hrs a day, but this includes learning Blender and other softwares related (like making music, graphics) so it’s a long road ahead for my game.
Originally planned to complete within 9months now it’s been 2yrs I think. I’ve been trimming the fat off my game too to speed up the dateline. The game’s just for self-learning and won’t even be monetized (donation only).
2 Likes
I started with Godot and gamedev back in September. I’m just a hobbyist and I have a full time job and a family. I try to do 1 to 3 hours 5 days a week. I typically do something everyday even if its small.
2 Likes
My work time is like a formula:
Development_Time = Awake_Time − Required_Life_Obligations
4 Likes
So true 
1 Like
I have a full time job i usually do an hour in during lunch if there are no other engagements and if im not taking a break from burn out. (Job stress usually dictates this). Then i have one day of the week where i may spend a couple extra hours in the evening. So 5-10 hours a week, if not on mental break.
I reserve weekends for other activities, but sometimes i work more on the game if the weather is bad.
Scope of the game really depends on how long it will take, and somewhat on skill and that will improve, but learning is the fun part imo. Tackling a feature from scratch is usually my goal, i dont want to take too many short cuts. Godot is already one of them, but since the source code is public i can go read how it works.
I havent released a game, ive made a few prototypes that i want to explore more. But i think my current idea is promising. Ive been doing this for about 5 years. I sometimes lament on how my job is holding me back and wasting my time, but im still getting to learn and make progress so, something might change at somepoint when it makes sense.
i can see that my current project will probably take another year, or three, and i have already given it more then 9 months. Maybe ill drop it, go on to another idea.
Dont beat yourself up to much on it, stay healthy.
5 Likes
Between my full-time job and childcare responsibilities, I can only dedicate weekends and holidays to actual development. Even then, those hours are frequently consumed by other tasks. Honestly, the shortage of time is a major struggle.
3 Likes
Not working at the moment but with my mental health I can be all over the place with stuff. Sometimes I can code for hours, other times I just do a couple of minutes. I’ve essentially finished what I have been working on so now I’m probably going to work through tutorials for a while and hunt for resources.
Gamedev is my job, so I work between 35-50 hours a week on my game. I am also the CEO, so I sometimes have to deal with finances, and other paperwork. But most of my time is spent in Godot, building the game. The game me and my colleagues are building, is called Basalt: The Cursed Vein.
3 Likes
15 minutes a day is very little.
In your situation I would prefer to sit once in a week for at least 4h.
I work mostly daily for 4-12 hours. It’s killing my sleep sometimes, but I know it’s worth it.
But don’t worry IT IS doable to finish a game with that much time, but you need to plan your scope carefully. So you don’t end up building a huge open world game, because that will take 20 years.
1 Like
I know that scope can criple your game, so i have it already planned out, and it’s small most would say
(just RPG witcher like GTA 6 inspired story driven survival game with multiplayer and dedicated servers)
jokes aside, i made progress already, so i don’t think scope is a problem
Currently working every day, at least 7 - 10 hours, to get FF out. With that, plus the game being around 40% finished, I’d say It’s paying off.
Still, definitely don’t do what I do. This has been the case for me ever since I started getting into game development 7 years ago. It’s not healthy. I do it for sport.
3 Likes
Daily is good. Even just to keep your mind ticking over about what you are doing in the game. Lots of small steps can take you a long way. But it does have massive drawbacks too.
Yes, you need to consider setting aside a half day if not weekly, fortnightly. That then will give you a chance to get more weighty jobs done so your 30 min sessions have lots of little ‘steps’ for tidying up, small improvements like animations or graphics etc etc.
Hmm. I bet it is, you just have not realised it yet. Scope and scope creep are two major killers for finishing a game. However ‘right’ you think you have it, try halving it, then half it again.
Oh that sounds good already. You seem to be in a very nice situation there.
Yeah, I definitely understand that more now than I did two years ago.
Best advice:
1 Like
at the past , i was working on my games during the entire of day 
but now i cant spend much time to work on my project ; i often spend about 3 hours to do that
For me it really really depends on the circumstances around me, and more specifically my current priorities in the moment. Generally ignoring outside factors though, I work on my projects daily though the specific ones I work on fluctuate depending on my time, my focus and my emotions.
For example, if I get burnt out on one project: I simply work on another for a short bit and then return back either after experiencing burnout with said other project. Working both keeps me sane yet also needs a bit of a balance in order to ensure I don’t get too overwhelmed from one thing.
In other words: I’m usually working on something daily, but what I’m working is near entirely dictated by my focus and a constant balance between burnout and getting to let my creative and technical juices flow!
1 Like