I'm overburned. Now what?

It took me a lot of time trying to sort out my issues (to make sure that they are easy to understand) and making sure that I don't break any rules. And I'm still pumped up and ready to swear at this point (at the time of this writing) since it piled up on my memory way too much.


I'll just cut to the chase:


-I feel that I am wasting time with Northbidge (which includes both Immortal Sins' launcher and the recently released Save Manager SDK). I never heard any feedback about either of them, neither any critique (or review). I had to figure out how I can implement the functionality all alone (with asking help on the MSDN forums when something went wrong and I could), for now I can only write in C# well enough (Ruby is confusing and I can't work with the scripting system (since I am used to IDEs like Visual Studio and the script manager doesn't help me)) and I can only expand the engine's capabilities by writing a separate program to handle this (If you have doubts, I can send the code to the moderators and review it, I have it on my private repository on Github).


-My laptop is quite old right now (4 years old) and while I can develop both software and games on it, there are times that doing just that is more frustrating than it should. It's hard drive is 5400rpm, which may not be enough (Visual Studio needs a 7200rpm at minimum), so when I'm writing software, the IDE stalls for a few seconds. When I'm working on the main project, I have trouble playtesting it, since the game will run at 5-6 fps (on battles at least, where it is crucial for the timed button press). I have no idea what causes this, I have to either sacrifice some things to maintain good performance, or keep it and lose performance. The laptop has a second generation Intel Core i3, and it did not had a lot of trouble running RPG Maker games.


-I have a bad tendency to stall quite frequently, where I go to YouTube and watch videos, when I should have been working on the game. I have a really bad scheduling, and when I want to record the thoughts, I lose them if they are on paper, and I can't use my phone since the storage on that is way too small to use OneNote (since I want them on my laptop too). It gets worse when I multi task, since I'm used to do one task at a time.


(I have one more, but I need to get to flesh this thought out.)


I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm stressed, I feel I'm wasting time with Northbridge, I'm stuck on a corner and wasting my health, trying to figure out how to solve problems, and balance university with developing games. I have nothing against either the engine, the makers of resources nor anybody else. I'm just stuck, and I feel that I'm on a prison cell, with no way out. I don't know what to do.


I am also thinking to shelve the projects and save them to the back-burner, while moving to a different engine (I'm thinking of moving to Unreal Engine) to work on an arcade game (maybe a shmup?). The problem would be finding resources to use with the engine, but if that's solved, it may be more logical for me.


Any ideas?

Hello,


First of all,I want to wish you a quick recovery from your burdens.


I noticed that you did too much work on such a small time period.Juggling between a game project/coding/a workshop and university isn't easy,obviously.


My advice? Drop the game dev for a while,kick back,relax,focus a little more on university work,and give some time for yourself.


As for losing your thoughts I have a very effective (at least for me) method.Write everything in a special notebook and keep it on your bedside table(or in the fridge,in the sink,near the toilet paper if you want to take it to the extreme).Or get a file and gather all your scattered notes and put it near or in university books you study often.


Last advice,stick with RM.I know that feeling,I played switch 'em out too many times to remember,but I returned to my first engine.You did too much work to leave behind :)


Concluding this reply,I just want to stress the importance of giving more time to yourself and being more organized.Forget RM,coding,Northbidge and all your projects and


just don't switch to another engine.It'll just add to your burdens.


you've already sorted your issues and that's progress.

One thing I've done when I was feeling burned out was I tabled the game long enough to play another game from start to finish. Usually, by the time I'm done with that gaming marathon, I'm ready to return to dev work. Maybe try that?

I know that felling... sometimes i think about trying to build a development group for games.


Like try to find another scripter, a maper, an artist, a songwriter, and work on a project that the entire group feels confortable in a "non sheduled" pace, when everyone make progress whenever they can... Then I wake up, wash my face and go to work. :]

I think anyone that intends to take game development (or any passion for that matter) seriously, has run into this problem, or something similar. 


The he thing you have to realize that while some of us are workaholics, or like what we do, if we do too much, or just a lot of things at once in general, we will eventually burn out, no matter how much you love doing something. 


When things are getting stressful, or difficult, the answer isn't to keep on plowing ahead. That's just gonna make things worse. Instead, evaluate the importance of things, and the most important things should go to the forefront, while things that can wait, should go on the back burner that you know can. You might want to do everything at once, or think you can, but that's not always the case.


The time you would have spent on other less important things, should be spent recuperating and getting your stress under control. Then bring back those other things once you're feeling better. Take this from someone who tends to take on a lot, and is a bit of a workaholic himself. I had to learn the hard way how to deal with this, and trust me, it sucks learning that way.