Hi everyone, I've been rarely posting on dev, or even being active at all. I've started thinking about it seriously.
btw post was unstructured. I don't have the time or editorial skills, so this isn't a perfect novel, but rather raw thinking✌
I actually started my journey 8 months ago. It all started with creating a proton mail acc, just to get a feel for all these communities. It wasn't anything serious; I thought I'd probably get banned or lose my password, and that would be the end of it. I used to dabble in Godot and watch YouTube. But soon, it became my life.
The more I discovered the internet, the more time I spent on it. I started spending less time studying YouTube tutorials. So, I've become quite skilled, and now I don't enjoy watching noob videos, which make up 90% of all tutorials. I started spending more time on social media...
But eventually, I asked myself, "Why?" Why am I on BSky if the algorithms don't even promote my posts past 230 followers? So, I started using it less. Because I got tired of it. I switched to Discord. But I got tired of it too, especially after finishing another jam.
You might get the impression that I'm a caveman lol 💀
The Biggest Problem
I realized I was wasting my time on the wrong things. I realized I was coding less, looking for more ready-made solutions, asking the AI for help...
I realized my brain couldn't even come up with an idea for a casual game anymore. I realized I was burning out. And it didn't happen overnight... It took many months...
Soon I began to realize... I DIDN'T LIKE CODING, I LIKED THE PROCESS OF LEARNING!!!
I used to enjoy discovering new things every day - watching new tutorials, watching videos of newbies like me... But I was at an intermediate level, so it just became uninteresting. It's just not fun anymore.
Now that I have Discord, why should I even bother googling? Why should I search for information when I can ping @@Godot "help"?!
I'm tired. I'm tired of being burned out. No matter what I do, it always leads to burnout. Maybe I'm just out of gray matter.
I've always set limits for myself-for example, like in the previous post-if my game for game jam doesn't make it into the top 100, I'll quit game development. That's nonsense. Honestly, I don't care! What do these external factors even matter to me? A year ago, I didn't know about any of this, just poking around in the editor and playing games? And now? You know, I don't even care how you rate this post!
...Okay, don't kid yourself, all these factors have become way too important... What is this, a dopamine pit? A number addiction?!
I'm actually surprised how many people here, way cooler than me, are so modest about their successes lol...
Okay, let's digress. If this... I just said... Okay, if you want, I can make a "Talking" post where I share the mess I was dribbling above.
Discuss
After I wrote the post, I felt relieved. Not that...
Okay, what do you think about this? Yeah, you can just say, "Go to your Godot, whiner, and cut off your internet connection" - that would be perfectly fair 👍
But with each jam, I'm getting more and more disappointed - I'm finishing last... I've just finished the third jam and am waiting for the results.
Or maybe I'm right? Maybe I really should throw the router out the window?
Okay, I'll continue the post. It's time to stop, though I wanted to write more. Good luck, and I hope you don't experience such burnout, although I probably didn't convey the full gravity of the situation in the post, idk, I don't reread posts.
Bye 😏
P.S. after reading this post, you might feel like I'm exhausted not so much by development as by social media. yes... I'd like to talk more about dev, but next time
Top comments (29)
Hey Ember. I guess it's the era of burn out huh...
I know you saw my post and I appreciate the comment you left me so I will do the same for you. I appriciate the work you are sharing on DEV and I feel like based on what you shared, you are more of a better Game Dev than me lol. Couple things:
Look at me and I still crashed out of my burn out lol. The point is that no matter how far you got, like if you get into Google or something, you will feel the same way as everyone else. I am impress you made a high quality game in a short time (I can't do that at ALL).
I think you should start making your own game now. Not sure if you have already done that, but I think it would be more enjoyable than comparing yourself to the leader board in my opinion. It would be nice to see what you can make on your own time and go from there. I bet, even from my own experience recently, that the DEV community would support you! :D
Thanks!
You're exaggerating, I don't do that much.
After that, I had some strange thought about business, and it seems to me that I am becoming some kind of businessman on gamejam, thinking about development, marketing.
btw, I'm wondering if I should find someone to sit on my account, scroll through submissions, and write good reviews? I don't have time for that, so there are all sorts of job openings online! However, I won't be paying anyone, so I'll have to find free labor, which will be difficult. huh
It doesn't matter whether it's an learning project or a commercial one, I don't think it'll bring any benefit at all, other than just a head-on learning experience (because criticism is also needed). You need to involve marketing, or cross your fingers and wait for something that might never happen. At least at jams there are people who can watch the game, and even then, you need to write in the community: rate4rate, lets play! show your games! give feedback! In short, you have to suffer through some kind of nonsense that guarantees nothing.
After all that said, I think over these months my hobby has turned into some kind of race, a competition, or even a career. idk if it's normal, but I know that seeing big numbers is always pleasant for a person, and you can't escape biology. I wish I had Linux installed in my brain, rofl 🤣 I even watched a yt video where they talk about how someone coded the Linux kernel in a video and it turned into 10 minutes of noise, lol
ps I'm too categorical 😭
Hey Ember!
I am not sure what you mean by that since you could just showcase your game on dev.to! Works the same way.
By making your own game, there is a benefit. You can build and document your journey on dev.to and people will provide feedback along with your progress. It's a good way to improve your skills, taking as much time as you need, and go from there. Marketing comes on its own since you are showcasing it to other people. You would need to build a portfolio in order people will become interested. Hope this make sense.
That's normal. Who doesn't?
lol all good
I meant itch account, people have to rate the game for the judges to see it (playing 3000 games is hard). Idk why do I need the judge’s opinion at all, but there’s probably a hidden meaning in this.
With my 30 WPM (words per mins) or whatever it is
It seems to me that the audience will be small... although this is more than nothing. I use too many gifs lol
That line about loving the learning more than the coding itself might be the most honest thing in here, and I don't think it's a flaw to fix. Plenty of people who build things their whole lives are really chasing that feeling of not knowing something and then suddenly getting it. Going by your own P.S., what wore you down reads a lot more like follower counts and jam rankings than Godot itself. Maybe the move isn't throwing the router out the window, it's finding the next thing that's hard enough to be interesting again, with nobody scoring it.
Thank you, yes you are right, all these followers have hearts, all this bullshit is pointless. I think the phrase Learn and Live makes sense!
I feel like AI brought a whole new level of burnout to the table... I realised that I've also been struggling recently. At this point, the change of career feels like a tempting solution. Good thing, it was one of the reasons I discovered
dev.to!All the best to you! I wish you find your way out of the burnout 💛
Thanks! 🥰🥰
I could relate to a lot of what you wrote, especially the feeling of slowly losing the curiosity that made programming enjoyable in the first place. Burnout doesn't usually happen overnight. It creeps up on you until one day you realize you're just trying to get through the day instead of enjoying what you used to love.
I hope you don't feel pressured to have everything figured out right away. Sometimes taking a step back isn't giving up. It's giving yourself the space to recover.
Wishing you all the best. I genuinely hope you find that spark again, whether it's in programming or somewhere completely different.
thanks! 🥰
Ngl, if you're loving the learning process and you finish last, it means you're more niche than an indie dev? Sure you can make a POC game, but it's minecraft vs skyrim. Logically it's there, it runs well, but is it immersive? Or is it a sandbox? No doubt you can make a super mario game in no time, but would you actually play it?
When I dabbled in game dev, I realized soon that I dont want to model 3d characters, I'd sooner figure out algorithms to 3d generate them...
Cool, but nightmare fuel...
Sometimes actually kinda pretty...
Other times really broken...
Personally, I like programming, because I like making things, I like game dev, because I get to see code turn into creatures. But I'm not a game developer, I'm a systems engineer, I built the lore engine, procedural engine, character randomizer, tooling, etc. But that's a minecraft style sandbox, not a game.
So if you're feeling burnt out from game dev, expand your horizons, what annoys you when you work? Make a solution for it. By the time you just took out 1 frustration, you'll feel so much better that you'll find getting back into game dev as a breath of fresh air.
Thanks!
Yes, a narrow focus is great, but considering the difficulty of assembling a team of professionals, especially when Discord is full, as it turned out during the jam itself, of schoolchildren who only know how to bombard the chat with questions about how to open the editor or nod their heads, this quest becomes a real pain.
If I were at a normal indie studio, everything would be fine; we'd have a clear plan, not all the chaos that happens at jams.
Perhaps it is because of my versatility that all this happens.
Jack of all trades, I feel that, but be careful for it... No studio hires 'all in one game developers', they hire per-niche, because that's the void that needs filling. If you're indie'ing your own game, then that's fine, but if you want to ever pursue a career in it, you need a niche.
If you're in a game jam and you're the brains, then be the organizer, lead the team and draw up the plan. If they're inexperienced, then section yourself out of a job, do the minimum mission-critical work and hop around managing the team, helping them as they get stuck, keep track of the plan and keep it on track. Sounds boring, but it's probably what you were missing?
Game-jams are like group-projects, they fail at the weakest link and that's almost always supervision... Everyone has their task, they do their task, but if someone doesnt monitor the progress, keeps everyone aligned and makes sure it all fits together nicely, spot-checks and corrects as people run into issues, then it fails, because either it doesnt mesh well, or someone doesnt bring their part and the entire game is dead as a result, or just survives on hot-patches last minute.
Alt is find 1 other competent person you can collaborate with, you 2 form a team at every jam, then 2 becomes 3 and 3 becomes 4 and before you know it, you have a thorough indie studio team that can use game-jam money to fund development of a real game you can market?
Don't feel bad, I think at least most of us go through this. I know I have and still do. I realized that there are several problems for me, they might strike a note with you.
Success means needing a bigger hit. Yes, it's a like a drug. you achieve something and now that's easy and the return is less, so you want something more.
Learning does indeed become a craving, you trick your brain into believing that finding a better a way, a more impressive way, is what's needed rather than settling for what works.
We are our worst enemy, we Never see the talents we have or skills we have learned. We tell ourselves that we can obviously do better and move the goal posts.
We forget that a lot of the adventure is the reward of discovery. All the tools and ease of access to answers has killed our ability to appreciate the struggle of self discovery to problems and the joy that brings.
At least, that's what my burnout pretty much consists of. What compounds the issue for me is having a hobby that is also a day job, so I'm constantly in the circle.
Thank you for support! 🥰🥰
Hey Mate,
good post and heads up, many are going or went through those stages you are in.
My First Game Jam was back in 2015 around the time when Unity 5 appeared, so its now like 11 Years ago, i can identify with your post "without the AI" thing, that didn't existed back then, it was basicially just Google, Stackoverflow and Unity Docs and Forum.
From my experience, Game Jams are not really valuable and good for your health. Yeah everybody says if you wanna get startet, do game jams, but to be honest, to the most people those game jams backfire and make them depressed.
You are making a decent game, taking all that time and effort just to figure out, noone plays it.
You can say, "you dont get bothered by the numbers", but dont fool yourself, if you see on your Gamepage only a couple of Visits, maybe a couple of plays, no feedback or something, you set yourself in a trap of depression.
So instead of trying to find the HOLY GRAIL, i startet to aim low and make games just formyself. I startet to make all types of (Hyper)Casual Games for myself, so i at last also have fun with my creation instead of hoping that i can earn money with that game or that other people like it.
Mid 2020 i started to create an Arcade Shooter, very oldschool. But the idea was no longer "unfinished projects" but to finally release something that goes beyond a Game Jam or Prototype.
In 2021 i released "Aircraft Sketch Shooter" on Steam and fullfilled a long time dream of myself finally.
I didn't do much Marketing, but still i sold many copies of my game on Stream, nothing you can make a living, but a little pocket money is never wrong.
Now 2026 i quit Game Dev almost entirely, here and there i recreate some Casual Mobile Games i discover, because i want them AD-FREE.
Back to my Job as Software Engineer i give up to create a "decent" succesful game.
You write:
Yeah i think that was the most fun of all that Experience in Game Dev, not the coding, not the ideas, not the games i made, it was the process of learning.
I wish you good look on ur future journey, heads up and do whatever you please, thats the best against the constant incoming burnouts.
Thanks for the story! Yes, numbers mean a lot in modern life, and I think that not showing your games publicly, but making them for yourself, is a questionable practice. You're right, there are no external factors here - reviews, likes, but I think jams are good if you don't take them so seriously. I think jams shouldn't turn into a competition; they should serve as a gallery that you visit not to see how many people have rated the game, but simply to perceive them as a fact of life. I mean, it's better to show your game to the world than to make it for yourself, but with such thoughts, I AGAIN fall into the POPULARITY trap, and the CIRCLE CLOSES. I wish I could change my mind about this, but it's hard.
I think that your quitting game development is normal, because I also quit more than once, switching to developing desktop applications in Python, which I even liked more than game engines, but didn't produce such quick results. lol.
I mean define Quitting in Game Dev 😅😅 I think 8 Days ago i opened Unity and created a Arrow Game in 48 Hours.
But again just for myself, because i know, there is probably 1000 of this games out there... So Posting it somewhere, makes no difference, the Mobile Stores are full of those Arrow Puzzle Games.
There is just 2 reasons behind why i created that game for myself instead of keep playing those mobile versions:
1) I freaking hate ads inside games
2) Simple because I and the AI's out there can do something like that in almost a finger Snip
Now i have my own version of those "Arrow Games" with Unlimited Levels, Every level replayable and the best? 0 ADs. I love this Game i made, because i made it, but on the market? on the public? its just another arrow game and its poorly designed to the "Production" Arrow Games out there, so noone will play, noone will even look into it if i not trick them with fake screenshots xD
The Game Jam Topic is difficult
If you can find a balance not beeing dissapointed and just beeing happy with ur result, then you can participate, but more or not, often you will facing thos "low value" numbers and even you talk to yourself, this is totally fine and i didn't do it for the "fans", you said it yourself basicially, our mind doesn't like low numbers.
Then your mind will shift with every new game jam towards depression, because u think, okay maybe not the best game, next time better, and you wil might have the same results, you continue that cycle until you quit.
Btw. i dont wanna discourage you!!!
If you feel the Shot then go for it, if not, software engineering is as you said, awesome and has less "emotions" attached to it. 😀
everybody has pointed out the main stuff and everything so ill just say one thing...
LOVE UR WRITING STYLE
its like reading a mail from a friend rather than reading a whole article about a topic. try writing more. I'm definitely here for it.
Thanks, dude, you flatter me! I don't even know what to write about
Not sure how to react - are you a gamer, or a game developer? Are you doing that just as a hobby? What do you do for a living, are you a professional developer?
Too much social media consumption can be a killer - to me it just sounds like you should switch your PC off for couple of hours, or close your laptop, and go out to get some fresh air, and enjoy the sight of blue sky and the sound of birds tweeting - whenever I do that, it works wonders for me ...
After doing that you can open your laptop again, and work out for yourself what your goals are and what you enjoy doing online - but try to avoid getting caught in some kind of "doom scrolling loop" again, try to find some real purpose ...
I'm a game dev, it's just a hobby. my profession is not related to computers at all, but I like programming more. Yes, getting some fresh air helps sometimes, but not much. Anyway, thanks for the advice.
"Fresh air" might just be a metaphor for "reset your mind by doing something else for a while", even if it's just binge-watching Netflix for 1 or 2 evenings - after that you might feel refreshed and reinvigorated to start coding again!
The "why should I google when I can ping @@godot" line hit me because I've watched this happen in real time with junior developers on my team. The shift is subtle â AI doesn't feel like cheating because it doesn't feel like googling. Googling has friction (try three queries, discard two, keep one), and that friction is where learning happens. AI removes the friction and keeps the answer. The problem isn't the answer, it's that the friction was load-bearing.
One thing that helped: treating AI output like a first draft from a colleague, not a finished answer. That means deliberately introducing friction back in â asking "why is this the right approach" before accepting the code, comparing it against the first result from a search, trying to explain the solution back before implementing it. The goal isn't to avoid AI, it's to stay in the learning loop rather than stepping out of it.
On the game jam point â finishing last and keeping going anyway is the actual signal of whether you like making games or like winning game jams. Those are genuinely different things, and most people discover they like the former but are optimizing for the latter. The fact that you're asking the question is the right sign. Good luck with the next jam.
Thanks! Yes, the thrill of Googling is something no AI can replicate. Especially that feeling when you've been Googling one util for half an hour, then, out of desperation, ask the AI for help and find it right away)