I've just read "how to earn a first love dollar" and I need help

[Kazeko]

I've got a question. And I already have a simple answer - "Make up your mind" (it's from Warcraft 2 btw, and I love that Bill Murray's phrase from Ghostbusters movie and the preceeding moment when he asks his partner by body language to answer "yes", but he answers "no").

The question is: "How can I apply that article's wisdom, if there's no single thing I absolutely love to do, but there're many multiple things I love to do from time to time?" And, worst of all, when it comes to training and gaining a skill, I start hating that "lovely" thing.

Another "bitter" thing. I'm not sure, if it's useful for the world - to do what I love to do. Steve wrote "seek repeating patterns". The core pattern since my childhood is "computer games development" (that's how I found Steve even before StevePavlina.com. Angela, it's actually I, who is the God here I was so impressed by Steve's gamedev articles, that I thought "I wish Steve would teach me for the rest of my life!" And 2 months after that, Stevepavlina.com was launched :P )

But since childhood I also know:
-computer games are not healthy (literally, ask my spine and my eyes)
-computer games are easy-to-get-addicted
-computer games steal your time and your life severely

BTW... I've just thought "What if I can create a healthy, non-addictive game, which enriches your life and gives you more time"... what do you think? Is it possible?

So, for last several days I trained myself to be a pro poker player. I love it (although, again, I get tired and start hating it). But when I was reading Steve's article, that "gamedev" pattern popped up again and again. I thought along the way: "It's crazy! You gonna hurt your eyes again. You gonna sit all the day, staring to monitor, and after lots of effort - release another time-stealing, unhealthy piece of really good sh.. (like alcohol is a really good tasting poison) If you need money, you better get them from people through poker - it's much better, because it would be not so impactful to the world"

But I can't resist. It would be a lot of fun for me, to release a fresh, brilliant, bright, sharp-looking, sexy, intriguing, legendary, epic masterpiece of computer art, to which many people would fall in love. (Everlasting memories go to "Erana's peace" location from "Hero's Quest". If you saw it, you understand what I'm talking about. Green grass, trees, flowers and magic!)

I'm a half-decent programmer. I can draw 3D and write music, although I have little skill. But I certainly have raw talent, and I can get better. Why not then? It's time-consuming!!! I need to earn money, and at my spare time I recreate myself or "sharpen the saw", usually by excercising, meditating, or walking in nature (if I stop, I would degradate). I can't find time to train myself daily.

I need at least 1 hour for 3D and 1 hour for music, daily. Oh, and of course, I need some time also to design the game. And when I feel pressure, I can't do just anything! Steve, you're a hero. I'd never released a game under such conditions you experienced. And you did it. You're an epic hero. Megarespect!

Any advice? I really need it.

[dbstraight]

Something to consider. The world of computerized versions of traditional (board and card) games is really quite lacking. With the exception of Poker sites and Yahoo (which is generally considered to suck by all serious players of all traditional games), there really isn't much out there. Traditional games are generally considered to be much more healthy than modern video games because they tend to foster strategy and creative thinking, as well as spending time with others.

[impaul99]

Ask yourself "How can I make my first dollar today doing something I love?"

When you brain say "You can't make a dollar because __________________"

Say "Ok, I understand....but if I could make a dollar how would I do it?"

"Yeah, but you can't....because _____________________"

"Yeah, you're right...thanks for sharing...but if I could, how would I do it?"

Keep asking until you get an answer.

Once you get an answer. Go do it.

Simplify. Don't worry about all the other steps, just go make your $1.

[Kazeko]

Dbstraight, I'd like more info. I always thought, that the world is already saturated with, at least, card games. "GoodSol" is an example (600 solitaire games).

and Yahoo (which is generally considered to suck by all serious players of all traditional games)

I'd appreciate if you helped me to find them (players). I really should look at the places they gather. I also think that board and card games are dry, as they lack special effects. (The games themselves, excluding a social element and gambling adrenaline) But I'm open to be convinced that it's the opposite.

[InterfaceLeader]

Why not help contribute to an indie development team? They are always in major major need of talented and dedicated people, they sometimes pay (although usually not a lot), and they frequently create games that are both graphically nice and 'off the beaten path' - less violent and less addictive. A good example would be Fl0w.

I honestly believe that games are going to take over from movies as the number 1 popular source of entertainment ... and we are going to need talented game creators to steer away from the violent, repetitive, and addictive dross that is marched out in the name of profit.

The other advantage to working with an indie team is you don't need to do everything. You can focus on what you are good at - which means that you can learn from them, and spend less time worrying about having to train up those skills you feel are lacking before getting started.

Any form of media can be mind-numbing and negative - or inspiring and useful. It's up to the people who make them

[dbstraight]

Originally Posted by Kazeko

Dbstraight, I'd like more info. I always thought, that the world is already saturated with, at least, card games. "GoodSol" is an example (600 solitaire games).


I'd appreciate if you helped me to find them (players). I really should look at the places they gather. I also think that board and card games are dry, as they lack special effects. (The games themselves, excluding a social element and gambling adrenaline) But I'm open to be convinced that it's the opposite.

Well, I can't argue with you that traditional games lack special effects.

Probably the most popular online gathering place for serious players of traditional games is BoardGameGeek. If you just click the "Games" link on the menu, you can see a list of games sorted by rank, which will give you a good idea of the kind of stuff people are playing. There's also an extremely active message board there.

[Kazeko]

InterfaceLeader, first of all, let me say, that you have a wonderful game blog! I saw it not long ago, it rocks. And, it's a nice irony, that, the working name of the game I plan to create is "Herbalist"

Now, about an indie development team. I've tried. I even worked in gamedev industry and disappointed. We were making yet another WoW clone (stupid idea itself, IMO), and their corporate politics just killed me. We couldn't even handle communication between departments (engine and scripting). Engine guys saw us as "programmers with disabilities" (yeah, they write "real C++ code", and we're suckers... I should say, our lead scripter is a very gifted programmer, with a great "C family" experience. I'm an okay C++ writer too.). And designers had even more problems. Now, most of the staff gone, and the project, I guess, cancelled.

Soon after that I tried an indie team. I honestly said, that I wanted to be a GFX coder, although I lacked experience. They say - no, go write scripts, we gonna exploit your experience and knowledge. I said, but I don't want it, I want to create beauty! They said, sorry, we already have graphics coder. I said - bye then.

If I ever make a game, I want it to be all mine. The design, the story... I better release it with self-made ugly gfx and music and improve later, than be a servant of someone's ill will. Just like Steve

And don't forget my main question. I'm still not sure if this is the very single thing I love to do. I love a lot of things. What should I do? Just pick anything, like (crazy but true example) cooking sushi? I love them But what will it be in the long run? I'm not a sushi-man, for sure. I can imagine myself playing poker for the entire life, as well as making games. But is it mine?

[Kazeko]

Originally Posted by dbstraight

Probably the most popular online gathering place for serious players of traditional games is BoardGameGeek. If you just click the "Games" link on the menu, you can see a list of games sorted by rank, which will give you a good idea of the kind of stuff people are playing. There's also an extremely active message board there.

Thank you

[InterfaceLeader]

Originally Posted by Kazeko

And don't forget my main question. I'm still not sure if this is the very single thing I love to do. I love a lot of things. What should I do? Just pick anything, like (crazy but true example) cooking sushi? I love them But what will it be in the long run? I'm not a sushi-man, for sure. I can imagine myself playing poker for the entire life, as well as making games. But is it mine?

Thanks for the compliment, and glad you find the blog useful

The answer to your main question is, I guess, do all of them? Make a video game, cook sushi for your friends, play poker on the side and then spend the evening [insert activity here].

For the record, I work in a bakery at the weekends, for a game dev company part time, I do freelance webdesign, and I like taking photographs and writing blogs / articles. I find time to do all of that, and I make money from everything but the photographs (though I am working on that, trying to start selling stock photography).

I'm sorry for your poor experiences - I think communication issues are the worst plague of the indie scene

You can build the game yourself (why not? dedicate a few hours a day for a year to it? It's not that much of your life gone if you choose to change your mind) or even find your own team which you head. I'm a fan of groups, because I work more creatively when bouncing ideas off the (right) people, but everyone is unique!

[carenkh]

A book you may find helpful in making peace with video gaming is Everything Bad is Good for You, by Steven Johnson. Ode Magazine had an excerpt in their September 2006 issue.

[Brutha]

Games are good things if they train valubale skills.

I have read about a person who got above average typing abilities by playing a game where he has to write things in combat situations.

There is some reasearch that suggest that female could improve their spatial intelligence to male levels by playing a bit medal of honor, which is a 3D shooter where one constantly has to use ones spatial intelligence and to orient oneself in the gameworld.

Search for a valuable basic skill that is valuable in life and try to build a game where the player has to practice that skill.

Eyesight seems to be something that it important to you.

To dream a bit:
Maybe a game could use a webcame to get data about the users eyes that have some relevance to the game play. That would need a bit pattern recognition.
There a lot of literature about ways to train your eyes.

Maybe you could build a game in which the player has to do some eye exercises?
It probably a difficult task, but it could be a motivating project.

[Lauxa]

I agree with Brutha.

If you don't want people to waste time playing your game then create it so that the player develops a useful skill. I personally think the educational game market still has a lot of room for expansion.

Also there are a lot of open source games that you could improve without having to start from scratch which could give you the opportunity to create something new and useable much faster.

[Keith]

Have you considered creating an Open Source game? They're certainly harder to make money from (less so if your goal is only a dollar ) but they have advantages over commercial development. You're your own boss, free to develop whatever you want, you can freely use existing open source resources and - if you make something promising - people will often chip in to help.

David White, the lead (and initially only) developer of Battle for Wesnoth couldn't create art for beans. But he developed a game that was interesting enough that other people started chipping in and look at it now.

Note: David believes that a large part of the reason for Wesnoth's success is that he got something up and working, quickly. Wesnoth was basically playable from about version 0.2. Everything since then has been 'just polishing'.

He also attributes success to targeting 'the middle ground'. i.e. A game that was too simple to be interesting (to both developers and players), but also wasn't too difficult to be achievable.

[Kazeko]

Thank you very much for your valuable advice!

InterfaceLeader: Indeed, the answer is "do all of them". I'm very glad, that Steve wrote an article "what if you have so many interests...". It answers my questions abundantly, and, which is better, eliminates my worries I tried this approach on Sunday - it works! I discovered, that I don't have to commit even a single day to any single activity. I played guitar, studied German, read Zig Ziglar, listened to Mozart's music, took an aroma bath (an exercise in aromaterapy), cooked salad, did some house work and even tried to read C# book (although abandoned it quickly, but still feel good about the entire idea). I was really happy! It reminded me time of my childhood, when I could do whatever I wanted and how much I wanted. Hmm, seems like social conditioning made its evil business... why did I forget I'm free "not to be a drone"?

carenkh: Thank you for your links! I'll check them out.

Brutha: Brilliant advice and an amasing idea! (again) Never thought about it. Yes, the eyesight is important for me (I have -2 miopy. Or 0.2? I have no idea about international conventions). If I ever dare to start such a project, this is going to be really difficult (you always inspire doing huge, but very impactful projects, you know ). I'll certainly need a help of a scientist. As you know, even LCD monitors blink at some frequency, and that's the main problem from my current perspective. I beleive, that in order to train your eyes, you need a static image (e.g. on paper). But I also think, we can use monitor's frequency somehow. And webcam (or more precise equipment, but it would be much better to do everything on inexpensive common hardware) would certainly help, providing feedback.

Lauxa, Keith: I'm still under the influence of NIH-factor ("not invented here"). But I do baby-steps to improve. I'm already not so sceptic about other people's engines I'm actually in love with Wintermute engine. It is a great tool for making adventure games!
So, who knows, maybe someday I'll direct my attention towards Open Source... But not now, yet

[Bruce Achterberg]

Originally Posted by Kazeko

But since childhood I also know:
-computer games are not healthy (literally, ask my spine and my eyes)
-computer games are easy-to-get-addicted
-computer games steal your time and your life severely

[...]

Any advice? I really need it.

Everything can be used in a constructive and not constructive way. For example:

Knifes are sharp. They can cut you.
Knifes can kill people.

But then:

Knifes can save your life in survival situations.
Knifes can be extremely useful tools. (Ever tried cutting something with a fork? )

The tool is not inherently bad. The tool is beyond neutral--it simply is. It's how you use it that matters. (Although I'd say it's hard for you to judge even if usage is good or bad. In the universal scheme of things, negative experiences can be extremely beneficial. No, I'm not saying you should go around stabbing people... at least, not in real life. Try God of War instead. )

Games have been so tremendously beneficial to me that I go as far to say that my time spent gaming has been more useful to me than my education. The way I think was literally shaped by games, and some would say my thinking isn't too bad.

If you love games, go for it. Drop that laundry list of disempowering, limiting beliefs and actually make games, and see what impact they have on the world. So often how you think something will happen is so different to how it actually happens. If you don't like the impact you make, you can always tweak it and make it more impactful. But you have to make an impact and note it's effect before you can tweak it.

(I've been trying to fit "laundry list" into this post since I started writing it, lol. Finally got it in there. I was like, "yes!" )

[Brutha]

If I ever dare to start such a project, this is going to be really difficult (you always inspire doing huge, but very impactful projects, you know ).

I know, depending on how you look that might be my great weakness. Sometimes I dream to much before getting the basics down.
But in the end, isn't that what we are here for? Making an impact?

[Kazeko]

Originally Posted by Brutha

I know, depending on how you look that might be my great weakness. Sometimes I dream to much before getting the basics down.
But in the end, isn't that what we are here for? Making an impact?

Absolutely!

Steve also challenges us, our lifestyles and beleives, every time. And it is a good thing, which leads to growth.