Moving on from Game Development (mostly)

WARNING: Lame late night rambling ahead

I think I'm about done with game dev, or rather done with game dev being my "thing". It's a hobby of mine but I wouldn't really consider it a passion, and the older I get the more I want to make something that actually has longevity, not just one-off game jam entries.

I've contemplated starting a long-term game dev project before, but over time I've found that I get more enjoyment out of making games when it's just for fun and there's no pressure to make something good. Game jams are a great outlet for that, but while the games I make for those may be entertaining (hopefully), they don't have much artistic value.

Going forward I'm gonna start prioritizing music more since I've realized over time that's what I actually care about, but for the longest time I've never bothered releasing anything serious out of insecurities regarding the quality of my work. But not releasing your work because you think it's bad is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, because for your work to get better you kinda have to start putting it out there and taking criticism, y'know?

Of course I'll probably continue making games, I juggle hobbies constantly and I don't think I'll ever let that one go completely, but I guess all I'm saying with this post is I don't want my Ludum Dare quasi-Flash games to be the thing I build my online presence around.

A note on burnout

I guess the other thing to mention is that after programming professionally for a few years, burnout is real, and programming all day just to come home and write more code is fucking exhausting sometimes. Programming in your spare time is fun for small projects but doing anything large scale when you're already doing similar stuff full-time is a recipe for disaster. I've seen people do it, but it's not for me.

TL;DR: Burnout sucks, making games is fun and I'll probably still do it but I'll be slowly shifting my focus to putting out music going forward. Just wanted to get my thoughts out there, forgive my verbosity :^)

Last updated September 3rd, 2022 at 07:07 AM CST