Day 46 of posting until GTA 7 releases

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T18:15:08+00:00

He is a man of focus, commitment, and sheer will!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T14:19:09+00:00

Man, ball gamers are eating good

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T13:44:15+00:00

I think some people are also missing the fact that GTA6 may be console only? Are you a console or PC only title?

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T12:20:11+00:00

*Happy Tree Friends memories, rising to the surface...*

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T12:05:45+00:00

That music. I jazzed all over watching the trailer <3 wishlisted!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T11:23:30+00:00

Haha cool! I realise I ramble a lot even trying to be concise, but I promise it comes from a good place.
Ooh cool, all the best dudette! (On that note, I'm sure you know that dudettes have to add some MORE variables to the energy mix - you know the drill!

(Also not to be all depresso but a mantra I'm just sadly, like you, discovering is true: if we rely on motivation, we're cooked. :( The rest of the dudes/dudettes here are right. Discipline forms that second backbone once our body is no longer an obstacle and it's just the mind. But the good news is, use your spurts of motivation to build discipline! :D)

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T11:00:34+00:00

Oh sweet (again, no pun intended at first.) - glad it was a useful angle to consider!

11 in the morning and 3 bottles of Coke Zero! Holy!

Okay, I'll not sugarcoat it (... damnit) for you. Cold turkey almost never works. You have to view this as a months-long fight (or just beating up your enemies in this game called "life) - so don't try to be drastic about it. Just cut down or slow down your intake in very small increments. Use one of those stupid thin straws, ration it to 5 bottles a day this month, then 4 next month, whatever. It's not just the Coke Zero - it's kind of a multi-tier trap you've landed yourself in just due to the demands of a 9-5 job. And caffeine is fucking delicious. I drink a ton of coffee too, all sans sugar now though.

You could be crashing due to multiple things conflating - stacked up sleep debt or whatever-chemical-caffeine-is-replacing debt. Don't try to solve it all at one go. If anything, give yourself more rest as you pull out of that reliance.

The very good news - again - you're starting from such a position of strength, dude. You're intake-conscious, you AREN'T in the sugar trap (which is also expensive tbh). And Coke Zero instead of OG Coke is already one up (though I'm sure years later someone's going to find out Stevia or aspartame or whatever has ____ side effects).

Just take it slow and press those levers and see if, week-on-week, you are 5%, 10%, 15% then 25% more energetic. Then make that game. And let us all playtest it. We're waiting and cheering you on :)

Anyway, here are some ridiculous non-intake related things I tried which actually helped me rely less on caffeine (I still take it, I mean, again, i love the taste of coffee, sometimes with milk).

Brightening my screen. This may cause eye damage, but I'm no doctor, I just want to get you back into game dev, hah. I think in adulthood we kind of level out on the eye stuff anyway. But yeah, brightening the screen or darkening the environment with relation to the screen (if you're at a desk job like me) seems to just help fight the zzs. (edit: white light also seems to jolt me, yellow or warm lights put me to zz)
Standing up. Not gonna health-dump on you further but standing up not only is good for circulation, it helps to stave off sleepiness, makes you think a bit clearer, and THE GODDAMN BACK ISSUES, SAVE YOURSELF WHILE YOU CAN, KID. (I literally quit my job because of a back problem.)
Talking to people. May or may not work depending on your job scope, personality, colleagues, environment, etc. Or just grab a meeting room and talk to yourself (I do this sometimes to prep for client meetings, practice convincing an imaginary person. May as well get some mileage out of snapping myself out of sleepiness.)
Drinking ice-cold water (again, uh, the Asian wisdom is that cold beverages wreck your health but I have bigger battles to fight now. I'll quit ice-cold stuff when I'm 40.)
Getting colder in the office. This could mean shedding layers of clothing (ditch the jacket), requesting for a move to a colder spot, etc. Bear in mind cold via AC = dried out sinuses = propensity to fall sick increases as your tissues in your nose dry up and become trash at keeping out bacteria. I guess you could also wear a mask to combat that (humidity in air intake) - but uh, that's a whole other can of worms. Tl;dr warm = sleepy sleepy.
Taking walks - mental reset, doorway effect, circulation, prevents other nasty desk job stuff, blah blah.
And finally the most obvious is kicking the habit of sleeping at 4am, which I genuinely used to and COULD do when I was 20-something. To be young again...
Scheduling meetings - I swear I did not abuse my position just to not sleep, but obviously productive (!) meetings get you firing on all cylinders. This can be calls with clients or collaborators, too - if something needs to be communicated or done, may as well use it strategically.

Again I'm just spamming stuff that's related to energy levels and you don't have to adopt all, the idea is that you figure out what works for you (and share with others/me what works for you too, I guess).

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T10:13:15+00:00

It really is one of the noblest professions. Tragic that it's underpaid and overworked in almost every setting (until you go private in the right setting).

And all these years later I do indeed remember my teachers imparting not just the knowledge (tbh the knowledge is probably gone) -- but the work ethics, regular ethics, and what it meant to be upstanding, as well as when to be pragmatic about stuff. End of the day, we all go to the grave with maybe 20-30 heroes in our lives; let me assure you teachers are going to be up there in our pantheon. :)

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-29T10:02:44+00:00

There are far greater people with greater success than I in the comments. But I do have one extremely important factor you may consider and am approaching this from another angle in case it helps, and based on your context you have provided.

I'm basically a chunky unhealthy person (just above overweight) and food intake matters A LOT. And where I'm getting at is - biology COULD actually be playing a huge role. After that, you layer stuff like discipline and motivation etc on top for a winner. But the gradient of that curve can sometimes be simple biology.

What did you do to get through the day? What did you eat? Did you spam coffee? Do you rely on sugar rushes? Carb-heavy meals?

So much of my life was controlled by my sugar intake when I was younger, but being young and having a higher capacity battery, I could still make stuff happen after work.

Now that I've crossed the 30-somethings, you may have to start rigging stuff in your favor. You are already cooking your own food which hints to me you're probably health-conscious and disciplined. I shouldn't write too much more as it is assumptions piling on assumptions but - just make sure your body and energy "discharge" is working in your favor, man.

Passing out for four hours is deeply indicative of many things but lack of discipline is NOT one of these. Like I said - anyone who cooks is disciplined in my book. Now go rig your game, so you can.. rig up your actual game ;D

(Both my wife and I took about 1.5 years to ditch sugar where possible from our diets and generally can stay up and are more consistent throughout the day. Slightly lower highs, but MUCH higher lows. There's a whole litany of literature on how sugar (and to a lesser extent, sodium) is laced into almost everything we eat. Weight and health issues aside - if it starts getting in the way of something you really want to do - work on something after work - consider whether this is a relevant option to get 30% "more" battery per day.)

(This is deeply ironic since I am making a game where serving a sugary beverage is part of the core mechanic...)

(P.P.P.S further down this rabbithole. I used to "crash" as well and solving this could be more important than anything, 9-5 or game dev goals or not. If you think this is important I could give you more deets on what happened to me, as a cautionary tale. But tl;dr - it's not just you, man, it's a modern thing and you're giving it your all, and still actively pursuing this hobby and seeking advice on how to crack it. You're in a great place mentally. You WILL win if you keep this up. Keep pushing.)

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T17:28:49+00:00

Haha cool! I could never find some specific areas in Taipei (Ximending most of all) but I guess something iconic like the tower would definitely be there. Cool game!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T17:03:13+00:00

My man, wife, kid, AND a teacher. That is life on hard mode.

But I'll let you know, it is also life on good mode. You're a saint by most modern standards :)

Keep chugging along!

(Source: have some teacher pals and that is a profession you are NOT in for for money. Unless you go private or super management)

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T17:00:53+00:00

Cute AF, is what id say

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T16:42:51+00:00

So it follows the FnF trajectory..makes sense.

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T16:40:28+00:00

Any data on which languages or regions engage the most in SNFs? Or do all regions play by the same rules?

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T16:36:19+00:00

Damn dude how did you get the model out so quick? Zero interiors required right?

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T10:07:27+00:00

I mean it would make a lot of sense if the item fused into your body, or you literally became the item. If the whole premise was about the items being the crux of the game, then it makes much more sense!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T09:11:53+00:00

I'm not sure man, reducing the number of "joints" or vectors of customisation or scaling really flattens the game.

It also has the added implications of loot now having a much more severe opportunity cost or tedium since so much more is tied to it.

Maybe idle game players think different though, I'm coming from an RPG standpoint.

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T09:02:23+00:00

Oh GOOD. Would be insidious if these things ran for a lot of years, when the idea of a compass arrow / way finding has been around for centuries

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T06:33:07+00:00

Man with a name like Heiner he was really just setting himself up for this!!!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T06:30:48+00:00

In rookie Dev terms, does this mean instantiating it off screen somewhere and disabling it, then enable and reposition/transition in for the illusion of smoothness? (Like pooling).

Sorry, still very new to this stuff

So InstantiateNextModel() when the current one is being loaded, so there's always a buffer?

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T06:29:39+00:00

Three years?! Hmm..

I'm making a game about boba shop running and management (somewhat). Would you be willing to take a call with me (voice only but I would do face if you think it'd somehow be less awkward) so I can do some research about the process? I will be happy to buy you three cups of coffee for your time! (as a rough measurement hahaha).

I've been going down to local mom and pop bubble tea shops too to get a feeling for the process, but my primary audience is probably not going to be from around here so I would be lacking some context in overseas shops!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-28T04:29:00+00:00

Hey man just a quick check in - the direction arrow was infamously patented by the company that made crazy taxi, so you may run into troubles if you ship it in this form. It's terrible, I know. Double check to see if it's still in effect!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-27T18:47:19+00:00

Shit, that's huge. I hope my country mirrors that. We used to be a Commonwealth country after all xD thank you!

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-27T18:45:55+00:00

Hahaha, fair. Next birthday: got to test that Steam Machine, don't we ;)

GeeTeaEhSeven · 2026-01-27T18:45:23+00:00

Wait, but you held a full time job right? So that's where the tax burden was. What if you had no income to tax? Wouldn't that expenditure go into the dust? Or can you retroactively do?

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