late night thoughts thread about recovering from burnout (three months in) and being multidisciplinary

its almost been three months since i decided to take a break from game dev, and honestly im glad im primarily focusing on art in the meantime, its something i was definitely out of practice in

i would go weeks or months in between art, and the results would stay the same

so last year i was working on a game thats now shelved indefinitely, because burnt myself out working on it

friends noticed i wasnt having a good time making it, and mutually agreed that i should bring that project to an end

i then jumped between a whole bunch of different non-programming hobbies that were related to game production, and i still felt like i wasnt making any headway in any of em

as my health worsened, i kept things simple and stuck with drawing and light photography

and you can probably tell i drew a whole lot more recently than i have before, if you've been following for a while

i would go on more (socially distant) photo outings but my health prevents me from doing that comfortably

(i do have cool pics from last time though)

(i should clarify that my major health issues and my burnout are two separate conditions im experiencing)

my personal goal is to be a self sufficient game/software/design studio, and id say i have decent programming skills to mark that part of my goal complete enough to move on

but for other things, id need to stay focused on learning them one at a time, and for now its illustration

i find with learning new things is that i need to be in a flow state; i need to focus on a specific skill until im confident i can take a break and return without a long "startup time"

switching between so many disciplines within the span of say, a week, is a bit much for me

i personally dont feel comfy enough to call *myself* a musician or animator or 3d modeler, especially if ive made maybe one or two of each of those things

like if i were to produce/dev a game, i know my way around enough to do those, but would they be good? probably not!

i have a few friends who are a jack-of-all-trades, or are growing into one, and i very much admire them and their determination

its something that i personally strive for myself, and i find that a shotgun approach doesnt lend itself well for the way i learn (and my health)

so for the time being, i'm continuing to focus on art, and try new compositions/subjects/techniques/styles as i improve and get inspired by y'all's art

thanks for sticking around <3