Game Dev Burnout: How to Spot It, How to Cope

So you’ve been working extra hours lately — a lot of extra hours, actually — trying hard to finish and launch your new game. You’re living the dream, building a game you love, working with a team of people you adore… so why do you feel so anxious? Why are you having trouble sleeping at night? Why do you feel so irritable with your friends, your family, and yourself?

This feeling has a name: it’s called burnout. To some, burnout is the game industry’s dirty little secret. Driven by a deep passion to create the best game under seemingly-impossible deadlines, the hours can get long and, for some developers, burnout can become a real risk.

Fortunately, burnout is easy to spot if you know how to read the signs. And once you spot it, there are simple steps to pull out of the nosedive and get back to a happy place before you rage-quit. In this article, professional job coach Edward Mellett teaches you how to spot burnout, and offers advice on how to get things back under control.

What is burnout?

Occupational burnout is medically defined as the consequence of unresolved stress at work. It could happen to anyone, but it is relatively common in the game industry, especially among developers. Burnout does not just happen to those working at big console studios but is also present in games as a service, start-up cultures, and even at indie developers. The way devs work and the pressure sometimes surrounding them can cause physical, emotional, and psychological pain if not practiced with adequate self-care.

Many developers smile their way into burnout without noticing it is happening. If you have a nagging feeling that you are at the edge or in the middle of occupational burnout, here are the signs to watch out for.

Anxiety

Burnout is most common among developers in the first five years of their career. It does not just happen one morning and you feel burned out — the effects slowly appear in weeks or months, which is why it is often difficult to recognize.

Anxiety is one of the most common symptoms and it starts with mild signs of worry, edginess, and tension. As you get to burnout, it can become a serious problem that easily interferes with your productivity. Often, anxiety can cause issues with your personal life if left unchecked.

Chronic fatigue

It often begins with a lack of energy, and then you start to feel tired almost all the time. Later on, it could become exhaustion, causing you to feel drained and depleted physically and emotionally. Fatigue is often accompanied by an unexplained sense of dread for whatever lies ahead.

Insomnia

As exhausted as you may be after a long day of work, you may actually find it difficult to sleep if you’re starting to burn out. Early on, you could have trouble staying or falling asleep at least one night weekly. As it progresses, insomnia can become a persistent nightly ordeal.

Detachment

If game programming has always been enjoyable for you, but it suddenly doesn’t create excitement for you anymore, this could be a sign of burnout. The loss of enjoyment is often just the beginning of burnout, and it can progress to a deeper sense of personal isolation.

Detachment or depersonalization is a medical term that is characterized by periods of feeling detached – as if you are outside your body, observing yourself. Psychometric testing can aid you in determining your mental capabilities, along with your behavioral style. It may be helpful in figuring out if you are disconnected from yourself.

Ineffectiveness

Even though you may know you are good at your job, you might start having a feeling that you aren’t achieving anything with your work. Often, this feeling is accompanied by irritability, as well as hopelessness and reduced work performance.

Dealing with Game Dev Burnout

Now that you know what to look for, take heart in knowing the road to burnout recovery exists. Even when you can diagnose burnout and understand its root causes, it can be a challenge to fix the issues. The process varies for every person, and it can take weeks or months. However, the most effective way to recover from burnout is resting. Just have some time off so you can focus on your physical and mental health.

Aside from taking some time off of work — which may not be possible, depending on your situation — here are other ways that could help you get back on track.

Renew your focus

Game development requires creativity, and most tasks need “five percent inspiration and 95% perspiration.” It may sound counterintuitive, but light burnout can sometimes be remedied by renewing your focus on your work when the ideas are not flowing. For some devs, stopping can lead to more significant problems, especially if there are deadlines to meet.

Try something new

It’s easy to mistake frustration with burnout. Perhaps you are having difficulties fleshing out a concept or implementing a specific design. Game designers can overcome these problems by gaining a new perspective on the game they are working on. Even published games can help bring out fresh ideas that can enhance your skills over time.

Since you spend all day making games, try getting away from games for a while — even those from other developers. Look for inspiration through other activities, such as watching films, exercising, reading a book, visiting a museum, or attending a conference.

Change your tools

Sometimes, you need to use a different device or technique to see your work in a different light. Using new pieces of equipment can help you discover paths that could allow you to make progress. For instance, try using a new graphics app, working in a different integrated dev environment, or even work from a different desk or office location. These subtle changes can produce a different result that could bring back your interest in developing games.

New starting points and artificial constraints

Try drawing inspiration from a game that does not involve a computer, such as a board game or a team sport. Walk around and create games in your head based on the things you see around you. Watch a new film and then figure out how you could generate a game based on its settings and characters. Pick a classic arcade game that you know well and try to rework the gameplay with one button, audio only, or just two colors. (Sound weird? That’s the point!)

Get professional help

In some cases, what looks like occupational burnout could actually be a symptom of a bigger problem. If you feel your life and relationships are being seriously impacted, or if you aren’t seeing improvement in your mood and motivation, reach out to a health professional (a doctor, counselor, or therapist) for help, and reach out to your loved ones for support.

Find a better situation

Sometimes, the company your at is the real root of the problem. When that’s the case, it’s unlikely that the company itself will change – instead, you may need to change to a different company. If you start interviewing for a new job, try to avoid falling into another bad situation, by asking about work life balance in the job interview.

Remind yourself why you love it

When experiencing burnout, it helps if you can try to rediscover why you love making games in the first place. Ask yourself what initially caught your interest. Reimagine the context and all the potentials you may have dreamt about when you were first starting out, which can help you recapture that lost feeling. You and your passion are worth it.

Edward Mellett is the founder of Practice Reasoning Tests. After failing employer’s assessment tests many times before getting a graduate job in 2005, he created PracticeReasoningTests to teach the lessons he learned along the way. Edward has created numerous in-depth guides about psychometric testing and other types of job tests.

Image credit: William Brawley / Flickr