Why I quit my job to pursue game development full time

 So in August 2020 I quit my software job as a website developer.

Truth is I wasn't happy making websites, it brought money. But my life was just okay, I wasn’t passionate about my work. I would go to work, come home and drink and play video games. 

So that’s an okay existence, but I want something more out of this life. I want a job where I’m excited to go to work in the morning and excited to stay up late and work. I ask myself this question, if I had 3 years to live how would I spend my time.

So I’ve been developing a video game, which is also software related but of course there is a lot of art involved as well. This includes animations, a narrative for the game (story and script writing), voice acting, sound production sound effects, background music.  So I see this as the perfect blend of creativity and logic. My goal would be to make game development my job someday, or at least something creative.

Now the money, the chances of making it as an indie developer are slim and you need a bit of luck and a lot of hard work. You also need financial backing, because I you to eat and a place to sleep.

So currently I stay with my parents and I do contract work for cash. So currently I'm earning about half of what I earned before I quit, but I’m much happier because I love what I’m doing.

Staying motivated is a problem for me though. It seems like a trend among bipolar people like myself, that they start big projects and then move on to something else very quickly. 

Now this has happened to me recently, after I quit my job in August I started working on the video game full time, like 10 hrs a day 6 days a week for 2 months. The end result was quite good, I think I have progressed well, but I stopped working completely at the end of Oct and have been taking it easy throughout November, I just don’t feel motivated to continue working on the game. 

I will work for like 30 minutes a day and then just move on to something else (contract work or writing material for this YouTube channel). I struggle with motivation, but I believe in this which I learned from another indie game developer/youtuber (Game Dev Unlocked): Never have a 0% day, also progress on your project even if it’s just one small change or upgrade or one extra paragraph of dialog etc.

I believe I’ll regain my motivation soon, I just need some time to get used to being unemployed. Recently I had a bit of a quarter life crisis and extreme anxiety about my future.   I see my peers moving up in their perspective fields and making more and more money, this is disheartening, but at the end of the day I know I will regret it if I don’t give this game development my absolute best shot. I owe it to myself, for my happiness and my sanity.