Don't Become a Hermit Forever

Prior to May, 2014

Now to start off, hermitism is not always a bad thing. During this time you can really learn alot and get things done without being distracted. So that's what I did, I learned alot and I was focused on making a game. In my case however, over a 4 month period I bounced back and forth between about 10 projects and completed none of them. As far socializing about game development, I ocassionally made a comment here and there like, "Looks cool" or "How do you...", but that was the extent of the conversation. It wasn't until I actively got involved with the community that I saw a difference in developing games. 

Post May, 2014

In May something happened in my brain. I got focused. All the projects that I jumped back in forth on became one. Socializing with other game developers helped me understand what my game was about. I used to have this fear that someone is going to steal my idea so I have to wait until it's done so I can go BAM! Who wants to play! But I realized after looking at everyone's work, including mine, everything is a derivative of something else. Every creation just pulls from deep within your mind that you saw long ago and adds a twist or a spin even if you don't know it (though some are just more blatant). And besides, this mentality of fear is essentially saying, "my game is so awesome that people want to steal it because it's so great I can't let anybody find out about my secret treasure" phew. I'm sure you get the idea. I had to think about what I was doing, there's no guarantee that gamers will enjoy the game I make until they play it. How inconsiderate of me, for shame Isaac for shame. This doesn't mean you have to give out your entire code, assets or story, it just means be a little more transparent.

What have I learned? Hermitism is not always bad, you need some to finish your project. Or if you are a well known company you can do that because you are established. But for a newbie like me or any other readers out there, don't stay in a bubble for to long.