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The 5 AM Challenge – Early Morning Game Development

Introduction

Ok, so this project is not just about what I’m doing to learn Game Development – There are plenty of people out there on the internet and YouTube who can do a better job at that than me.

A core part of this project is to test the ideas and strategies touted by the productivity Gurus of this world. Can they help me become the type of person that can stick to learning game development this year,- and even help me reach my goal in a more efficient way? 

One idea that pervades the successful/productivity stereotype is waking up early in the morning. I mean really early. Like between 3 -6 am.  

Why Bother Waking Up Early?

Famous celebrities and CEOs apparently get up at ungodly hours to keep ahead of the game. Apple’s Tim Cook wakes up at 3.45 am, Avon Chief Andrea Jung is up By 5 am and Mark Wahlberg is up a 3 am and in the Gym within the hour, all before a day of filming. 

Now whether you believe that these wake-up times are really true, or perhaps you doubt that ‘normal’ people can function (let alone be productive) at those hours, there is something appealing about the early-riser/successful stereotype. I remember watching Rocky as a kid and feeling inspired to wake up at 5 am, drink raw eggs, and then go out for a run.  (I really did! It was awful, I won’t elaborate further). 

Whole books have been centered around this whole idea: The ‘Miracle Morning and Robin Sharma’s 5-am Club to name but two.  It’s a really popular and attractive idea that can be sold as a strategy to help you achieve more!  But does it really work?

Can It Help Me Be More Productive and Relaxed?

I really like the idea of having some solid time to get those important tasks done before everyone in the house wakes up. Especially as a parent! Once my 20-month daughter is up, it’s difficult to get anything done. Usually, we play her favorite game of “let’s move the kitchen chairs and climb on them, and daddy will get me down and move them back” 200 times a day. 

This means I end up working in the evenings. Which isn’t great because I’m usually unable to focus at this time. I am often quite tired and feel guilty for not spending that time with my wife.  I will likely still be tired in the mornings but at least I can spend the evenings relaxing ( I hope..)

Challenge Time – Ok Let’s Test This!

So here are the rules of the challenge. 

  • For the rest of this week, I am going to wake up between 4.30 am and 5.30 am
  • I will have 30 mins to get showered have a coffee and go for a quick walk. 
  • Then I will then work until 8 am. 
  • Bedtime will be between 8 pm and 9 pm. 
  • This should give me 2 – 3 hours each day. 

The first few days I expect to be hell and probably quite unproductive. But I will still try to outline what I expect to get done in these times. 

I will experiment in dividing my time like in this way: 

  • 1 hour of Game Development Study. 
  • 1 hour of Game Dev in Year YouTube Channel.
  • 1 hour flexible. 

I hoping that after the initial tiredness wears off, front-loading my day will help me focus on moving forward and help me feel more relaxed later in the day. 

Oh dear.. what have I signed myself up to….🤦‍♂️

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Devlog #3– First Full Week Down (11/365)

The first full week is over and it was tough, but not for the reason I expected…

This Weeks Wins: Second Video, Re-creating Brackey’s Tutorials, and another Blog Post.

So first things first, how did I fair with my weekly Challenge:

Last Weeks Challenge :

Complete 5 Brackey’s Tutorials In 7 days. – from ‘How to Make a Video Game Playlist’ (+100xp for each Tutorial)

I actually did 8 tutorials! This takes my total tutorials completed to 9. However, this is kind of frustrating because the whole playlist I was working on – entitled ‘Make A Game’ is 10 videos long. It would have been nice to complete the series but all in all it’s a good start. Although, it was probably too easy to reward 100XP per tutorial, so I will adjust the amount earned. I think 10 XP for each tutorial with a bonus of 50XP for completing the challenge. 80 + 50 = 130XP Total. (I will have to work out how this corresponds to leveling up).

What I Learned

It’s ok doing tutorials but that is only one part of the learning process. I can’t say I’ve actually learned anything until I’ve tested myself. So today (Sunday) I tried to recreate the game. I would say I managed to recreate 70% of it without referring to my notes – the bit I was weakest at was creating the UI. Probably because this was only covered in a single video. Whereas, there was a lot of cross-over between the other tutorials: creating scripts, linking variables, coding loops, and boolean flags.

The game was like an endless runner-style, with a cube moving along the ground and the player dodging left and right to avoid obstacles. It introduced me to Unity’s physics engine and collision detection using Rigidbody components. I was really impressed with Unity’s animation capabilities. Using keyframes to animate will feel familiar to anyone who has done some basic animation in something like FCPX or Premiere Pro.

YouTube Channel

I uploaded another video to the channel, sharing my plan for this year. This was by far the toughest task of the week. To be honest, I hadn’t fully finalized my plan before filming. This became apparent when I watched the footage back… it just didn’t make sense. I even forgot to mention what the main goal of the channel/ project was! So I ended up having to reshoot it on Friday. That meant I was editing well into Saturday and it was a stretch to get it published on time.

I probably spent more time working on the YouTube side of things than I did studying game development. I will have to do better next week I will never hit my target.

That’s it for Now! I’m Off To Watch England Beat Italy in the Euros

Sorry, this is so brief but the European Football championship Final is about to begin so I’m off the cheer England on!

Current Focus: Learning Unity Basics

This Weeks Challenge (W/c 12th)

  • Complete The Final Brackey’s Tutorial (10XP)
  • Recreate 100% without Notes and add something New (100XP)
  • 8 More Tutorials – On Building a 2D game ( 10XP + Bonus 50XP)

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Devlog #1 – GameDev in a Year Has Begun- (3/365)

Game controller on desk with laptop and monitor.
Author: Darrell Bean

This is going to be the first in a super-chilled series of Devlog posts updating readers on progress and setting my intentions for the following week. Super chilled that is unless I’m super-stressed from the project…ha. If your new to the project then read this post first.

Summary (7 min read)

This post will go over what I achieved this week and what ideas I have for improving my game development journey. In the end, I announce next week’s game development challenge. The resources I mention are:

This Weeks Wins: Video, First Unity Tutorial, and a Blog Post.

The first video is live on the YouTube channel, Check it out here.

The audio quality isn’t the best, so I apologize for that – it was 6-am in the morning and our 20-month old daughter was asleep in the next room 🤫. I expect it’s going to be like that a lot this year – I will have to use whatever time is available to me.

Also, this morning I filmed and went through my first Unity tutorial. ☺️
Initially, I started on the Unity Foundations tutorial on the Learn Unity website. But quickly realized it was too complex for me. I wasn’t interested in manipulating parts of an already built mini-game. I wanted to learn the UI and build something very basic- from scratch. That way I would know what all the moving parts were.

So after a quick google and I found this Tutorial from Brackeys. It’s no wonder this guy 1.41M subs. That video alone has nearly 6 million views at the time of writing. The tutorial was perfect. I got to move a block around the screen, and change a few basic settings. Exactly what I needed. People who make tutorials take note. Trying to fit everything in one video scares off people like me. When I see a 1-hr+ tutorial video I immediately get overwhelmed.- Thanks Brackeys. 👍

Realisation. Be Aware of Any Potential Optimisations Early.

At this early stage, I’ve realized it’s important for me to be aware of any possible optimizations for my workflow and study. It’s better I do it now before bad habits set in. Here is a couple I have highlighted.

1: Shortcuts and Hotkeys. – ( Two Resources)

Investing in learning the shortcuts and hotkeys now will save a ton of time when navigating complex tools like Unity. Think of extra milliseconds of time wasted when using a mouse. Okay, so a few milliseconds here and there is nothing right? Well, imagine how much that will accumulate over the year of this project. That’s a lot of time.
Here are two great resources I used to learn the shortcuts: UsetheKeyboard.com and the official Unity documentation.

2: Organisation – (Better Workflow Habits)

Alright, so I’m not the most organized person in the world. Given the scale of the project that doesn’t bode well. I’m not only learning game development but I’m also uploading videos to Youtube, posting to this blog, and being a Dad/Husband. I may not have a job right now but I still don’t have enough hours in the day. Staying organized is a must.

The mistakes I have made in the past are trying to be organized at two less-than-optimal times. Either after a lot of entropy has has built up. Which results in me to spending ages organising weeks or even sometimes months of acculimalted mess – and usually just giving up and sticking my head back in the sand. Or, I waste time setting up elaborate systems before something has even gotten underway. These often end up being useless and/or unnecessarily complex.

So when do I think is the best time to develop an organization system? Well now! In the early stages before complexity sets in. Yes, I had something basic in place before the project started, but I’m adapting it as I go. These early stages will probably see the most changes. But as time goes and as I adjust to the project, it should become more optimized.

I am using Notion to handle all my planning and tracking of what topics I am learning and what videos/blogs I need to work on. It has an amazing feature where you can turn your task databases into a calendar view. Really helpful for planning ahead.

Also, I’m trying to build basic workflow habits, like immediately transferring my footage onto my external hard drive, naming it, and importing it into the Final cut Pro X (my video editing software). That way it’s all ready to go when I have some time to edit.

Again just like the shortcuts/hotkeys a bit of investment now will save a ton of time in the future. One tip is to keep a notepad handy and jot down any repetitive tasks. Then at the end of every session, I think about how I can eliminate or speed these up for next time. Personally, I try to keep in mind James Clear’s ‘Laws of Behaviour Change’ from the book Atomic Habits. How can I ‘Make it Easy’ and how can I Make It Obvious? Sometimes it’s as simple as creating a folder for your screen recordings to stop them from building up on your desktop (#NoteToSelf)

Next Week (w/c – Mon 5th July)

My basic method on this project is to focus on the week and maximize it. Annual thinking will trick me into believing I have plenty of time. SoI will be setting out the challenges in this section.

If you are new to game development then maybe you can also give this challenge a shot and earn some (fictitious) XP….wait isn’t all XP fictitious? Well, you know what I mean.

Current Focus: Learning Unity Basics

Currently, my main focus is learning the tools – in my case that’s Unity. After that, I can worry about getting better at building games.

This Weeks Challenge :

  • Complete 5 Brackey’s Tutorials In 7 days. – from ‘How to Make a Video Game Playlist’ (+100xp for each Tutorial)

Thanks For now,

D.