Game Dev Notes, #1

Hey, just wanted to say that game development isn’t always difficult. I see most people online (including me) talking about problems and roadblocks, but sometimes there are moments when everything’s coming together. Earlier today I was working on a project and everything was going smoothly and my creative expression was flowing and it felt so good. When I realize I’m in a flow state moment, I have to be conscious of my decisions or it’ll end immediately. Nothing ruins it faster than getting stuck in the judgement stage. Like redrawing sprites too many times, worrying over slightly glitchy code, or most of all, being too concerned about the future. When I write code, I’m always thinking about writing it for the future. Like making it readable and concise. The problem is, if that focus on the future is preventing me from making the thing in the first place, that future will never arrive. I don’t know why, but it’s hard for me to let go of good coding practices. This is indie game dev, not enterprise software. But to my brain, “code is code”. It’s not like the end result is that much better when I try harder, but sometimes my awareness of the spaghetti is debilitating.
So when I do get a good moment, I have to choose to continue in a path of not getting stuck. That could mean skipping technical features, going with my first ideas, and writing spaghetti code. Anyway, I hope this was helpful somehow. Here’s to more flow state!

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