Disclaimer

[ This blog post is not a whining or ranting about having ADHD ]

___________

Alright greeting folks

Here is another blog post from me.

The topic at hand is "ADHD at work".

So it's about how people with ADHD could work, or rather how I'd been working so far despite having ADHD.

Before taking into the detail I wanted to make sure we're at the same page.

This is how I view ADHD

- Higher brain clockspeed

- Have different requirements from others in various cases, such as growing up, learning, working environment, etc.

Here is why ADHD became problems for many people

- Demanding resources( since the brain can functioning at higher frequencies, the information overload is ineviteble)

- Lack fundamental skills because the education wasn't supporting people with ADHD to learn these skills

As for short attention span, I'll say it's actually not the case. The problem is we have "Higher brain clockspeed", therefore we went through stuffs faster than normal people. That's why the idea of "short attention span" happened.

But just think of it as RAM requirement. You gotta clear out the old caches in order to take new ones.

_______________

So here's how my daily life is

-> Wake up -> Make bed -> Toilet -> Check Email -> Run through notes to remind myself what I needed to do -> Get to work -> Tai Chi -> Get to work -> Breakfast -> Gaming -> Afternoon nap/sleep -> Gaming/Work depends -> Dinner -> Gaming/Work depends -> Relax -> Shower -> Sleep

During the day, I'd use toilet obviously. Try to drink as much as needed. Sometimes we're too intense with the work or gaming, so we forgot to drink. This applied to everyone though

Here is what interesting

While normal people seen this as "distracting", I'd say it's kinda normal for me.

While working, depending on the type of tasks. I could watch YT video, work, and gaming at the same time

But it's only when my work wouldn't required as much focus or allowed some free time

For example, while brainstorming I'd chat with Copilot. So while I'm waiting for the result to finished, I could gaming or watch YT video or both. This also happen while I'm thinking about how I want to chat with Copilot next. This is a common occasion since game development especially on brainstorming part, we need to process information. But if we just focus on thinking, it'd feels staled and easily got tired and this will lead to the real distraction. That's why idle gaming(playing game without using much brain processing power) or watching stupid YT videos could help alleviate the problem. These actions also acting as the connector between sessions. So if I happen to lost focus on thinking about the brainstorm topic and just gaming, I'd be able to come back to think after a while without breaking out from the session.

For more intense tasks like developing new game systems or creating new 3D models. The most I could do is to listen to music or podcasts. Occasionally chat with copilot to help me through some difficulties. Maybe even brainstorming while working on these, since the brainstorming is kinda similar to idle gaming in a way anyway.

____________________

Don't ask me if I don't have life outside of work. I don't.

Well it's not like I won't leave the house ever, but whenever I wanted to leave the house, then I'll just leave the house.

This is the lifestyle which emphasize on my personal demand. That's why despite looking strict, it's just a routine which I built for years. The emergent of wanting to go out would always prioritize when all the condiitions met. For example, I want to go out, I need # amount of money, Weather, Local situation.

The day might be the holiday of the cafe I wanted to go, so I could postpone or cancelled it for now. In most case I'd just cancelled it since I can decide once again if I want to go out tomorrow.

This kind of lifestyle only possible if you're not desperate on survival. Though I'm living rather frugally, it's still manageable. Most of my allowance went through necessities and junkfood occasionally to relief from stress. That's right, I generally eat healthy food, so junkfood helps a lot with stress relief. But I'm trying to save up for Steam Direct. I'm no longer spend money on buying courses or books since I'm actually quite skilled in game development and those stuffs won't help me as much anymore.

My advice for those whom stuck at 9-5 jobs or part-time jobs. Don't try to make a living out of making games. Getting money from your games is a by product of publishing your games commercially. So you should focus on what's matters first. So many people dejected and went back to "real jobs" because they failed to recognize this simple fact and didn't get lucky enough to overcome bad plans.

Personally I'm focusing on making games I wanted to play. While it's not perfect, Abyssonance is already something which allowed me to visually perceived the surface level of what kind of game I want to play...well I should say make but let's be real here, it's more about playing than making right?

___________________

Let's update on my progress for a bit.

After I joined GDTV Jam 2024 and finally made Abyssonance, I decided to scrap Arcane Horde and focusing on Abyssonance until it's become commercial version.

Don't get me wrong about shiny object syndrome. This is calculated decision, which mean it doesn't matter if I continued with the Arcane Horde or start anew with Abyssonance. I already took everything from both of them in order to make the foundation of my new project.

That's right, it's Abyssonance, but it's the commercial version instead of jam version!

If you check out the postmortem of Abyssonance, you'll understand my reasons and everything behind.

Right now I'm still focusing on the brainstorm part, so it'd be nothing to show for quite sometime...well actually quite a long time since I'll have to develop the systems from ground up with all the knowledges I have.

Though I'd still use the old target system, Life system, and Mana system.

I'll have to make some adjustments for Mana system because there were some changes that required me to address this system.

With all the systems streamlined, I'd be able to work more efficiently and I could finally focus on making new characters or skills instead of stuck at system development like I used to in my previous projects.

So the good news here is, I finally got the design for my development framework.

In the future, after I publish my first game. I'd try to study about the processes required for publishing and marketing. Then I'll have the workflow ready for me to just cruising through for my future games.

It's been such a long and arduous journey. I'm finally see the land at the horizon.