18 replies to this topic

[eddie]

So, I've gotten pretty far in my game-development hobby project. I've gotten the network sending packets back and forth, a very flexible (lua embedded in C++) system for dealing with it, versioning, and a basic rendering client that I can fly around in, and send chat text to other clients in.

You'd think I'd be on top of the moon, ripping out code like there's no tomorrow.

Well, add to the mix a bunch of things that I won't get into, and I find that I'm not tearing through my code anymore with the zeal I once had.

Since most of my problem is just lack of time (to unwind, mostly, and then code later), I know I'll be bitten by the bug again in a matter of days, but it got me thinking:

What inspires *you* to code, when you hit those slumps when you just don't want to tackle the same old problems again? Is there something that you just *know* will make you more productive? Or do you just have to wait it out? Or do you never get into them?

Do you go for a walk? Buy a coffee? Draw? Sports?

I'm just curious to see what others do as a way to relax their mind so they can come back and tackle things again... I think it'd be interesting to hear what you all have to say. :)

[roxtar]

With me, when I start coding, I keep on going till I reach to a satisfactory solution to the problem. Most of the times I find it hard to get motivated during the early stages, when you really can't see the fruits of your efforts. But once I'm half way through, I will usually complete the other half much quicker than the earlier one.
Oh and to unwind one of these things usually suits me: coffee, basketball or beer. :yes:

[lejno]

Get you're hands on the game Mafia if you haven't already got it.
I always imagine whatever tech I'm working on being implemented in a game like that.

I never was particularly taken by the whole mafioso subculture, by the way.
The game holds a different quality.

There is nothing that ever immersed me in a game more than the feeling I got from having just completed a hit, swiftly stolen a car from a dark alley and dissapearing of into the night in a 1930's american city listening to the jazzy tunes of whatever neighborhood I was in at the time.

I really don't get why there are no other games like Mafia in this sense, it won sooo many awards.

Sorry for getting a bit of topic. I just want game developers to have played this game because there is no other game like it as far as I know, and I wish there were.

(Rumors has it that Mafia 2 is to be released this summer)

[bladder]

I decided to be a game developer after playing a game called Xenogears. That gem did it for me. Final Fantasy VII made me think about it, Xenogears made me write it in stone. So it's these two games that are the reason for what I do.

Whenever I need motivation, I load up all the songs in my "music/rpg_soundtracks" folder. The music brings back all the scenes from the games, and brings back the feelings and moods. That's enough to keep me going... My "inspiration" playlist contains the soundtracks from Xenogears, Xenosaga I/II, and Final Fantasy VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI - and various remixes from those games (for example Nobuo Uematsu - the composer on the FF series has a band called The Black Mages who play rock versions of the songs on the FF soundtracks). It also contains the soundtracks to *any* game that gave me that same feeling of awsomeness - like Metal Gear, Zelda: Link to the Past, and various other "hits".

So yeah, music keeps me going. And I never get sick of that music, it always reminds me why I love what I do so much. There is one problem with this though: I have to actually play my playlist to get motivated. Sometimes I go for weeks without opening my playlist, and my efficiency and my motivation decrease dramatically.

[opcode-foo]

bladder said:

I decided to be a game developer after playing a game called Xenogears. That gem did it for me. Final Fantasy VII made me think about it, Xenogears made me write it in stone. So it's these two games that are the reason for what I do.

Whenever I need motivation, I load up all the songs in my "music/rpg_soundtracks" folder. The music brings back all the scenes from the games, and brings back the feelings and moods. That's enough to keep me going... My "inspiration" playlist contains the soundtracks from Xenogears, Xenosaga I/II, and Final Fantasy VI/VII/VIII/IX/X/XI - and various remixes from those games (for example Nobuo Uematsu - the composer on the FF series has a band called The Black Mages who play rock versions of the songs on the FF soundtracks). It also contains the soundtracks to *any* game that gave me that same feeling of awsomeness - like Metal Gear, Zelda: Link to the Past, and various other "hits".

So yeah, music keeps me going. And I never get sick of that music, it always reminds me why I love what I do so much. There is one problem with this though: I have to actually play my playlist to get motivated. Sometimes I go for weeks without opening my playlist, and my efficiency and my motivation decrease dramatically.

That is funny, because I always think of the music of Ultima 3 on the POKEY chip. But now you know, I'm pretty old..

I find what inspires me is to switch paradigms and investigate new things. For me, if I find myself in a slump, my realization has been it's my brain telling me I need to explore something new. I think it's good to change paradigms once in a while and learn new things. However, there is also time when you gotta crunch, and than you sometimes just have to push yourself to do it too. I like to go out and watch insects, as I think they are the ultimate natural robotics systems ;-) Go to the park, take a seat somewhere, and just watch all the world moving around. So much stuff going on. You can get lost pondering the complexities of the natural world we take for granted sometimes...

[monjardin]

I have the same problem eddie. After I get home from work, hang out with my wife, eat dinner and unwind, the last thing on my mind is usually hacking more code. When I do get in the mood I usually stay up way to long so I can get good use out of the inspiriation.

It's much easier to get inspired about new things that I want to try out. If I need to code something I fully know how to do or have done already, it seems more like work than fun.

Recently, I've been enjoying trying to answer questions in the forum more than working on a single project at home. I've done a lot of playing around with parsers, scripting and unit testing, but nothing that will give me anything to show for it.

So, I guess the answer for me is to find something interesting and apply it to a hole in my current project. The problem is that it may not be the best, most time and performance efficient solution. For example, you wouldn't believe the heavy use of boost libraries in my little SDL Tetris clone. Guess what I was learning to use at the time? ;)

[eddie]

@monjardin: Hah! Sounds like we're in the same boat in a lot of reasons. My fiancee eats up a lot of my time. Hard problem is that I'm truly torn between my laptop and her at times! (Luckily I don't often have to choose: I can have them both at the same time! :D God bless mobile laptops)

Interesting points everyone. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who falls in slumps like this.

I find a lot of what you all mention applies to me. I generally love going out and playing a sport of choice to unwind, out at a pub with friends, or unwinding in a park somewheres and destressing.

monjardin: your point really reminded me of something else I do. When I'm truly stuck on something and it's aggravating me, I'll often see if I can write a unit test that fails, but has the correct implementation. Then I stew on it for a day or two and then 'fix' the production code so it fixes the unit test. Usually by applying unit-testing "horse-blinders" I can avoid that feeling of being swamped and trudge on through.

Good points everyone, thanks. :) Good to see that we're on the same page.

[Jynks]

Quote

my realization has been it's my brain telling me I need to explore something new.

I am just starting programming but I have had simular problems with other hobbies. I think opcode-foo has hit the nail on the head. You probably just need a break. You might be feeling a bit put out by your lack of interest in programing your project as when you do not do it you arn't doing anything else. A feeling of wasting time. Or worse that you are spending a lot of time working on the progrect and you feel you are not getting anywhere. A feeling of wasted time. So instead of doing any coding in your spare time this week, paint your house. Write a modification to your game idea (A game that is totaly diffrent but will use the same kind of code... kinda like a TC Mod for your game but on paper). Go for a bushwalk, or a surf. Like monjardin said spend more time on the fourm... . ..

Just remeber that if you are doing this as a "hobby project" it should be fun... not work. We get enough work in our 9-5's (well 9 - 5 if we are luckly!!)

Also nothing beats community. Mabey try and get another involved?

[Onikhaosifix]

I get my inspiration from playing a little game called Xenogears :)

[bladder]

Quote

That is funny, because I always think of the music of Ultima 3 on the POKEY chip. But now you know, I'm pretty old..

The Amiga 500, Atari and super famicom, nintendo had a crap load of kick ass games on them. But not as the same magnitude as something like Xenogears - that game made me friggin cry in a scene if I remember correctly! THe thought of giving other people the same feelings that Xenogears gave me, that's what keeps me going. Fun is fun, but some games are more then fun.

[Methulah]

I just boot up a game of something really good and play ten minutes of that or so. Theer are some parts of some games that are very emotional, like the victory in Freelancer, when you have gotten to know the characters fairly well over the course of the game, and one of them sacrifices, and anyway, those that have played the game know what I am talking about.

It's these moments in these games that make it for me. The dialogue at the end of Half-Life 2, most of Deus Ex, making a new character in whatever MMO I play and writing a character history, playing a bit of Planescape: Torment. Anything that involves creativity and emotion gets me pumped to do something that will hopefully invoke similar levels of emotion or levels of creativity in other people.

I'm not going to proofread that ;).

[ProgramWizard]

Sadly, I've fallen into a predcitable pattern:
Start coding.
Find a nice programming forum
Get addcited to said forum
Get kicked out of said foum
Repeat

Let's hope this doesn't happen with devmaster! :happy:

[Onikhaosifix]

bladder said:

The Amiga 500, Atari and super famicom, nintendo had a crap load of kick ass games on them. But not as the same magnitude as something like Xenogears - that game made me friggin cry in a scene if I remember correctly! THe thought of giving other people the same feelings that Xenogears gave me, that's what keeps me going. Fun is fun, but some games are more then fun.

Glad to see someone else who liked Xenogears as well.

[bladder]

Quote

Glad to see someone else who liked Xenogears as well.

Liked?? Did you not read post number 4??

[Onikhaosifix]

bladder said:

Liked?? Did you not read post number 4??

Actually I didn't read post four. I'll read it now.

[Onikhaosifix]

Intersting. I too listen to the Xenogears soundtrack religiously. Final Fantasy VII, IX and X are all in my possession but they didn't do anything for me. Ever since the fourth grade I've been writing these incredibly complex stories. I remember my vice-principal giving me a ribbon for one of my stories.

Xenogears' plot is incredibly complex and sophisticated. However, the story-telling needs some work though. I love Xenosaga : Episode One but thought Episode Two was a huge flop and a piece of crap. In my opinion, there is no hope for the Xeno series. Mitsuda, the musician behind Xenogears, has stated that he no longer wants to work with Takahashi(the creator of the Xenoverse). This may indicate that Takahashi is difficult to work with, and it may also explain why every Xeno game released had some kind of design problem. For instance:

Xenogears' second disc is incomplete.

Xenogears started out as Chrono Trigger 2 but was evolved into something else.

Another interesting fact is that Xenogears was an experimental project. As in, using some of the same gameplay mechanics of Final Fantasy VII(which was an extremely successful game) but with a different story and set of characters.

Takahashi has stated that Xenogears wasn't the "full" game he wanted to make. Another thing related to this is that Xenogears is episode five of the whole story. It would make more sense to start at episode one but I guess Takahashi was pressured by the execs to make a major game so he probably went and skip ahead to episode five because it had the most going on for it.

Xenosaga : Episode One was too short.

A good majority of the songs Mitsuda composed for Xenosaga: Episode One wasn't featured in the game. It was, instead, featured in the game's OST. This may be the main reason why Mitsuda doesn't want anything to do with the Xenosaga team.

Xenosaga : Episode Two is a piece of crap and doesn't follow the story properly.

A million apologies. I drank a great deal of coke and had the energy to write all of this crap.

[eddie]

ProgramWizard said:

Sadly, I've fallen into a predcitable pattern:
Start coding.
Find a nice programming forum
Get addcited to said forum
Get kicked out of said foum
Repeat

Let's hope this doesn't happen with devmaster! :happy:

<laughs> I wonder how many threads that you've posted in *don't* contain some direct or indirect comment about your bannage habits. It would make a pretty high ratio, I imagine.

Anyhow, it doesn't really say much as to how you get inspired, but this thread has rapidly turned into a Xenogears fanfest anyhow. :) ( If only I had a PSOne/2 so I could play it. :) ).

[Alex]

If I get too bored with one specific problem I tend to work on another loose end that looks more fun and return later with new ideas. My general inspiration is the big picture of what kind of things will be possible using my code (if everything turns out as planned).
Normally the big picture is something rather insane..like currently I'm trying to create a distributed physics engine that can handly deformation of objects (things melting when they get hot, some sort of chemsitry, ...). Eventually the player should be able to create an objct blue print in a test bed (he constructs the shape, materials, mechaniks etc). Then in the game the object can be build using the apropriate materials. Finally the user can use his object to do what ever he likes (probably shoot other players).
So there'd be a technology war, who builds the best shield/weapon/rader what ever.

I think physics is a lot mor than just collision response...

Alex

[ProgramWizard]

eddie said:

<laughs> I wonder how many threads that you've posted in *don't* contain some direct or indirect comment about your bannage habits. It would make a pretty high ratio, I imagine.

Anyhow, it doesn't really say much as to how you get inspired, but this thread has rapidly turned into a Xenogears fanfest anyhow. :) ( If only I had a PSOne/2 so I could play it. :) ).

OK, I really get inspired by playing other games, mostly RPG's. I like to take underdeveloped play mechanics and plot devices and take them somehwere. Oddly, I often think up a game's title and storyline before the actual gameplay.