I have a confession to make. When I was first making plans to go indie I made a couple of promises to myself:
- That I would devote more time to my life outside work: reading, music, exercise, meditation, playing, spending time with Sara.
- That I would focus on the essential aspects of the game first, and not be distracted by small details/polish until absolutely necessary (I’m a perfectionist, and I have a hard time finishing projects)
What have I done so far?
- Gone on an intensive work binge for my first two weeks, at the expense of all those other things.
- Made a logo.
Now, I have mixed feelings about this.
I definitely want to find a healthier balance between work and life. But right now I’m really excited about starting this project and I figure I should put that energy to good use. I’ve been justifying this “crunch time” as a focused push to get the game ready to play by people whose opinions I respect (eg. last Wednesday at MRGS). If it continues, it’s going to be a problem, but I think everything I’ve done so far has been valuable. Perhaps it was still too intense.
I also think that spending time on details is important. Sometimes I need a distraction to clear my head, and working on the art, sound, logo, etc. is part of the reason I went indie. I like that stuff. If inspiration strikes (which it did for the logo) then, again, I don’t want to waste the opportunity. But I need to recognize when it’s gone too far and when my underlying motivations are to avoid important work. That’s going to be difficult.
Luckily my fiancée Sara has agreed to be my “producer” and to call me out when it becomes clear that I’m going off course. Thank you darling, for all your support.
So, the question I’m asking myself (and you!) this week is: What’s an appropriate work/life balance for an indie dev when you work from home full-time, and how do you achieve it?
…and since I spent a whole day of work on it and want to show it off 😉 here’s the Spaceteam logo I came up with:
