The Climbing Games video (and an announcement)
(Skip to the TL;DR for the important bit)
Well it's three weeks late, but better late than never.
These are some of my favorite games. I'd been playing White Knuckle since last year, and PEAK was another fun one with a friend, but with Cairn releasing this year I decided that it would be a great opportunity to talk about games which involve climbing things.
As it turns out, they're all great, and unlike my other genre dives, there were times I felt like I was at a loss of what to even criticize. I think that's saying something. I don't generally do game rankings, but Cairn was an incredible experience, and one that I'd recommend to anyone. White Knuckle has quickly become one of my all time favorites, and PEAK is a real good time with friends, or even solo. Peaks of Yore surprised me with how addicting it was, and Lorn's Lure was a wonderful setting and story, despite some of its shortcomings. Idols of Ash is more of a tech demo, but it's done a lot with a little.
Now, as for the announcement.
I've been struggling with motivation a lot this year. I should've been finished by the end of the last month, but it was difficult to do more than an hour of work each day. I tried to take some of the work off my back with an editor, but I shouldn't need to remind you how well that went. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but this stuff is a lot of work. I'm immensely thankful and proud of what I've built over the years. The amount of support you all give me is truly overwhelming, so it's always with a sense of guilt that I can't deliver the content you crave as quickly as you deserve.
For over four years now, what started as a hobby has become the foremost priority in my life, and I've been running on that for a long time now. I'm so fortunate that I refused to let myself believe that I could be burning out, but there were points in this video where my body seemed to reject working on it entirely.
So, I'm not going to say I need a break, but I will say that I want to knock content creation down from my #1 priority to maybe #2, or #3, at least for a little while. I don't want to stop, but I think I need to let myself focus on other things for a while. Before, everything revolved around videos, and I'd only let myself play with other projects in my life when a video was finished or on a good schedule. It was a great system in the first two or three years of my channel, but as my motivation has waned it's become this self punishing slog where I won't let myself work on things I'd rather do because there was a video I was putting off. I've always used carrot and stick approaches like this to manage my effort, like how I'd always try to only change for a month if I finished a video, but they've just completely lost their effectiveness and it's just making me a little miserable.
TL;DR
I'm going to be prioritizing some personal projects for the near future and I'll only be working on videos when I want to. It's totally possible you could still see videos coming out at a similar rate as before, it'll just depend entirely on how much I "want" to work
I might stream Nullius on the weekends to keep some semblance of community engagement, but all I'll say is the next video will happen when it happens. Thanks for supporting me, and hopefully it won't be too long before I get to post again!
I played these Climbing Games on my quest for the ULTIMATE Climbing Game. (YouTube)
Comments (34)
Adom is my all time favorite video along with city block factorio. Fall asleep to your videos almost every night.
i give you money, so you don't need to rely on make a new video every month. Take your time, get into a happy flow and the world will be right.
Thank you for making all your videos! And yeah, burnout can be rought - take care and prioritise your wellbeing and the good mental health instead of focusing on entertaining of other people, because I think people would understand and the times, when entertainers are expected to hurt themself by the effort or shere amount of work are quite over at this point.
Always love your content, but I definitely agree, please make sure you look after yourself! Take all the time you need!
People will wait. Don't sweat it. Other YouTubers go through this, take time to find the balance.
Also. If one of the things you wanna do is work on a Doshintorio mod pack with others, id happily go without content for months and still support you. It'd be well recieved by us. I know you spoke about it previously. Best of luck whatever though
There is a problem that can arise in this space where you get the idea that each new video needs to be the best thing you ever made, which is unsustainable and leads to more mental gridlock and stress. Take time for yourself, and when you make a video just focus on it being something you are happy with it when its done. I know at least ill still be around.
Echoing the others in this thread: take care of yourself! And ignore the idiot bullying you about py.
Good man! Step back and balance your priorities. We want you to be happy. ... Or maybe we want you to be miserable in the midst of some self inflicted challenge nonsense, but in, like, a happy way.
Mental health comes first. Take care of yourself Dosh!
Mate, take your time and make what you want! I have negative interest in potion games but my god, I loved your video on potion games! You provide great insights so make what you want we'll enjoy it
guess you're just a normal human like the rest of us after all. the novelty that powered motivation in the form of exploration eventually wears off once you figure out the underlying systems of figuring things out on a meta level of thinking, and after that things that used to excite you start to feel like chores. or in layman's terms, it's fun to jump on new stuff and figure things out because there's a mystery of "will I be able to figure this out?" and people love mystery. once you jumped on enough things and figured them out, there is no more mystery, you know you will figure it out and it's just a matter of time. it's the sad reality of being a human, and a form of suffering from success that most people don't consciously acknowledge, but is in fact a very real cause in our drive from one form of activity to completely other ones. my solution is: there is no solution. accept that the older you get, the less things will be fun. and if you're the type of person that likes exploring new challenges, your personality will just accelerate this process. but to be slightly less nihilistic sounding: you can push back against this by steering your challenge seeking into mastery over exploration. this doesn't work for most people, and I don't know if you're the type of person to truly click with it, but this does manage to stretch out enjoyment of things for quite longer. there is a price to that too, though. when you get bored of stuff with an explorer mindset, there's still a voice in the back of your mind saying you might wish to return to it in some future point with renewed vigor. however when you get bored of something through mastery, you know you're never coming back again. and Getting Over It With Bennet Foddy actually discusses this topic with ingame text, climbing games must be onto something
Do what you gotta do Dosh, fewer videos is always better than no videos because of burnout <3
Infrequent Dosh is much better than burnout Dosh
Take your time dosh, your well being is more important
Please take care od yourself. We can wait. Find a sustainable tempo where you enjoy making content.
Honestly with how much great content you've made, I go back and rewatch most of your videos like the the cube and edge of the world. You have been amazing and you can only do it if you're healthy. Focus on yourself and we'll be fine!
This! I've done the same. I've seen sea block and ADOM probably 10 times each already.
My favorite YouTube channels are the ones that come out when the creator has something they are passionate about and only come out when they are ready. Free yourself from the "content" treadmill. See you on the next one, we'll be here when you're ready.
I think I speak for a lot of people saying this, but the initial draw to your channel and content was because you always seemed to do what you wanted, when you wanted.
Hey, its alright. I'll be here when you release a video again
Burnout can really sneak up on you. Better to deal with it than to let it fester to the point of total misery. And hey don't worry - Py's not going anywhere.
Understandable, try to avoid burnout, especially on something you like to do
Creativity can’t always follow a schedule. Monthly, quarterly, annually… whatever works for you is the right path.
I cant say for everyone but I absolutely feel fewer videos that you care more for and a sustainable seclude is better than a breakneck pace into the future. If you continue at the same pace, and it causes you to burn out completely the audience technically gets LESS videos than if you look after yourself, if that helps your calculus
I am always glad to hear people recognizing they need to be gentler to themselves.
Burnout seems pretty rough, although with how much time it must take for you to put out the videos of the length and quality you do, it's understandable. Hope your personal projects work out well and get you feeling rejuvenated!
im still waiting for the noita video
I'd always much rather see a Dosh video about something he had some semblance of fun (or self inflicted pain I don't judge) making than one he felt forced/rushed to put out because of an arbitrary deadline.
I'm glad you are in a position to switch gears and do something else in order to get yourself together. It looked to me like you were slowly burning out and I'm glad to see you made the decision to take a step back and breath a little. I sincerely hope you get to feel energised soon enough. Not to make videos but to do what you like again. If that's videos that's cool. If it's something else that's cool. You're in my opinion not obligated to me or anyone else here to provide whatever it is you think you need to provide. Stay cool Dosh.
Thank you for making your videos! I have greatly enjoyed them. Your factorio bases have been an inspiration. And I will happily wait until the time is right for the next video, no matter how many months it will be. Take as much time as you need.
you can't hide from pyanodons forever dosh... pyanodons will be ported to your dreams in 3 milliseconds
I know this is a meme at this point, but can't you give the guy fighting burnout a break just this once?
Take all the time you need Dosh. Burnout is a rough thing. Hope to see you posting soon, but your health must come first!