A while ago I wrote a piece on motivation (Tips for Motivation) and since then I have been thinking about it more. Part of me remembered that there was something more important motivation that I forgot to mention: Discipline. It is easy when you have motivation to develop a game but what about when things are hard? How do you keep working when you receive negative feedback? I would argue that discipline is what gets games published and is key for development. As many other have quoted Samuel Thomas Davies had a great quote about discipline:
“Self-discipline is about leaning into resistance. Taking action in spite of how you feel. Living a life by design, not by default. But most importantly, it’s acting in accordance with your thoughts, not your feelings.”
This helps us understand the importance of seeing our tasks and goals through to the end which is how games get made. In his biography, Meditations, the roman emperor Marcus Aurelius talked about cultivating discipline in 10 parts, but for game development four are key: having goals, making plans, being diligent, and honestly reviewing your work. Each of these four aspects are used in game development in taking your ideas and shaping them into a final product.
The first aspect of cultivating discipline for game development is knowing what your goals are. Do you want to make a game that will be played worldwide, for a competition, or as a gift for your friends and family? Each goal has different steps that need to be taken and knowing what you want to do with your game can help make sure you are taking those steps. There are also design goals to consider. Therefore, you want to ensure your personal goals line up with the design goals as well. If you are starting from scratch, I advise that you take the time to write out your goals both personally and design-wise for the game. This could help to form a solid foundation for what you want to work on, and help plan the goal and steps you have laid out.
The second part of building discipline and using it to make a better game is to establish intermediate short term goals and to have a plan of execution. This could be done via sticky notes, journals, to-do lists (my preference), or anything you might find useful for creating a plan. I personally like using Trello boards because they provide me a way to digitally organize and create to-do lists, as well as the subtasks that are involved with each goal. It is extremely satisfying to be able to cross items off my list as I complete them. With development, these tasks can differ depending on your goals. For instance, I prefer self-publishing my games and so I have tasks that involve, editing, publishing, finding manufacturing, and funding in addition to the pure design and development tasks that go into making a fun game.
With a plan in hand, diligence is arguably the most difficult part of this list to cultivate. Merriam-Webster defines diligence as “steady, earnest, and energetic effort: devoted and painstaking work and application to accomplish an undertaking” and that is what is needed to make a game. As someone who has struggled with this myself, I recommend that for each of these tasks t is important to have a timeline for when do you want things to be completed by; it is easy to say that something will be done tomorrow or in other wiser words:
“A man never lies with more delicious languor under the influence of a passion than when he has persuaded himself that he shall subdue it to-morrow.” ― Mary Ann Evans (a.k.a. George Eliot) Adam Bede.
If you are lost as to what to do or if something unpleasant needs to be done, do it. By focusing on tackling the tasks that you are unsure on or are lost at, you can build the diligence to work through the periods of lack of motivation and listlessness. With this, your hard work will show through your game’s polish and craftsmanship.
Finally, when addressing how well you have worked on this diligence or in receiving feedback, remember to always review your work honestly. This involves a lot of introspection, as well as identifying what areas did you do well and where can there be improvement. You can do this each evening or each week to understand how you are achieving your goals and what the state of the game is. This does not mean beat yourself up over how little got done because life happens, and that’s alright. The important part is to recognize those areas that need improvement and work on them. This goes for any part of a game whether it is the sell sheet, the mechanics, the rulebook, or the art and by accepting feedback and critically applying it your game will be better.
Making a good game requires good discipline and applying that to your design. From determining goals and planning all the way to diligently doing the work and reflecting on it, applying these four things consistently will make a game better. None of this is by any means easy nor will it happen overnight. These are habits that will need to be built slowly and carefully over time. Charles Glassman put it beautifully: “Self-discipline is often disguised as short-term pain, which often leads to long-term gains.” Sometimes the development work can feel like short term pain especially when motivation fades or new projects attempt to capture your interest. Keep at it! I look forward to seeing what you create and if this advice was helpful for completing your game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njDLNt-1ugM
https://www.wikihow.com/Be-Diligent
https://medium.com/hackernoon/key-to-success-self-discipline-ab45bb05a08a