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Have you ever sacrificed something important for being a game dev?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Instability, Jul 15, 2015.

  1. AaronC

    AaronC

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    I sold a Yamaha CS-5 70's analog synth to buy my first Mac G4 (Early Unity only ran on Macs).

    I kind of regretted that, but it kickstarted my career. Developing on a G4 required the patience of a saint tho.
     
    EliasMasche likes this.
  2. tiggus

    tiggus

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    What about sacrifices for being a gamer? :)

    My buddy sold his plasma back in the day to rent time at a computer lab to play Wizardry :eek:
     
  3. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    Sorry, I'm coming in late here...

    Are we talking about coke or heroin?
     
  4. ippdev

    ippdev

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    Those are extracted and modified alkaline salts..technically drugs.
     
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  5. Not_Sure

    Not_Sure

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    I know, I'm just joking around.

    Truth be told, while I don't do anything I'm actually an antiprohibitionist.

    I feel that prohibition has only served to create a black market that is unregulated and causes real crime, with drugs being taken regionally (not many meth heads in Miami), while at the same time making rehabilitation that much more difficult for addicts with the punishments doing more harm than the actual drugs, while at the same time severity of the crimes has a clear racial bias built on falsified studies, and all the while has created a network of funding from criminal and terroristic organizations.

    All of that so we can pretend that there are people out there that are saying "You know, I'd really like to try heroin, but gosh darn if it isn't illegal."

    Sorry, what was the topic again?
     
  6. Yash987654321

    Yash987654321

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    Time!!!
     
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  7. Rajmahal

    Rajmahal

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    I sacrificed time allocated to other hobbies ... such as playing video games and painting warhammer miniatures. Beyond that ... not much. Also don't browse the web as much.
     
  8. Azmar

    Azmar

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    Lol I had to stop painting my warhammer miniatures also to have time to work on my game.... :( Sadly I got about 1000$ worth of forgeworld figures that I bought and never painted still...same with a 2000$ tyranid army.
     
  9. jtsmith1287

    jtsmith1287

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    When I first decided I wanted to do this I sat down with my wife and explained what the hours would look like. "If I want to actually finish a project and then further support it, it's 2 full time jobs". She was cool with for the most part, and supportive since this has been long coming. I've been creating games in many designs my whole life (literally since I was a few years old, making up some stupid game with an empty gum package and a pop gun... hell if I know what it was). So there I began, saying no to everything and locking myself away in my office after dinner, saying hello to the wife and patting the dogs on the head.

    Fast forward a year and I've found my balance. I realized that as long as I'm just sacrificing time, and not money, I don't need to RUSH to the finish line. I've got a partner developer and a "back pocket" artist who's there in a pinch when we need something. The wife always makes sure I go socialize when we're invited to do something or throw a party or whatever. And a few times my other developer and I just look at each other, exhausted from our day jobs and just go, "you wanna just veg on some torchlight 2 for an hour or two?".

    So in the end I just sacrifice time. I purchase assets here and there, both physical and digital, but those aren't sacrifices, even if the games don't pan out. my friends and family know what I'm doing and support me. It's pretty rock'n'roll, not gonna lie.

    I highly suggest finding the balance where you're maintaining your normal day to day life while busting your ass in the moments you have. Time management is your friend. Got 3 hours to spare? You better turn off that TV, pop on your favorite coding playlist and lock the door. Why? Because sacrifices suck. Sometimes you have to do them, but when it's ultimately minor irresponsibility or accidental poor choices that lead to the sacrifices you'll slowly burn yourself out and start second guessing you work. Mistakes happen, you have to take risks, but be smart about it, use your time wisely, but don't be feel guilty about sitting in the living room with friends on your third bottle of wine every once in a while. Live you life AND make awesome games.

    Save the the crunch time for release. ;)
     
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  10. jtsmith1287

    jtsmith1287

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    ALSO, for those of you that sacrificed your hobbies for game creation...

    Stop it! You stop it right now! Bad!

    Think about what got you excited to make games in the first place? What gets your imagination going? Where do your creative energies come from?

    For me it was other games, movies and soundtracks. I've had so many awesome ideas just from listening to music. It's an integral part of my workflow

    You can never do something creative and not also saturate yourself in the very thing you're trying to create. You know what most author's greatest advice is? Read anything and everything. Likewise film directors are going to be watching and analyzing every film that releases and partaking in film festivals. Dancers watch other dancers dance. Athletes watch other teams play.

    Don't sacrifice your hobbies. Do them more -- and manage your time wisely. You'll create a much better product that way.
     
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  11. darkhog

    darkhog

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    What is a "party"?
     
  12. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    Game dev is my hobby...
     
  13. Rajmahal

    Rajmahal

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    THat's okay ... join the club. Any serious wargamer is destined to die with a huge collection of unpainted miniatures in his storage.
     
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  14. ensiferum888

    ensiferum888

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    Nothing really except my evenings and weekends. Like Telia I wish I had started this sooner, I started learning C# when I was 25 and picked up Unity at around 28. For the past two years I've been working on my project and have loved every minute of it. (that was a lie right there I remember a few weeks ago swearing alone in my office).

    Yes there's a lot of unreturned calls, a lot of beers at the pub missed but I don't feel too bad about it. I also kind of regret not having the balls to do this full time. I'm not a risk taker so I keep my day job while I try to finish my game.
     
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  15. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

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    I'm glad you guys didn't start this sooner, ruin your relationships and kill your social life. Don't say stupid things you know nothing about :)

    Game development demands sacrifice, it's not a rose tinted dream that you think you would've had an advantage with by being young. I gave up a lot of my younger years to learn the craft and where am I? still doing it.

    I reserve the right to warn others that it can be an obsession. And obsessions are best left for older people. Younger people need freedom, dreams and the outdoors.
     
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  16. jtsmith1287

    jtsmith1287

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    Not to mention the wisdom gained with age. I'm only 27, but every year I look back and realize that some of the insights I've gained I would have never fathomed a year prior. I think really digging into development "for real" should be the opposite of having a baby. With babies, everyone wants to wait until it feels right, but then whoops here it comes anyway, get ready, wooooooaahhh!!! However with games, just dabble, learn, grow, experiment (and ya dream, be outdoors, etc) and when it feels right, pedal to the metal. Risk assessment is not going to be a strong suite for younger people (I'm still in that crowd). But once you've bought a house worked your job or several years, have a family etc, you start to understand what it really means to take risks (But I'm also in this crowd). It'll be different for everyone, but ultimately when a dream is going to take thousands of hours to bring to fruition, and could possibly fail miserably and be wasted, you need to make sure you're still living your life in the mean time.

    PS, before you comment on me saying the time was wasted, just stop and think about what I really mean and spare yourself an argumentative post. :)
     
  17. RichardKain

    RichardKain

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    I've sacrificed easily thousands of hours of my life. I've been teaching myself to develop games since I was 19. That was almost 16 years ago. And even now, I sometimes feel that I'm only just scratching the surface. I fully expect to continue doing this until the day I die. While my patience is sometimes put to the test, my enthusiasm has never waned. I just love this stuff!

    For me, some of the rewards have been a bit more tangible. While I've never worked in games, my career has been leaning toward the technical side of things for quite some time. My research into game development has actually been very useful for furthering my own career.
     
  18. kaiyum

    kaiyum

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    Society, parents, classmates, thousands of hours, favorite games and movies, potential dates, anticipated civil engineering carieer with a lot lot lot of money.

    Well, its a black hole and I already crossed the event horizon. What could I do?
     
  19. jtsmith1287

    jtsmith1287

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    You just get in there and give your daughter morse code via bookshelf to keep you from starting game development.
     
  20. I am da bawss

    I am da bawss

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    Have you ever sacrificed something important for being a (indie) game dev?

    Hmmmm let's see..... Dignity! ;)

    I think being a game developers (or especially indie game developers) is not consider a real job for a lot of people,
     
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  21. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    I typically lead with software developer. If they seem interested or tech savvy I venture into games.
     
  22. jtsmith1287

    jtsmith1287

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    Ya that didn't work so well for me. I lead with software developer and that got their expectations up. Then I said I make games... conversation took a turn for the worst. Now I just kinda shrug and go, "I make games" and then talk them up from there, haha.
     
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  23. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

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    To be fair I normally say "I'm a biochemical engineer. I also run a business doing freelance software development." Only a handful of people actually follow up and ask what I actually do all day.
     
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  24. ChrisSch

    ChrisSch

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    I wish I started it sooner. But I had no idea how easy it was to make games. Also Unity wasn't free and I was just a kid. I started with making failed games, then switched to the asset store, so I regret spending time on failed games first, but I guess those are all lessons, so not really wasted. Making assets just suits me better. :)

    I can't say I sacrificed my eyes, I was on a 17inch CRT screen for a long time, I have excellent above average sight, if you ask my doc, and that screen was kind to my eyes. But recently I got a new Asus 24" LED screen as graduation gift, and it won't, freaking, stop, burning, my, eyes! I swear I was wearing sunglasses the first hour or two, even tho I reduced the brightness to 80%. After almost a month I'm still not used to it, and I feel its harming my eyes, and I'm struggling to see text sometimes. I don't know what to do about that, so if anyone has a suggestion, I'd appreciate it.

    I sacrificed almost my entire social life, but not my girlfriend, instead I dragged her into the whole mess. :D
    Also sacrificed a lot of game playing time. Playing games for hours a day is what fueled my imagination and gave me ideas for games of my own. But after I went full out with Unity, that sort of died out.

    I still consider myself a beginner, and I don't have time for pleasantries. I'll enjoy life when I've made it. :D
     
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  25. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    Reduce the brightness more (default screen brightness on most monitors is absurdly high; mine is at 30% and white looks just plain white, instead of the weaponized plasma white that it is at 100%). And get a monitor without PWM backlight dimming, so it's flicker-free. A list can be found here.

    --Eric
     
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  26. ChrisSch

    ChrisSch

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    Weaponized plasma white, haha that describes it. I know I can reduce it more, but I fear not seeing the colors correctly, and that it would affect my work when it comes to texturing, since I mainly do 3D art. That's the main reason I'm struggling. That's the problem I had with my old CRT screen, it was too dark compared to what everyone is using. But I didn't know so I made all my textures and screenshots too bright, and only noticed now after I got the new screen. But I'll try downing the percentage more. :)
     
  27. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    You should calibrate the monitor. On a Mac it's the Displays preference pane, Color tab, click Calibrate... button.

    --Eric
     
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  28. ChrisSch

    ChrisSch

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    Thanks I'll give it a shot.