Running out of ideas!

[VanCentria]

What to do when a part of your brain want to continue your project in RPG MAKER but another part of your brain wants to slack off. Should i slack off or should i whack my brain out? Any suggestions out there? Base it on your personal experience. LOL.

 

[LTN Games]

It happens, sometimes it's the best time, sometimes the worst. What exactly is the issue, though? is it I "have" to or "want" to do something in RM. Do you just open op RM and stare at the screen? if it's a motivation thing I'd recommend thinking of something new you've never done in RM before and give it a try. Challenge yourself to do more than you've done yesterday even if it's just a couple extra minutes it's still an accomplishment. It could also be a boredom thing, working on the same part of 1 story can get boring because you get used to it, try switching to another part of the game that requires a new map or new database entry or whatever and start developing that section instead,.Sometimes you just need a refresher, away from the same stuff you been staring at. Last but not least, just play a game, a new game an old game, don't matter and just look to be inspired, you never know, it may happen. For me, I throw on some music, open RM and if nothing happens I just look at what I have and see what could be improved, and if I still don't feel like doing that, I take a break, watch a show, & chill out.
Hope all gets better for you soon . :D

 

[Cunechan]

Take a rest. If you do too much in a time you get super tired of it and i normally do it for fun. Do something you like and go back to work if you feel like it ;) I used to force myself to continue but it just wasn't good for me and i got super stressed. It's like when you have ice cream and you're unsure whether you should eat it all even though your already fed up. You could get a stomachache so put the rest of the ice cream in the fridge and eat it later. Lol forget about that example XD

 

[cav_dan]

More than once I read about writer's block. It seems like a problem that has no right answer, but once I read about Ray Bradbury (Fahrenheit 451). He says the best way to fight writer's block (and I do consider all creative enterprise much like it) is writing something completely unrelated. He had tons of stories he never finished, because when he ran out of ideas for a story he was writing, he just started a new one.

Now, slacking off is a relative term for me... Is studying something else or posting on a Forum (where you write, interact with other's ideas and read a lot of different stuff) really slacking off? I mean, there's a study about Creative Idleness (or "Ócio criativo", as I heard it in a brazilian university). It says that, sometimes, doing nothing productive can actually make you create better and faster.

I totally saw this in loco when I started working at a small tech company. My 4 hours shift was highly productive, I didn't make any stops, and I finished my tasks feeling really pumped to do a good job. When I changed to 6, and then 8 hour shifts, I couldn't focus as much, I had difficulty in delivering some of the work because I kept wandering off, specially in slower times.

So, yeah, try to be as productive as you can for short bursts, and not make a lot of stuff in a single day. It's a bit like exercising. Except there's no sweat involved, you don't need to pay to use equipments outside your house, and you don't get any health benefits from it.

 

[VanCentria]

HAHA. I'm surprised @LTN Games what you suggested were things i do when i get out of motivation. and what you pointed out also about doing other parts of the story/game i think that's a good one for me. ^_^
@Cunechan and thats what will i do! rest for the meantime. HAHA Thanks for the example tho i will not force myself.

The thing is i get out of motivation when problems come and stress me out even if i wanted to do RM. Dang it.
[doublepost=1448557865,1448557553][/doublepost]@cav_dan so writer's block the term for this.
anyways i'll try to do what you just said. Yeah i guess it's what i need. Little by little until
my skills and patience will be more practiced. Thanks tho!

edit: sorry for the double post PEACE ^_^

 

[Amysaurus]

I treat game dev the same way I treat drawing -
If I get stuck, I walk away, do something else for a few minutes, then come back. Sometimes our brains just need a break! :D

 

[Zebestian]

When writing music I usually don't get stuck really all that often. It only happened twice so far, I believe. What I did was let the project be for a few days and do some other stuff. I actually have a list of weekly "chores" (if you want to call it that). That list has things on it I have/want to do. The ones I have to do are marked red and the ones I want to do are marked blue. If I have some red stuff left I usually do some of that before going back to blue stuff (which making music mostly is). It helps me keeping things organized - in real life and in my brain. :D

 

[VanCentria]

@Amysaurus. Haha Yep that's all i gotta do i stress my brain with something else.
@Kaimen so it's more like a priority list? I guess that would do cus' i kept messing my schedule. LOL

 

[MinisterJay]

I treat game dev the same way I treat drawing -
If I get stuck, I walk away, do something else for a few minutes, then come back. Sometimes our brains just need a break! :D

I agree with Amy. The break is important, but the come back is extremely important. It does not matter if designing games is hobby or a job, do not delay too long with the coming back. This is coming from over 32 years of game designing/mod making experience. If you wait too long, other projects may enter you mind's creativity and unfortunately resulting in a lot of incomplete games. Those breaks are important too, for even though you may be resting, your mind may be coming up with more additions to your current project.

 

[Zebestian]

@Kaimen so it's more like a priority list? I guess that would do cus' i kept messing my schedule. LOL

I guess you could call it that. I don't have them sorted by priority though. I just use that list to keep up with what I have to and wanted to do. 'Cause sometimes there's so much of it I forget half of it. :D

 

[Bizarre Monkey]

Happens to the best of us. Production on 314th Clash stopped dead when i found out a script I'd implemented for late game effects large chunks of the early/mid game when switching party members.

 

[David FoxFire]

Running out of ideas, or more truthfully, running out of steam and desire to continue a project, has been the bane of my existance for most of my life. More often then not it's because of my rather annoying tendency to attract people who tend to criticize me as a person (be it some snippy remark I made, the percieved lack of development on my art style, reminding me of something that happened 15 years ago when I was a full-blown lolcow, my personal appearance, (my personal favorite) claims of being a mysognist because I like to dress someone up in a maid outfit-playboy bunny-belly dancer-anything that resembles characters in Dead or Alive or Dragon's Crown-cultural appropiation-insert your favorite SJW complaint here, and then finally complaints that I no longer post regulary because I start dreading hitting that post button because I'm getting my head chewed off no matter what I do. Having it every now and then can easily be blocked or ignored. Getting this constantly will wear down even the thickest of skins and kill any form of motivation. I know this all too well.

I agree on one thing: sometimes a break from things to let your braincells recharge.

It also helps if you have an idea you're mulling over your head to have another person to bounce it around with, maybe gain a new perspective that you couldn't think up on your own. Unfortuantely, you need to chose your hashing partners wisely. You don't want to end up with something that just complains at you like in my first paragraph.

 

[VanCentria]

HAHA i guess we all have that experience on RM that could make us stop/interfere in various ways. It's stupid of me to think that i am the only one having this problem tho. HAHA thanks for the sharings!

 

[Cunechan]

We all share the same pain here. HAHAHAHA Don't worry youre not alone XD
Sorry, I felt like laughing

 

[VanCentria]

@Cunechan it's ok, laugh as hard as you can hahaha. in the end we're all together with this. But i'm gonna finish my project for sure haha

 

[Micro]

it's good not to burn yourself out, but for me i usually just lose motivation/inspiration to work on stuff. dont really know how to get it back :(

 

[VanCentria]

HAHA @Micro i've experienced that several times. Yep there are time when we're burning with passion and then something else came off you lose that burning passion tho hahaha