How I almost got burned out and saved myself

Let’s get a little personal, shall we?

As a game developer you’re told over and over that marketing is extremely important. I had read that many times, seen it in many “how to succeed as an indie game developer” guides, it’s constantly mentioned in post mortems, and, you know, it’s just a fact of life at this point. It is extremely important.

Hence I would spend a lot of time on twitter and some times reddit.

But, the fear of missing a twitter thread, maybe even from someone with a huge following, started to take its toll on me. I would check my feed many times over the course of a day, some times even hourly. When I woke up in the morning, one of the first things I would do was checking what opportunies I missed during the night and totally irrationally blame myself. Stupid, I know.

On top of that I had to build my own following. A measly 2-300 followers won’t do anything in terms of “selling” my game. So I was posting pretty much as often as I could. I put pressure on myself to produce “good” tweets all the time.

I started to get really, really fed up with all of that. That self imposed pressure to constantly put myself out there was taking away focus from other things and it didn’t really help much. Recently, on twitter, there’s been a movement to ignore those threads, because it’s become apparent that they don’t benefit anyone else than the thread starter. So that’s great news. Yay #indiegamedev twitter!

Anyway, It was demotivating looking at my follower count and wishlist count. I was slowly getting burned out. I won’t say I was close to abandoning the game and quitting gamedev for good, but I believe things would have turned out worse given enough time. But it never got that far. I decided to pull the plug – I took a long break from development and twitter. In hindsight one of the best things I’ve done for myself for a long time. During my break I played games, cleared my mind, just going on with my normal life but without all the stress.

A couple of months passed, and I slowly started to regain the desire to pick development up again. I returned with new energy and new ideas. And it felt really, really good to get back at it again.

But, to avoid the same thing happening again, I set some rules for myself:

Stop caring for followers and wishlists.

Well, that’s only partly true. I do care, of course, but I’m not chasing it anymore. I’m still not happy about either, but it is what it is. As I’m writing this I’m at 361 twitter followers which is ridiculously low after almost 2 years of being on twitter. But I don’t let it get to me as much as before. That number would most likely be very different if I was making a first person shooter or a super cute platformer in Unity. But I’m not, so..  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Focus on the game instead of.. well, everything else, basically.

I don’t seek new ways to market the game, I certainly don’t post on toxic subreddits and I don’t care about the “show me what you got” threads on twitter anymore. I will participate if I see something (marketing related/threads) that speaks to me, but that happens very rarely. So, unlike before, I can go for days without checking my feed. It really doesn’t bother me anymore, and I don’t feel any FOMO. It’s a huge relief.

Don’t feel pressure to post.

I post when I feel like it. Also, remember that #gamedev twitter is mostly just that, gamedevs. I don’t expect to target potential players this way (aside from other devs that may also be interested in the game). Reminding myself of that has helped me to not question why I don’t gain more new followers.

Don’t worry so much.

One thing that really helped me was changing my mindset: I’m making this game because I can and because I think it’s fun (most of the time). It’s an interesting challenge, it stimulates me intellectually and creatively in ways my day job doesn’t and hasn’t done for many years. So to be working on the game is actually pretty rewarding. Also, when I release the game one day it’s going to be so freaking cool to be able to confidently say I’m a game developer whenever people ask what I do.

Remember to take breaks.

I don’t mean 5 minute breaks during the day, though they are important too. I mean taking a week or two (or more) off development entirely and go do something else for a while. Then come back with new ideas and new energy. And some times even a fresh take on how to approach the next big task. I find it works pretty well for me.

No deadline.

I mean, this could work both ways. Some people thrive with deadlines. I’ve found that having not set a deadline, I can work in whatever tempo feels right to me. Sure, I would like to get a demo ready for that next Steam festival, but if I don’t, no harm done. I can always try the next one. Having said that, some times I do get the creeping feeling of letting people down. I know some of my most loyal followers have been waiting for the game for a very long time, and there’s nothing I would like more than to just give it to them so they don’t have to wait any longer. But I also don’t want to rush anything. It’s ready when it’s ready. In the meantime, there are plenty of other new games they can play.

These rules have served me well since my big almost-meltdown, and I will continue to abide by them as much as I possibly can.