Game development on the side; managing free time

[Eniko]

Hi there, I'm new here, and I figured I'd get right into posting, heh.

So, background: for the first time ever I have what I feel is an idea for a game I really want to make, rather than a general sense of "I want to make a game". Unfortunately I'm also currently busier than I've ever been with college, and I'm about to ship off to Japan for half a year. Good timing huh?

The 3 weeks before this one were gruelling. So obviously the thing to do is take the one week I have off, and spend it constantly working on my game right? Well, at least it's for a good cause, I'm releasing my working prototype/alpha version to interested parties come Monday, but still, I'm sacrificing my break.

And I know come Monday it'll be back into the fray of classes and nonstop studying. I'm not even through my "break" week yet, and I'm already feeling exhausted. On the one hand I have a sense of "OMG Monday is only a few days away!" and want to squeeze even more in before I go semi-public, on the other hand I feel like Monday is ages away and I won't survive til then at the rate I'm going.

For those of you who do this alongside your profession or schooling, how do you manage it? Especially if you're serious about eventually turning this into a job? Do you also notice yourselves sacrificing what little free time you have and overdoing it?

[lennard]

In your case I'd get really clear on my goals before setting out. At that point, assuming you decide to persevere, set objectives and monitor if you are hitting those goals and if the whole endeavor is worth the sacrifices you have made to each point.

All that said, some creative personalities are going to make things no matter what - if you are one of those then, no matter what, your life is better making things than without. YMMV.

[lok32]

It's good to cut your day up into hour long chunks, you'll get a lot more done that way, whats your game going to be about?

[Eniko]

It's good to cut your day up into hour long chunks, you'll get a lot more done that way, whats your game going to be about?

Heh, and a month later I finally get to reply. :P This is what I get for letting college eat my face.

The long and short of it is that it'll be a randomly generated sandbox RPG. I've actually been making pretty good progress; managed to get a closed alpha build out about a month back and I'm slowly getting ready for the next release. It's slow going though, right now I just try to do something every day, even if it's tiny.