21 - Can I Do All of This on My Own?

By now, I’ve spent over 1,800 hours working on the game and the Kickstarter. For various reasons, I’m currently treating it as a full‑time job, and I don’t have a side job. Of course, that comes with some uncertainties, but I won’t go into those in this entry. In theory, you can do a lot of things on your own — but just because you can doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

Designing a game together with someone else is certainly great and motivating. But it only works well if both people bring enough commitment and time. As people get older and start families, it often becomes harder to find someone for a project like this. Testing, on the other hand, is a bit easier — people often have time for that, and testing is incredibly important for the development process. That support is unbelievably valuable.

You can teach yourself many of the things you need. But some skills require so much practice that it really makes sense to get help. As I mentioned in an earlier post, illustration and graphic design are areas where I personally need support. Writing and crafting text also takes practice. If that’s not going so well yet, you need someone who can look over your work. A good working relationship with these collaborators is worth its weight in gold — especially when you’re working on the project alone, and even more so during the COVID lockdowns.

We work together regularly — at the moment, of course, digitally (during COVID). We use Discord for that. Even if we’re each working on our own tasks, seeing and hearing each other via webcam, exchanging thoughts now and then, and getting immediate feedback and opinions on certain things is fantastic. It’s incredibly motivating and inspiring.

If you manage to work on something alone for so long without occasionally falling into a motivation slump, running out of energy, or having your creativity refuse to cooperate — hats off to you. A great team helps immensely.

I hope you’re doing well during the lockdown and that you still have colleagues you can rely on. What helps you when things get particularly tough?

Update: This post was written during the COVID lockdown.