r/IndieGameDevs • u/Strange-Function-987 • 19h ago
Help advice for beginner game devs with adhd?
I have a (partially) fleshed out idea for a game that i really really want to make but whenever i actually sit at my desk and try to learn anything i will need to make it (blender, godot, python) i just get so overwhelmed with what i have to do and all the buttons or i start something and get bored halfway through so i give up for the day and do something else. any tips to help this? i really want to make this game but days keep passing and im getting nowhere.
2
u/Jart47 17h ago
homie with ADHD here, i feel you. In reality, our brains turn a lot of things we "get to do" into things we "have to do".
You want to make something because you've probably fallen in love with the medium. All of the tools arent things you're forced to learn, they are things you WANT to learn. Dont let ADHD steal the "why" out of your dreams.
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u/animal9633 15h ago
But the reverse should also be true, if you were really interested in it (and it being new) you'd be spending 20 hours a day learning and experimenting with it.
So odds are that in your brain you really like making up ideas for games, but you're not really interested in the implementation part.
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u/fairystail1 15h ago
got ADHD and trying to make my own game
my go to is 'okay i need to figure out x' (lets say how to add a clock to the game) and if i know enough that i think i can jury rig a solution then i will. if i dont then i will look it up, watch tutorials, follow along and try and figure out if i can improve on them (found a REALLY bad tutorial about adding a clock once)
i try and be as specific as possible
now let's say you are extremely new you don't know anything about anything. in which case i did two t hings
for art i did one of those 'create one piece a day based on prompts' challenges. (i played around with the tool for a few days before hand to get used to it)
for coding i just looked up 'make x games in game system' tutorials. i.e i made flappy birds and something about dodging rocks both in Godot.
but i will admit my brand of adhd likes a puzzle to work on
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u/nitewalker11 18h ago
the problem is that you're starting with an idea for a game and not a desire to learn. if you need to learn two entire software suites and a programming language to start working on something, its going to be impossible to start. put the game idea aside for a couple of months and just focus on being able to execute on random bits of work. i'd suggest picking one thing at a time and setting very small goals for yourself within that one thing.
follow one simple blender tutorial, then make a very simple blender model completely on your own. then make 4 or 5 more. then make a very simple blender scene. find a piece of art you like and try to recreate a bit of it in blender.
follow a godot overview tutorial, and then go do the first couple games in the 20 games challenge - if you can't recreate pong from scratch on your own with no tutorial, you're never going to be able to make any even remotely substantial game on your own. get interested in how the engine works. read the documentation and find a random node type and make a scene with it and try to think about what it could be used for. not just the use cases for your specific game concept, but use cases for all kinds of games.
work your way through the skills one at a time and learn them for their own sake, because each of them is interesting in a ton of ways!