4 ms·
As someone with ADHD, game dev has been a great hobby for me, but not something I could do full time (at least independently). There's so much breadth and depth
by mysterydip 3y ago
As someone with ADHD, game dev has been a great hobby for me, but not something I could do full time (at least independently). There's so much breadth and depth in game development, you can hyperfocus on "the new shiny" almost indefinitely: 2D and 3D graphics, shaders, networking, AI, procedural generation, animation, physics, etc. And then there's worldbuilding research, sounds, music, pixel art, vector art, 3D modeling, etc.
All of these things led me down rabbit holes that gave a wealth of knowledge and experience, many of which I apply to my day job (or let me be in a position to move up). In 20+ years, I've made hundreds of prototypes, engines, and demos. I've only fully released a handful of games, and for the most part they were a slog to complete.
For the longest time I thought it was something wrong with me, just "too lazy" to complete something or I needed to "try harder." I've since come to learn more about ADHD and see it's an expected result as dopamine levels change throughout the project. So I've changed my expectations from "I'm going to run my own indie studio someday" to "I'm going to work on whatever moves me right now and use it as a fun learning experience."
- mdip 3y agoI've had much the same experience in my life (though less with game development and more with other forms of hobby development). Gotta say, though, like the name :)
- mysterydip 3y agohacker dips unite!