Mastering Crunch Time! - (for Game Developers.)

this is you and this is the work you want to get done as game developers we don't have an unlimited amount of time sometimes game development needs to go faster which usually means crunch time some game developers do it like this they completely destroy themselves the majority of game developer cent is crunching like this at the very least they get some work done but the most productive option is often completely overlooked let's start with this question what do you really need to be productive as a game developer the answer is focus without focus we can't do [ __ ] so how do we make sure we stay focused well luckily it's not rocket science your brain needs glucose water and oxygen if we translate that into actions that means AI your room every now and then drink enough water and eat healthy fiber rich foods that release glucose over time because you want to avoid blood sugar spikes they are not good for your concentration at all some foods that can help you to maintain a steady

blood sugar level are not fruits vegetables whole grain bread consuming a bit of protein in the form of legumes meat or fish doesn't hurt either obviously you should avoid sugar heavy stuff and processed foods I'm not a nutrition expert but you don't need to be one to tell that eating healthy obviously helps you to focus big-time if you really want to maximize your productivity while crunching as a game developer there are a couple more things you should absolutely do first of all get rid of all these tractions clean up your workspace and put your phone into a different room next up make sure you have a lot of light on your workspace a lot of cold light that is because that's what keeps you awake dark light and warm light makes you sleepy being sleepy once again kills your concentration and that means you can't be as creative anymore you can't really focus on coding as well anymore then next step take the right amount of breaks it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to get back into the zone after a break so your interval between breaks should definitely be longer than that at the

same time most people can't focus for any longer than two or three hours straight so the interval between breaks shouldn't be too long either how long should the intervals between breaks be then that depends entirely on how long you think you can focus the brakes themselves should be long enough as well at the very least 30 minutes but I'm also an advocate of just doing one-hour breaks because that allows you to regenerate a lot better in my opinion and then during game development breaks move your body take a walk do some sports go outside in order to get all of this right I highly recommend you plan out your day plan what you want to get done what are the next steps for your game and when will you take your breaks now the most important and most valuable thing I still need to give you is a proper example for all of that I recently did a little crunch day for my indie game will you snail so here we go I got up at 7 a.m. in the morning which is a very reasonable time and I think it's usually a good idea to get to work straight away just to prevent any procrastination at all just open the window drink a glass of water and then I

forgot to turn on the lights here which is something I definitely should have done yeah mistakes happen and obviously the first thing I did is I planned out my day so today we're gonna get 9 and a half hours of work in which is not a lot thinking about crunching but in terms of creative work it's definitely more than enough what you've just heard was a recording I made in the morning so yes I sounded a little sleepy there here you can see the state of the game when I got started in the morning this is will you snail a rage game platformer where obstacles are placed in real time by an AI tier for example of things that require the least amount of concentration come last things that require a lot of concentration come first after the last will you snail video I received a lot of useful feedback from you guys so thank you very much for that once again for example you thought the trail of the snail was too bright and you liked the pixelated face of the AI a lot better so those had to be the first fixes I made also the

pixelated face was still very distracting so it's not visible now when it's not talking holy [ __ ] summer silver it's getting cool again at eight o'clock I took a little walk to the grocery store to get some more air and groceries of course [Music] so for breakfast I had a bit of porridge with blueberries and some eggs and I also prepared a giant bowl of healthy snacks for the day once again you want to eat stuff that helps you to keep your blood sugar level as constant as possible neither too high nor too low as you can see I also put some dark chocolate in there I think that was a mistake maybe if I do it next time I'll use one with even less sugar but overall it's still fulfilled its purpose I never got hungry and I've heard pretty awesome for pretty much the entirety of the day next up I just cleaned my workspace up a little for example I don't really use that second monitor when I'm not

streaming [ __ ] you're distracting me as well now here we go basically the main task for today is recording and implementing voice lines for the AI first of all I had to come up with some voice lines I want to implement and then at around 10 o'clock I started recording them I didn't record a lot of them pretty much just one for every situation so there's still more or less placeholders I came up with a lot of situations the AI has to react to though [Music] so I managed to implement the first two voice lines which was this one and not sure if I want to keep the voice and the personality of the AI like this feel free to give me some feedback on that the ground is wet so that was the 12

o'clock break after that at 13 o'clock I coated a system for the AI so it can measure how close the player is to the goal and it needs to know that for some voice lines for example if the players going backwards the AI is mocking the player for that if you're not progressing or maybe if you'll get killed right before the end the AI is supposed to react to all of that so absolutely needs to know how far into the level you are in my 16 o'clock break I went for a run which is absolutely awesome for clearing your mind even better if you have some friends to run with not moving your body all day long is one of the biggest mistakes you can

make in my opinion maybe you think you can't afford that I'm telling you you can't afford not to do that nice workout complete now I have some really nice light coming into my room very nice atmosphere looking forward to the next three hours of work absolutely pumped let's get started after working out most people feel more energized and motivated energy comes from action and not from sitting around in the next three hours I implemented the rest of the voice lines and made some facial expressions for the AI it can now express happiness sadness and angriness the reason by implementing all of these voice lines took so long is because they are pretty much all exceptions special cases you need to check and I also had to rework the voice system in general because I had to make sure the AI doesn't keep repeating the same voice lines over and over again idiot oh boy I killed you right next to the spawn haha you thought you could

salute think again oMG why do you keep dying there's one more question I need to ask you definitely a very sustainable way of crunching I definitely feel like I could do this for multiple days maybe even four weeks so what will you next time our deadlines coming closer [Music] - won't happen again