Had similar issues to you and also did similar things.

However I eventually got through it and my suggestion below is what ended up working for me.

For a fortnight, do the following:

- Go to bed at 10pm, no music, no movies, etc. Get up at 6am without exception, even if super tired.

- Moderate exercise at 630am for 1 hour. Ride to work, do some weights, go for a run. Whatever works for you.

- No caffeine after midday. I've got friends that can have it at 8pm, and still sleep at 10pm. I cannot if I have it at 1pm

- Alcohol free. It disrupts your sleep and makes you eat more junk food.

- More vegetables. Because I don't know how to cook, I just went with steamed veges with a different sauce (bbq, sriracha, butter, etc)

Regarding hyperactivity, the best thing you could do is setup a TODO board (e.g. Trello, whiteboard with sticky notes) to visualize everything going on in your life.

Taxes to do, bills to pay, emails to reply to, people to see, presents to buy, tutorials to watch, books you are reading. Everything.

When I did this, I had a terrible amount of work in progress that I just couldn't keep up with and my mind was constantly on.

See what you can do to reduce this. Take a day off work for taxes, admit you won't read that book, unsubscribe from emails, say no to social obligations if you're feeling overwhelmed, etc.

Hope this helps.

The only comment at this level which is constructive and thoughtful gets the downvote?

My thoughts were there is nothing wrong with saying mobile-first and cloud-first. They are complementary to each other. i.e. You build your mobile apps using a cloud backend.

What I learned from another indie dev was to stick to creating small games but each new game you create introduce a couple of new game designs.

Therefore after a while, you'll have a pretty good game framework and that big game you were dreaming of will be that much easier.

With no backing data, my reasoning would be it's the ideal time to jump into the industry.

Before the iPhone, I can only imagine how hard it'd be for developers to handle the business side of building a game, e.g. purchasing, delivery, website hosting, etc.

Now a days you have multiple mobile app stores, Kickstarter, Greenlight, Humble Bundle, etc.

Barriers to entry are extremely low, thats why you have an incredible amount of competition fighting for gamer attention. So in the past it was harder, but there were also a lot less people doing it.

The good news, such as it is, is that most of that competition is shit. The quantity of games is huge. The quantity of ones people play is not, and generally correlates with quality. Be interesting, be notable, and find ways to differentiate, and you have a much better chance. Get on Greenlight, get on Steam, be excellent enough to get on the radar of the new consoles (indie dev programs for both are underway). This is not easy, but it isn't impossible--I know two devs building their first game with a PS4 target.

(Also, avoiding the mobile market is probably wise. Competition is a lot harder there, and the games people generally gravitate towards so much simpler, that the barriers really are low there.)

I've had similar thoughts.

My current plan is to move towards contracting work. Therefore, if there is time between contracts, instead of dwelling on loss of income, it essentially gives you time to work on your hobbies.

In your situation you'd need to ensure you are well ahead of your mortgage.

Thanks for the links. Tried a few out and they were quite interesting.

IMO, the two most exciting things that is happening right now is the Occulus Rift and independent developers.

I've had a bunch of games in my head that I'd love to build and it turns out there are plenty of indie developers who have had the same idea but are actually building them.

My current sci-fi list:

- RimWorld

- The Mandate

- Satelite Reign

Excellent work. I like your perma-wield idea.

I've only just started on the "aspiring indie" path the past 6 months [1] and it's a great feeling when I've got a spare weekend to toy around with an idea.

One thing that I found useful was joining up with a indie game dev group in my city. It's always great to hear other peoples stories.

[1] http://andrewjamesbowen.wordpress.com/

Thanks, and I think that's a good idea about dev events, I'm in New York and just started realizing how many things are going on for game dev and creative coding around me.

I'm jealous about you living in NY.

I had a holiday there for a fortnight recently and for the first time in my life, I felt truly inspired.

One of my highlights was going through the MET. Specifically, seeing the flintlock based firearms. I was simply blown away by the intricacies.

Fellow New Yorker here with a long-standing interest in making indie games. Let's chat. My contact info's in my profile.

If I had my time again with headphones, I'd be buying DT770 (work) / DT990 (home)/ Bose QC15 (travel)

The Beyer's are very comfortable which I think is the #1 feature for long periods of use.

The Bose make my daily commute enjoyable now as I can listen to podcasts with no distraction.

I'm using these at home too.

Previously I went through Logitech's every 2-3 years, I've never even considered changing to something else since owning them.

I'm a person and I care about widespread surveillance of people.

Yes, this is the most important, that we are all people regardless of what identities were were born into or adopted since!

I was just responding to his point that "Americans wouldnt' care about surveillance of foreigners" which is why I marked myself as an American. Some of us care.