Taking a break
To come right to the point: I am considering stop working on Genesis.
Writing this doesn't come easy to me. This month Genesis became 6 years old and it is kind of "my thing" I have been doing in my spare time since then. But as it is now, it is more stressful work than fun. There are several reasons for this, but it can be reduced to the the fact, that there is so much work that should be done which isn't very fun to do and not enough time to care about the things I would like to. Combined with other factors that also require invest of my spare time, Genesis more feels like a burden to me.
I became aware of this the last two weeks when I was on vacation in Denmark again. The last 5 years this vacation (in a summer house by the sea) has been some kind of Code Camp, where I was motivated to invent new features or add support for more RPGs. This was also the plan for this year, but I noticed that I just did not feel like doing this anymore - neither adding the print template feature, nor working on a side project which I started out of interest. It was more like a writers block. This is highly unusual for me, since I enjoy writing code since approx. 30 years for private projects.
My guess is that I am simply burnt out/overworked. I am investing 2-3 hours per day in this project, since 6 years and I am trying to live up to the expectations of my users (and find a way with all the pitfalls of the Shadowrun rules) AND doing the things I would like to do - and I simply cannot make this work anymore.
So, I decided to take a break from this project - at least to the end of the year. I will pause the Patreon billing cycles, so you should not get billed during this time. I also might like to close the issue tracker and be available less on Discord or other social media. (I will try to release the version 1.4.0 of the Shadowrun plugin before my hiatus, so the work of the last weeks wasn't for nothing. )
I will use this time to get my head clear and ask myself how I want to continue. This may be that I will be back freshly motivated - or that I stop working on Genesis completely (and work on other RPG related projects)
I thank you all for supporting me up to now - it meant a lot. Not only had it helped paying the financial costs of this project, but it also uplifted my mood every time new supports joined the project or when I got feedback here.
Comments (10)
Ich kann dich voll verstehen, hab umso mehr großen Respekt, dass du das jetzt fast sechs Jahre für uns gemacht hast! Hut ab und besten Dank für Genesis "bis hierhin".
Schade und verständlich. Ich finde es sehr mühsam in der Freizeit zu programmieren. Hut ab deshalb vor Dir. Ich hatte ja vor zu unterstützen und hab Dich hängen lassen. Der Wunsch war da :) Allerdings bin ich auch unter die Räder vom super Jahr 2020 gekommen. Falls Du Dich entscheidest neu anzufangen oder auch für andere Projekte oder wenn Du Genesis aufräumen willst, empfehle ich Sandro Mancusos Outside-In development (Hexagonal Architecture) anzusehen. In der Arbeit komme ich dazu damit zu experimentieren und bin überzeugt, dass es zu wartbarer Software führt. Aber das nur nebenbei ;) Ich hoffe allerdings, ganz uneigennützig :D, dass Du wieder Lust gewinnst und weitermachst.
Danke für den Hinweis. Ich schau mir das mal an
Thanks for all your work, relax and don't fret about it. Peace. Out.
Oje, ich wünsche dir erst einmal alles Gute und Frieden mit deiner Entscheidung. Ich kann verstehen, dass man grade auch für sich selbst einen harten Schnitt machen muss, um sich zu "entwöhnen". Aber lass das Projekt bitte nicht einfach nur einschlafen, sondern entscheide dich (schnell), ob du es endgültig beenden willst oder vielleicht an jemanden übergeben möchtest. Es gibt nichts vergleichbares... und es wäre total schade, wenn es einfach nur versteinert. Du hast einen zu guten Job gemacht... :-) Danke dafür!!!! Oli
Das mit dem "an jemanden anderen übergeben" ist echt mal nicht so einfach. Zum einen ist das Projekt ziemlich komplex - sowohl im Code, als auch im Build-Prozess - und ich habe in den 6 Jahren nur 1x jemanden gehabt, der sich da gut einarbeiten konnte (und das Projekt schon länger wieder verlassen hat). Zum anderen müsste dneu geregelt werden, ob und wie das mit den Lizenzen weiterläuft. Es ist also eher eine Frage, ob ich Genesis weitermache oder ob ich es einfach nochmal anders neu baue.
To be honest I had the fear that it might be too much for a while. Since the things you worked on seemed to be very big an intensive. I totally understand your need for a break. It would be sad to see this project go, but in the end you have to look out for yourself first before you can do something for someone else. Here are some questions which might help to see the project with some distance: - what are the things which give you energy working on the Genesis? (the things you like) - what are the things which drain your energy working on Genesis? (the things you dislike) - what is the essence of Genesis? (I mean if you remove everything, what is the minimum viable Genesis?) - considering the questions above what could go on an list of things to avoid doing because they are not essential to the project an not fun? I wish you all the best. I hope you can recharge yourself. Stay safe 👍
Thank you. There have been warning voices here and elsewhere (e.g. my wife ;-) ) before - with every new RPG I began supporting, Usually new RPGs aren't much of a problem - once they are working, all you need is enter more data, if there is any. The current problem is that I want to take the tool to a next level. I had plans developed with Uhrwerk Verlag, I had my own ideas I sometimes mentioned here on Patreon, but Shadowrun proves to be extremely timeconsuming - and we are still talking about making the core rules work like they should. Not getting this finished in a satisfying way is energy draining. Being able to create my new project ideas (still character generation related) would be fun. Perhaps I will make another post to go into more detail about what I would like to do.
Oh my! Take care about yourself - this is supposed to be fun (to an extend… nothing is always ever fun, but should be mostly). Not being a SR(6) user, I only watched the amount of work, clarification, updates, … from afar. But I guess, this was a draining experience; compared to those looming "let's redo SpliMo" thoughts plus all the additional ideas/projects. Sounds like more than a 1-2-people-project. :/ Let us know, if there's something to help with (or not…).
I clearly underestimated the complexity in detail for Shadowrun. I made some design decisions last year that define the capability of what Genesis can do - and now with more publications arriving, there are some areas where it simply doesn't work. The complexity also shows in the sheer amount of bug reports (about 4x the time Splittermond has) - which is exhausting and frustrating after some months.