Jon Shafer, lead designer of Civ V, has been working on his own indie 4X game, At the Gates, for about as long as Josh was working on Limit Theory.
Unfortunately, Jon also had something of a breakdown trying to make his game, and has now written about it.
Josh, if you're still around, please read Jon's fairly short post. There's a way through.
Post
Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:22 am
#2
Re: Surviving Indie Development
Interesting Blog post
Here some parts where he noticed he was idling unproductively to increase productivity:
Here some parts where he noticed he was idling unproductively to increase productivity:
Instead of writing new code or playtesting the game I found myself spending more and more time refactoring code. If you’re not a programmer this basically amounts to moving chairs around – something everyone should probably consider at least a little bit but certainly not spend, you know, months on. But I did. I spent months doing this.
During this time I started to take on new hobby projects, like building my own custom CSS dark theme for the internet. I would make myself more productive by improving the environment around me. I’ve never liked staring at bright white screens, especially when you’re looking at a computer screen all night, every night, so I resolved to fix this by redesigning the look of the internet to suit my needs.
Eventually even this was unsuitable. The CSS editor itself was too primitive. I dug into the code which made up the editor itself, and redesigned it from a plain text black-and-white side panel to a semi-transparent mouseover window with full syntax highlighting. After a couple months of work on the CSS editor now nothing was going to stop me.
Post
Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:59 am
#3
Re: Surviving Indie Development
Yes.
I really want Josh to know he's not alone in what he's gone through.
I really want Josh to know he's not alone in what he's gone through.
Post
Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:32 pm
#4
Re: Surviving Indie Development
woulda been pretty cool if the site he posted that on had a dark background tho :V
I'll have to read it tomorrow in the daylight.
I'll have to read it tomorrow in the daylight.
Post
Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:57 pm
#5
If you've seen my old blog site, you know I'm right there with you on the preference for light text on a dark background.
Re: Surviving Indie Development
If you've seen my old blog site, you know I'm right there with you on the preference for light text on a dark background.
Post
Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:36 am
#6
Re: Surviving Indie Development
It did. For him. Given his custom CSS dark theme for the internet. You know what to do...
Post
Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:15 am
#7
Re: Surviving Indie Development
My phone is fully locked down with Twilight and the oneplus night mode. I have no problem reading stuff with a light background in my bed at night and sleeping right after. I have more trouble reading pages/Apps with a dark background. For example I can't really read websites like ArsTechnica in bed without bumping up the brightness from the lowest setting.
On my PC on the other hand, I mostly use dark mode. I have no problem with reading pages using dark background, but it's mostly due to the higher brightness of my monitors. Still, I am using flux with the 2800k setting at night.
Laptop, I use light modes again, due to lower brightness settings of the display.
In the end, it would be great if I could just toggle dark mode everywhere
On my PC on the other hand, I mostly use dark mode. I have no problem with reading pages using dark background, but it's mostly due to the higher brightness of my monitors. Still, I am using flux with the 2800k setting at night.
Laptop, I use light modes again, due to lower brightness settings of the display.
In the end, it would be great if I could just toggle dark mode everywhere
Post
Tue Jan 15, 2019 9:18 pm
#8
Re: Surviving Indie Development
thedamngod wrote: ↑Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:15 amIn the end, it would be great if I could just toggle dark mode everywhere
Post
Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:30 pm
#9
Re: Surviving Indie Development
It's eerie how similar this is to Josh's own description of his descent.
I've never thought highly of Jon Shafer (on account of some terrible design choices in Civ V) but can't help but feel sympathy for the guy now. Glad he's over it.
I've never thought highly of Jon Shafer (on account of some terrible design choices in Civ V) but can't help but feel sympathy for the guy now. Glad he's over it.
Post
Thu Jan 17, 2019 11:23 pm
#10
Re: Surviving Indie Development
Its the danger of loosing focus when:
-self organizing / solo development
-having no external deadlines
-allowing feature creep
-self organizing / solo development
-having no external deadlines
-allowing feature creep
Post
Fri Jan 18, 2019 1:06 am
#11
Re: Surviving Indie Development
You can understand why my second thought after reading Jon Shafer's comments (my first being relief that he found a way through) was that I needed to connect his experience to Josh's.
Creative people who need independence and some solitude to do their work also need to let people in on their lives. If that means the occasional brief inconvenience, better that than to lose one's way.
I hope Josh's story also ultimately turns out well.
Creative people who need independence and some solitude to do their work also need to let people in on their lives. If that means the occasional brief inconvenience, better that than to lose one's way.
I hope Josh's story also ultimately turns out well.