FIVE TIPS FOR PART-TIME GAME DEVS, TO HELP YOU GET THE MOST OUT OF YOUR TIME

Tues Feb 27, 2024 - post by Jono

Hey peeps,

Hope you all had a happy holidays and a safe New Year. Sorry for the lack of January blog post but Jonesy and I tend not to do much game development in January. And honestly, I don’t feel bad about it. AT ALL. 

January is packed with family trips and school holiday activities and since we are part-time game developers, and Hour of Reckoning is still a) early in development, b) self-funded with no monthly burn, we pretty much just take the month off. 

I even had time to actually play some games which was pretty great. My daughter and I played a fair bit of Mario and Sonic at the Olympics, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-op and I even got to play a game that had been on my wishlist for ages; Sloclap’s Sifu which is one of the most interesting beat em ups I’ve ever played. I also have a pretty severe Marvel Snap habit and my chill out game is Slay the Spire as I make my way up the Ascensions.

The time off got me thinking about what I’ve learned about making games part-time.

I’m writing this from the perspective of a mid-40’s parent, who (usually) has a decent day job. This article isn’t for full-time developers or former AAA devs who have funding, and it’s not aimed at people making experimental projects for fun. It’s for those of us who are slugging away while holding down the fort somewhere else, or who are struggling to find enough time to do it. It’s a different type of game development, with a different set of constraints.

Being part-time gamedevs doesn’t make us less passionate than full time devs. It likely means that we have other responsibilities that require our attention.

So here’s some observations I’ve noticed that might be of use. Alright, let’s get stuck in…

#1: “GET REAL”

Get real about your ability. Get real about your available time. Get real about your budget. Get real about your priorities. Get real about your game idea. Get real about your experience. Get real about your resources. Get real about your work/life balance. Get real about your scope. Get real about your goals. Get r…

This isn’t the intro to a new Trainspotting film — but be brutally honest with yourself about what kind of game you are making and how you can build it. Where are your skills and strengths? Where are your weaknesses and what can you do to mitigate them? If you lack artistic skills, perhaps you can outsource your art. If you lack programming skills, can you bring a programmer onto the project? If you lack time to work on it properly, can you find a way to build a team to spread the workload? If you lack skill, time AND money… shiiiii-t son, your task just got a lot harder. One of these is good, two is better. And if you have all three - well you could probably do game development full-time!

Now you’ve probably seen this article and Venn diagram of game development from Jake Birkett that gets referred to a lot, and for good reason. It suggests that the game you should make is at the centre of a) what you can make, b) what you want to make and c) what there is a market for.

I also like the ‘Project triangle’ (also called Iron Triangle or Triple Constraint) where the quality of your project/game is determined by the scope, cost and time you have available. Changes in one of the constraints require adjustments in the other two or quality will suffer. For e.g. increasing your games scope will affect the cost of making it, and the length of time to complete.

So, chickity-check yo' self before you wreck yo' self and get real about what it’s gonna take. For real. Really.

#2: ONE HOUR EACH DAY

Years ago, before I started my indie game dev journey, I did some contract work for a guy who was building a football app. I was amazed at his drive and energy for the product as he already had a full time job, a newborn baby, a wife and a bunch of other things on his plate. He told me that if you do just one hour a day on your project, by the end of the week, you’ll have gained a whole 7-hour work day. It’s so stupidly simple but you can’t argue with the maths.

It does require some discipline, so you may need to watch less YouTube or Netflix, but if you start with an hour per day, you’ll be able to increase it over time. I tend to average about 3 hours per day, which means I gain an extra three working days per week. And there’s your part-time game development hours - you can achieve a lot in 20 hours a week.

Naturally this depends on what the main skill you contribute to the project is. For example, a programmer might find it difficult to do 3 hours of programming after 8 hours programming during the day. So, if it’s not always possible to find an hour (or three), I always make sure to do at least one thing each day. It could be a rough sketch, writing some design notes, or even a bit of market research or responding to an email (remember, there’s much more to making a game than just making the game). It doesn’t matter what, as long as you do it and build the habit of working daily, eventually you’ll find yourself going from one task, to one hour, to several hours.

I like to keep a simple spreadsheet where I log my hours per month on everything related to game development. This could be concept art, level design, prototyping but it could also be listening to a gamedev podcast, managing outsourcers, reading the latest game news or participating in The Discourse. This is useful for two reasons; 1) tracking your time helps you work out how long tasks actually take which will make estimating further tasks easier 2) it also lets you see where you might be able to use your time better. So you spent 20 hours this month on concept art but spent 65 hours watching YouTube videos on Game Maker’s Toolkit, maybe you should reverse those numbers if you want to get things done. (Disclaimer: I really like watching Game Maker’s Toolkit)

#3: MOMENTUM IS KEY

Momentum is absolutely key for part-time projects, especially if you want your project to eventually be released. Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of indie projects stall or remain in the fifth plane of development hell. This isn’t a criticism, because indie development is hard. But if you want to get your game out there, you need to generate enough momentum so that every bit of work you do moves the project forward.

I often liken it to a multi-stage rocket launch. You need a huge burst of power at the start of the project (when your enthusiasm and motivation are highest) to escape the earth’s gravity. If things fail here, your project won’t even get off the ground. But if you can get significant thrust (say, produce a working prototype, or concept art to attract contributors) then you need to keep it up, where your second stage and third stage booster rockets will kick in and your project will continue to make progress with a lot less effort.

Clearly I am NOT a rocket scientist, but your aim should be to get your project trajectory to a point where it’s always moving forward. Momentum doesn’t last forever, and rockets can break down or drift away in space, which ties back to my ‘one thing a day’ point - as long as you’re doing something, you can get your rocket to it’s destination. But getting that big start is key.

#4: DON’T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB (YET)

The difficult thing about making games part-time is the constant urge to want to do it full-time, but there are benefits to remaining part-time. The following presumes that you’ve not received publisher funding.

  • Restrictions force us to be smart, utilise our time effectively and scope appropriately.

  • By keeping your day job, you ensure a steady stream of income which you can use to hire contributors who will produce work, while you are at work.

  • Reduces risk and stress. It’s impossible to do your best work if you are worried about money or dealing with family stress. And it’s much easier on your partner/family as well - because there is a toll on them too.

  • If you’re younger, or don’t have dependents, or you have a decent sized team also working full-time, then do what feels right.

#5: DON’T DO IT ALL YOURSELF

I’ve met a few unicorn indie-devs. You know the type. They can code, make art, play 5 different instruments, huge following on social media, they speak 14 different languages, win a shitload of awards. Good for them.

Unfortunately, I’m not one and never will be. I found out pretty quickly that in order to make the games I wanted to make, I needed to bring in other people to help. But there is a downside to being a unicorn and that is having to do it all yourself.

So much of game development, especially solo development, is really about opportunity cost. When you’re working on your art, it means you’re not working on your code. Or if you’re making some marketing materials, you’re not able to do fix that bug which requires your attention. Or even worse, if you get stuck, you’ve got no one to help solve your issues.

When I made T20CC, it used to take me about three weeks to model a single stadium, on top of all the other development duties I had. Eventually I found a 3D artist who was looking for some extra cash and he produced a 3d stadium model in about three days. And it really left me quietly furious with myself. If I’d been more aware of this, I would have just taken the plunge and found the cash to smash out a bunch of stadium assets all at once. Sometimes you just need to learn the hard way. You’ll make a lot of mistakes with your first game, which is why every says not to work on your ‘dream game’ first.

For Hour of Reckoning, bringing in Jonesy as an equal partner on the project has been one of my best decisions. I don’t have to worry about technical stuff and since programmers are typically the most expensive personnel to hire, it’s freed up our budget to focus on other things. Also, it helps reduce the opportunity cost problem I mentioned earlier. We’ve hired about 5 or 6 freelance contractors to build our 3D character and enemy models. Having other team members working when you aren’t means you can focus on what you need to most, which ties backs to our earlier point about momentum.

Lastly, you won’t have to be responsible for all of your own motivation. There have been times when motivation has been low (it happens) and I’m barely getting my one-thing-a-day done. Then BAM, a new enemy attack animation will drop on the Trello board and it gives me that boost like when Marty McFly comes back to life at the Enchant Me Under the Sea dance.

TL;DR - HERE’S A SUMMARY

  1. Get real and be honest about your abilities and the game you want to make. You need at least one of time, skill or money for part-time development. Two is better. If you’ve not made a game before, start small - but if you’ve made games before, pick something you want to spend time and money on.

  2. If you’re struggling to find time, try to do one task a day and by the end of the year, you’ve done 365 things. Try doing an hour a day to give you one extra working day per week. See if you can lift that number.

  3. Start your project strong so that you can generate enough momentum to survive any fallow periods when life gets in the way of your game development.

  4. Don’t quit your day job.

  5. Don’t do it all yourself. Sure, you can, if you want, but it’s much easier to build a game if you’ve got team members who can share the workload or even the financial cost. Some devs love the solo-thing but for me, the stress and trouble isn’t worth the creative control you have.