One of the weirdest things about being an indie game developer is the work schedule. Have you ever worked as your own boss? What about being your own boss as well as trying to coordinate a team of other people? 
The idea of setting your own pace and being in charge of your own schedule might sound pretty good. And in many ways, it is. If you’re running your own game project, you get to choose what the priorities are, when you get up and when you go to bed, how many hours per day you should spend working on various tasks – etc.
However, by deciding to go down this path your responsibilities begin to increase exponentially. If you were working for a large company with several layers of managers, the managers would be the one keeping track of where the project is supposed to be. You’d only have to worry about your block of work; the rest of the project would be taken care of.
When you’re running your own project though, its success or failure is ultimately resting entirely on your shoulders. So it’s not as if you’re “more free” in the sense that you can just take whole days off to be lazy – in fact, your workload is going to be much larger…
In my case, I find it hard to not work. If I get blocked from working for too long, I go a little bit crazy. On the other hand, thinking about the sheer amount of responsibility and effort that will be required to finish the game I’m working on is also enough to drive one a little bit mad!
Having an innate desire to work is usually a good thing, but it can also backfire in undesirable ways. It often leads me to stay up as late as humanly possible, for example. While this can sometimes be a good thing, allowing me to continue working on something really cool until it’s done, it can also result in a very odd, sleep-deprived mental state.
Being overtired is similar to being a bit drunk. To be honest, it’s actually pretty fun. Sometimes I do my best work while in this batty frame of mind. But a few things are required to make it work properly.
When overtired, I usually can’t remember anything that happened longer than 30 seconds ago, so I have to keep a notebook around to keep track of what I’ve been doing. (and what I should be doing) I also find it’s important to keep a bottle of water handy, as well as a pair of headphones with really epic music blaring. It also helps me to be hungry while working, for some reason. (?)
What about you? How do you manage managing yourself? Or if you work for a company, how do you find your managers? Do they annoy the crap out of you, or do you appreciate that they keep you on track?
sinoth wrote a Comment on May 3, 2010 at 8:16 pm
I find that keeping the desire to code is a balancing act with bizarre variables. For example, if I’m doing some `deep` coding which requires focus and juggling variables, I’ll go for coffee. If I’m being slowed down by too many trivial decisions, I’ll grab some beer and steamroll through them. Needing stamina for a multi-day binge? Gotta have chinese takeout. Music is vital… my speakers very rarely get a rest.
As far as management, I have a little dry-erase board that I write short term goals on. It’s satisfying to strike through them… more satisfying than ticking off a line in a text file. It can be hard to keep at it, especially when the weather is perfect for a beer and lying in a hammock. I still don’t have a good method for avoiding that. Oh, how that swaying siren calls to me even now. Dammit, bbl
Dave C wrote a Comment on May 3, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Never had a good manager so I couldn’t tell you about that. For managing myself I usually fall back on some form of time boxing. I keep lists of what I need to get done sorted into categories. Then I set a minimum time I’m going to work on a certain category. At the end of that, depending on upcoming external deadlines and what kinda flow I’m in, I’ll switch categories or not. Keeping a good rotation between different types of tasks prevents getting bogged down or burnt out on one thing.
The biggest problem I have when I get rolling on a project is setting aside time to not work and making sure I get out of the house for some human interaction. Two weeks spent writing code and talking to yourself makes Jack a something something.
Kenley wrote a Comment on May 3, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Stay up until it’s done – it seems that we have the same frame of mind when it comes to work. I try and set day-to-day deadlines when composing for contracts: By Wednesday, I have to have a working draft of this tune, no matter what… If I come back and revise it, no problem, but put on the coffee and let’s dig into this thing.
Same with editing: Today we’re doing pieces x and y, when they’re done, we’re done for the night (but everything has to be done by, say… Friday). It takes as long as it takes, but we will get it done
Ah, perfectionism…!! (smiles/pulling hair out)
Barret Vasilchik wrote a Comment on May 4, 2010 at 7:07 am
I know what you mean about not sleeping and then having that somewhat drunk feeling where your mind goes into a dreamy sort of state.
I recently have been on a weird schedule where i’m awake during late night through the morning and taking naps through the afternoon. It’s probably not the best idea but I get to take care of things during the day and the late night. What’s kind of funny is that I’m basically the producer and doing work myself so I hope I’m not annoying anyone and I do find it somewhat hard to push myself but when you can get the momentum of the team flowing it just helps everyone overall to move forward.
I just started using this free project management software called manymoon and I think it might be just perfect for our team size.
Also I just want to thank you Alec for sharing this stuff with us. It’s really interesting to hear and I’m always rooting for you guys.
Eric McQuiggan wrote a Comment on May 4, 2010 at 11:16 am
If I don’t have too many projects going on, I don’t feel right. I need to be always doing or learning something. My problem is I don’t know how to relax, I feel like relaxing isn’t helping me get better at anything, so I avoid it, like lounging around or watching TV.
Samantha wrote a Comment on May 6, 2010 at 2:56 pm
I’m self-motivated, so as long as I have work to do and I know the deadline, I work until the job is done. I would think a good boss would both explain the work to be done and give a time/date when it needs to be finished. Involving personal drama is a waste of time and only complicates efficiency of the process. When I’m idle on the clock, I feel uncomfortable and ask if there is something extra I can do.
Working for a big company is probably a lot different than a small one. Those managers you mentioned. . . it would be nice if they actually took care of things instead of say, taking at least 6 personal calls a day (when it’s against the rules) and wandering around more often than that, when there is work to be done. Every day, my boss frequently asks “how it’s going”, then walks away before I can give a complete answer about the status of a project. Feels similar to being treated like a child with a short attention span; you have to keep reminding them to stay on task. So you could say I don’t feel respected as an employee; and have expressed how much I would prefer not to be “checked up on”, though nothing has changed.
I don’t think I’m ready to be anyone’s boss, but I sure would like to have a boss with a management style closer to my previous boss who I described in the second sentence. And that person happens to be a man… the women bosses I’ve had tend to act more like mothers.. so maybe I am sexist about that.
Na wrote a Comment on May 11, 2010 at 12:58 am
I work in theatre, mainly in tech roles. Stage managing a show is quite a feat, and I’ve discovered that managing people is best on an individual basis – that is, each person has their own different ways and you need to tailor your management to them. One person I worked with had a terrible memory for bringing props, so I’d hassle them every so often about it. Some actors actually prefer not to be prompted if they forget a line, while others want hints; so with each person on the cast/crew you discover how they work best and manage them in that way. I found that respecting each person’s working method got me the most respect. The best people I ever worked with were those who weren’t afraid to listen to my opinion, argue against it if they thought it was wrong, trusted it when they didn’t know the subject matter, got on with the job under pressure, and expected the same from me.
Working on my own, as I now do, I find it hard not to weave and duck between a whole bunch of projects. I’m constantly having ideas, and I find if I don’t act on impulse, the idea very quickly becomes dull to me. Setting time to work is even harder, as I prefer to start one thing, work on it as much as I can until a certain part is finished, and then start again the next day. This works well if the task can be done in a few hours or less, but the longer it takes, the more difficult it is to not be interrupted by other things. I also find that it’s best to keep in mind a trick I learned from a brainstorming class (literally a class on how to brainstorm), which is “it’s done when it’s done”. That is, if you find yourself losing focus, or running out of steam, then that’s a hint to stop working. I find that even a five-minute break at this point refreshes my brain, and I come back and almost instantly find a fix for a problem I’d been working on for hours.
Having said all of that, I don’t make a good employee (in the sense that I prefer working my own timetable in my own way), but make a good entrepeneur. I’m much more proactive working on my own.