獨立開發者是如何度過一天的工作時間

作者：Pascal Bestebroer

這是我計劃刊登的關於遊戲開發的「其它面」系列文章中的第一篇。即不只是關於「技術開發者」或「關於截圖」之類的內容，還有一些幕後的東西。我發現我的許多冬粉和網友都有想成為全職獨立開發者的念頭，並且經常有人問我有關本文將涉及的這些內容的問題。

開始一天的生活

雖然對我來說是再平常不過的事，但是經常有人問我我一天都在做些什麼，這的確是個不錯的問題！

通常我是7點到8點半之間起床。我已經好多年都不使用鬧鐘了，這也是自己當老闆的一大好處。幸運的是我的妻子Aline因為在經營自己的商店所以她也不怎麼需要設鬧鐘。有一天他設了8點15的鬧鐘，但因為我們很少睡到更晚所以在鬧鐘響起前我們都已經醒來了。

通常情況下我會在起床前瀏覽一些社交網站，論壇和新聞內容。所以在9點半以前我通常都還是在床上。我沒有吃早餐的習慣，我不喜歡在早晨的時候吃東西，我會在早上11點到12點之間吃頓簡單的午餐。

對於我來說遵循這些時間安排非常重要，我認為如果你沒有一個嚴格的時間表你的腦子便會一團亂並且你也會失去職業倫理。如此你最終將會陷入古怪的工作循環中，不清楚自己上次休息時間是什麼時候，可能會失去工作的動力，甚至你無時無刻都會感到疲倦。或許也有人能夠適應這樣的方法，但我更喜歡在特定時間中做特定的事以保持我的工作節奏。同時我也不會穿著睡衣工作。這樣的著裝是我在休息的時候才會穿上的。

辦公室

blog_desktop(from gamasutra)

我沒有辦公室！我是在我們家的「用餐」區的大餐桌上工作（有10個位置可以選擇！），這裡還擺著收音機，我也會使用Spotfy去播放音樂。我們還沒有小孩，所以沒有太多分散精力的事，如果你問Aline，她可能會說整個家裡最讓人分心的就是我了，因為我會聽著收音機唱歌並且會發出許多搞怪的聲音。

我們養了5隻貓，但其實它們大多數時間都在睡覺，所以也不會讓我分心。關於硬體，我只用Macbook（我不用滑鼠，有時候會使用手柄或手機/平板電腦進行測試）。

工作時間

隨著時間的發展，我的工作時間也發生了一些變化。2004年當我剛創建Orangepixel時，我花了許多時間在工作上。創業總是需要投入許多。

而現在我的工作時間已經正常化了，雖然有時候還是會加下班，但並不是為了趕工而是因為我的大腦中有太多想法。不過這種情況還是很少的，我也仍會在午夜時分上床睡覺。因為Aline在經營一家商店，所以她的工作時間是周二至周六，所以我們的周末時間會有點不同。我的工作周是從周二早上開始並在周五下午結束，但我一般會在周六和周日做些內容修改，並在這些時間看電影或電視節目。

我通常是從早上9點半工作到下午4點半（然後我會散步或騎車到Aline的店，她通常下午5點半關門）。晚飯後我會瀏覽所有消息，80%的情況下我不會在夜晚工作，除非突然有靈感。在夏天的時候我會做些改變，即我會進行更多的戶外運動，並且我發現夏天的工作時間最好不要超過4個小時。

同樣地在夏天我也會把自己的工作區域移到屋頂的陽台並沐浴著陽光工作。我不認為加班是任何工作的解決方法，我同樣也不認為個體戶就該加班，不過所有工作情況都不同，最關鍵的還是取決於你自己。

我之所以開始作為獨立開發者是為了主導自己的生活，即自己決定該做什麼何時做什麼以及為什麼要做這些事。這便是我一直所追求的自由，沒有人能夠推動我去做某事。

分心

在工作的時候我會盡所能不被其它事所分心。我會關掉Feedly（新聞閱讀器）直到一天的工作完成後再打開。我會將瀏覽Twitter以及其它獨立開發平台作為一種有益的分心內容，我將這當成是與正常職場員工間所進行的辦公室交流相似的方法。

我所遇到的來自現實世界的分心事物並沒有很多，如今我身邊的大多數人都能理解我的工作並且會盡量不在我身邊晃蕩。我會即時瀏覽所有郵件，有時候會直接回復對方（遊戲邦註：如果我認為有回復的必要的話）或等到沒有創意靈感而需要休息的時候再回復。

最後

而所有的一切中最關鍵的是：這種方法是適合我自己的，而不一定適合所有其他人。這是我在過去12年獨立工作中所不斷磨合的工作方式。一開始我會工作較長時間，而現在我的更大關注點是要變成一個儘可能放鬆，不要有太大壓力的人。

不管怎樣我都希望這能夠幫助你們更好地進行工作。如果你是獨立工作者，那麼原則總是很重要，加班也不一定是最有效的，或許那隻會浪費你的寶貴時間。

（本文為遊戲邦/gamerboom.com編譯，拒絕任何不保留版權的轉發，如需轉載請聯繫：遊戲邦）

How to fill your days as full time indie

by Pascal Bestebroer

This is the first one of a series of articles I plan on posting about 「the other side」 of game development. Not just the 「technical developer」 things or the 「look at my screenshots」 awesomeness but more the behind the scenes stuff. I noticed that a large portion of my followers and online friends are aspiring to be full time indie devs at some point and I often get questions related to the things I hope to cover in these blog posts.

This post was originally posted on my Orangepixel blog, and I』ll aim to do a post per week, at least for the next couple of weeks as I have some idea』s written out. Also, if you have any suggestions/ideas for a topic like this, let me know in the comments ! This first in the series is a pretty basic one: walking you through my work rhythm and ethics.

Start the day

It』s fairly normal to me, but random people often asked me what I do all day, and it』s a good question! So let』s see.

I』m usually awake anywhere between 7:00 and 8:30. I don』t use an alarm, and haven』t used one for many many years, which is one of the pro』s of being your own boss. Luckily Aline (the other half) is also in a position of not really having to set an alarm as she runs her own store. She does set one for 8:15 on some days in the week, but it』s extremely rare for us to not be awake before it buzzes anyway.

Often I』ll be doing social media, some forums and news feeds before I actually get out of bed. So it』s also very rare for me to be out of bed before 9:30 (and more rare to not be out of bed at 9:30). I don』t eat breakfast, never liked eating that early in the morning, and I eat a small lunch between 11am and 12am, so I go straight to work.

For me it』s really important to stick to these times, I believe that not having any strict schedule will mess up your head and work-ethic. You eventually end up working at weird hours, not knowing when you took your last break, not in the mood to work, feeling tired all the time, etc. It might work for others, but I prefer to have a few things on a set schedule to keep the rhythm in my work days. Also, I never, ever, work in my undies.. ! Outfits like that are for lazy days, and even on a lazy day I put on clothes like an adult

The office

I don』t have an office! yay! I work downstairs in the 「dining」 area of the house at a big kitchen table (10 chairs to choose from) and the radio or spotify filling the room with music. We don』t have kids, so there』s very little distraction happening and if you ask Aline, I』m probably the biggest distraction in the house as I sing along with the radio and do a lot of hyper-active silly voices (especially when I』m in the creative zone, and one of the reasons I don』t do streaming with webcams!).

We do have 5 cats roaming around but they are mostly sleeping all day anyway, so no distractions there either. As for hardware, just a Macbook (no mouse, sometimes a gamepad or a phone/tablet to test on) which works for me!

Workhours

The hours I put into work have changed over the years. When I just started Orangepixel, back in 2004, I worked a lot but I also had a different situation. I was single, I wasn』t in a great place, and I was much younger. Also, starting a business is a lot of work, simple as that.

These days I do work fairly normal hours tho, sometimes I 「crunch」, not because a game has to be completed but because my brain is in 「the zone」 and I just have so much stuff that I want to add I end up working day and night and 7 days a week. This is fairly rare tho, and I still go to bed at midnight-ish. Due to Aline having a shop, she works Tuesday-Saturdays so we sort of shifted the weekend a bit. My work-week starts on Tuesday morning, and ends on Friday afternoon but usually I end up doing some tinkering and stuff on Saturday and Sunday while watching a movie or some tv shows.

I work from 9:30ish to 4:30ish pm (then I go out for a walk/ride to Aline』s store as she closes at 5pm). I read all my news feeds after dinner, and 80% of the days I don』t work in the evening anymore, unless the creativity calls for it! In the couple of summer weeks I do change all that up, as I take more outdoor walks and such, but I often find my creativity improves by only working 4 hours a day in those weeks.

Also, during the summer, I often relocate my work-space to the roof terrace and work in the sun – until my laptop fans start blowing, then I just enjoy the sun and stop the work. I don』t believe 「crunch」 is a solution for any job, but I also don』t think you can do 「crunch」 if you are self-employed because there is a very different feeling to all the work you do, it』s all personal.

The main reason I started being self-employed is to dictate my own life, I decide what I do, when I do, and why I do it. That』s the freedom I』ve always been searching for, so there is no point in forcing myself to work my ass off beyond what is healthy or required.

Distractions

During work I try to not get distracted too much. I always keep my Feedly (news reader) closed until the day is done. I do enjoy some twitter and lately the indiedev slack as a healthy distraction, as I look at that as more the office-chatter that normal people have when working from an office.

Real world distractions aren』t many, it took some years, but most people now understand I』m actually working and not just playing around on a computer all day. I usually read all emails that come in when they come in, and either answer them directly (if I think they are important or easy enough to reply to) or I leave it in my mailbox until a time where creativity isn』t going very well and I could use a break.

Finally

One big footnote on all this is that of course: this works for me, and might very well not work for anybody else. It』s also something that grew organically in those last 12 years of being self-employed. I worked more hours when I started, and my main focus these days is just being a relaxed guy most of the time, as little stress as possible.

That said, I do hope it helps some of you out there with maybe some tips or idea』s on how to get your work-flow going. Discipline is a requirement if you are self-employed, and crunch isn』t a romantic thing it』s really just crap and a waste of your time.(source:gamasutra)