How to Survive Burnout as a Solo Gamedev

Doing everything by yourself can take its toll on you -- if you let it.

Burnout is inevitable as a solo game developer.

You start off excited for your latest passion project, putting in 12-hour workdays just because you enjoy it.

As development drags on, you grow tired, struggling to make any daily progress at all.

I’ve been there, and it’s not fun.

But there are ways you can survive it and see your game through to completion.

Take a Break

My first piece of advice is also the most obvious — just take a break for a while!

Rest is a necessary and important component of our lives.

If we’re not well-rested, we can’t work efficiently.

And while sleep is important, the term “rest” means more than just sleep.

Go take a walk outside.

Spend some time with your family.

Maybe you should take a moment to play some games instead of just making them.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten stuck on a problem, taken some time off to do things completely unrelated to game development, and then came back to the problem and solved it immediately.

Doing something else is a way of clearing our minds to get rid of the clutter.

We eliminate what doesn’t matter and free up our mental energy to work efficiently.

So if you’re feeling burnt out, try doing something else for a while and coming back to your project later.

The one thing I don’t recommend is to replace your project with a different project.

This mentality leads to “shiny object syndrome” where you keep abandoning projects one after the other, never returning to the original project that burned you.

I’ve done this many times myself, and I have many unfinished projects as a result.

If you’re going to be starting a new project, at least be honest with yourself and don’t call it a “break” — call it a pivot or a change of plans.

The best way to finish your game is to take a small break to regain perspective and then continue pushing forward to the finish line.

Reduce Your Game’s Scope

But what if that finish line is just too far away?

Fortunately, you have the ability to make it closer!

As a solo developer, you’re the one who decides the scope of your game.

Indie devs driven by passion always want to bite off more than they can chew.

But you need to recognize that there’s only so much you can do by yourself.

That feeling of “burnout” is when you start approaching this limit.

It’s an amateur mistake to design a game from the perspective of what you want to make, rather than designing it around what you’re actually capable of making.

For example, you might think that your game should have realistic 3D graphics, but as development drags on you realize you struggle with making the models.

Maybe it’s too difficult, or maybe you just don’t enjoy the process.

In this specific case, you can reduce your scope by making low-poly 3D models instead of super-realistic ones.

Similarly, you may want to reduce the amount of content in your game.

For example, you might arbitrarily decide to put 50 levels in your game.

But if it takes you one week to flesh each level out, you’re going to spend almost an entire year just building the levels.

If you cut down your game’s scope to just a fraction of that, you can save an enormous amount of time, making it easier for you to reach the finish line.

Also, consider that “more content” is not necessarily “better content.”

People would rather play a shorter but higher quality experience than a mediocre experience that drags on too long.

You’ll be better off by reducing your scope — and your game will, too.

Make Small Gains

You feel burnt out because you’re not seeing tangible progress on your game.

You might even experience this feeling in other aspects of your life.

The best way to get over it is to experience small victories.

Reducing your game’s scope is the first step, but also only one part of it.

Write down the things you need to accomplish to finish your game in a checklist.

Get into the habit of looking at this list every day and accomplishing something on it.

If you can’t accomplish anything on the list in a single day, break the items on the list into smaller items.

For example, you might need to make 10 levels for your game, and let’s assume each level takes a week to create.

You should try and break that goal of “making a level” down into smaller goals.

Does the level need graphics or music?

Do you need to program a new feature?

You can likely accomplish these goals in a single day.

And if not, you can break those goals down even smaller.

Get your checklist to a point where every item is something you can do within a day.

You’ll be satisfied with yourself for accomplishing your daily goal, giving you the intrinsic motivation needed to keep going.

If you miss a day, just don’t worry about it, and try again.

Now as long as you operate one day at a time, you’ll eventually finish your game!

The best part with this method is that you can now see how many days it will take until your game is finished.

And if you think it’s too long, then you can reduce the scope even further.

Get Player Feedback

Motivation is easy to come by when you have people betting on your success.

If you put your game out there as a demo and people enjoy it, you’ll be motivated to continue working to share it with your fans.

Conversely, the worst thing you can do is to hide your project from the world.

You might be afraid to put your game out there because it’s “not perfect,” but you’d be doing yourself — and your fans — a disservice.

Yes, you want your game to be high quality — but so do your fans.

True fans will do whatever they can to help your project achieve success.

They will give you suggestions and ideas, but most importantly, they will shower you with encouragement.

Even something as simple as “I’m looking forward to your game” can have an impact.

You can use that motivation to make progress on your game, which you’ll share online to your fans, who will give you more encouragement.

It’s a positive feedback loop, creating endless motivation and excitement for everyone.

However, keep in mind the other points we talked about before.

You might become hesitant to interact with your fans if you promised them too much and can’t fulfill the scope of the game.

Be honest with your fans that you need to reduce your game’s scope, rest up, and see smaller victories.

They will understand, and they will try and help you in any way they can.

It’s much better to be transparent than to lie or make false promises you can’t keep.

Build Better Habits

You should make it a habit to get plenty of rest, keep your scope small, make small gains, and get player feedback.

If you consistently apply all of these principles, you will find it hard to even burn out in the first place.

Solo game developers burn out because they take on more than they can handle.

So the key is to reduce the amount of work down to a reasonable level.

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones

— Confucius

Keep your mind focused on the present day.

Accomplish your goals for the day.

Follow your daily habits.

Make it happen!

That’s all there is to it!

I hope these tips will help you on your game development journey.

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