MeshiSoftworks
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Dev Journal: Slumps May Be Good Sometimes?
🕑 Added 2025-06-03 03:52:08 +0000 UTCHey it's me again, back with some more game dev psychoanalysis as I know that's the hard-hitting content you want. Feel free to skip this one if that's not interesting to you, but if it is I think the issue I'm talking about today isn't unique to me and may even be somewhat common in creative work? (I also don't have much else to talk about this week.)
I've been working on peeling back the layers on my slump- trying to figure out what the cause behind it is. With all the options I've tried out, none of them really fit. It's not perfectionism, that may slow things down but it doesn't stop them. It's not burnout, I haven't worked nearly hard enough to be burnt out yet. It's not anxiety or a lack of interest or anything like that. It is strange that this would happen after my art has gone through a huge improvement and right when I'm about to be finished with a build, and I can't help but think it's not a coincidence.
What I've realized is, there is an issue with my development mindset that has been bogging down the game from the very beginning and VT will never be able to live up to its full potential unless I solve it. On the one hand, I have this driving force that pushes me to create and improve without any concern for anything else, and that is both my core source of motivation and enjoyment in development. But on the opposite side of the spectrum I also have this analytical voice that tells me to pace myself and to not spend too much time or energy on any one thing. And that's a good voice to have, the problem is it doesn't work. When I do things the reasonable way, not only do I lose that driving force, I actually feel myself take damage from spurning it. The result is it feels like it takes more time and energy for me work by half-measures than to go all the way. Even on Corn's art, that I've been talking about so much and still haven't shown off, I was holding back because I didn't want to make her too complicated and that probably contributed to me hitting a brick wall of motivation.
Maybe I've been pigeonholing myself too much, but I can't help but feel that if I were to stop thinking so much and just go stupid with the development, I'd get a lot more done. The downside of that would be that the game may run into quality creep that slows down development, but it uh... can't get much slower than it is right now anyway. It also may make things unreliable and mean that I'd just be working on whatever seems most interesting to me on any given day, but to be fair it's... pretty unreliable anyway. It's easier said than done and of course it may not work at all, but hey, at least I'll have tried.
All that is to say, sorry about the delay again! I don't know how this will affect the build's release date, but whenever it releases it will at least be higher quality than it would be otherwise. Thank you so much for your support, and I hope to see you again soon!
Comments
SaltyCasul
The reason you feel like you're not making progress fast enough and that you're spending too much energy on simple things may be because of that "reasonable side" of yours. It may not work when it comes to stopping you from going ham on something, but it's still present, and knowing you ignored it, it makes you feel like you've spent much more time and energy than you actually did. You love what you're doing. You go further with the little details because you that's what drives you. Keep your goals in sight and take it 1 step at a time.
泳 严
I really like the game you made. It's like dancing on my XP.It's not a bad thing to want to make the game perfect. Everyone wants to do better, and I also hope to have a better experience.So don't be discouraged!Just do what you want to do, and I will always look forward to your updates.
Viktor
Good idea is probably to find a balance. Let yourself go ham on making something, if it feels right go all out. That's usually the space you find the coolest and most fun things for both you and the players. But also don't completely lose yourself down that path. Say you been making some awesome stuff, take a moment to make sure it get properly integrated, that you are still on track with what you're making. Leaning to hard into the creativity might derail the project completely and lead you to hyper focus on stuff that might need to be cut, or make a too big a backlog of things that need to be properly fixed. Leaning to hard into restraining yourself and keeping everything on track can really stifle you, make you create things that don't feel too fun, make you loose out on things that could be really awesome for what your making, make you to focused on everything working compared to whats fun. So make a balance, make sure both parts gets their turn at the wheel, a compromise between the two doesn't need to be equal at all times. And i think both parts are important to make the things you like, one pulls the project forward while the other makes sure its possible to actually reach the finish.
