No, it's been the repeated extended breaks where you've gone MIA for a month or so 3 separate times since August. You do realize that most employers require people maintain a 95%+ attendance or be terminated, right? (Yes, you had another job at the time, but this project is you doing this for you. And you're now going full time for a while...) This has become a very big issue bc I'm concerned that even pointing out that this behavior is an issue could send you right back down that rabbit hole. You're blaming burnout, I'm blaming unmitigated depression. Those things kinda go hand in hand. I can only imagine this is only going to be conflated by functionally locking yourself away to work on the game while also learning URE for the next few months.
I also think that AVN devs as a whole have become highly problematic. They've all gone from targeting 800-1200 renders per update to 1600-2000. In reality, it's been more 1000-1200 to 1600-1750, meaning on average like a 35-40% increase in work load per update while the time per update has easily doubled - even tripled.
You have more flexibility in this gig than pretty much anyone else. You can do things like get a cheap $20 used Chromebook or take an old phone and do a factory reset. Then, install a voice to text app. Use your AirPods, or w/e headset you have, and you are free to do everything on the game short of the actual renders while doing anything and everything else. One of the worst things you can do for your mental health is one of the most common behaviors among creatives - they functionally build themselves a sensory depravation cave to allow themselves to lock into a moment. It's 2025. It's infinitely healthier to get out and go to the places or do the things that are inspiring you. Even if that means going out and walking around an abandoned, mid 1800s home you saw out in the wilderness. Or walking around old Civil War era cemeteries. You could be working out in the gym, driving for 8hrs straight, hiking and camping 50 miles into the wilderness. Hell, you could do this gig while actively working your primary job in a lot of cases.
I don't know what the problem is, but when devs go full time they tend to go from complaining about only having 2-4hrs a day to work on the game to working on the game for at most 1-2hrs a day. That math doesn't math. If you have to work 8-12hrs a day at your normal job to make ends meet, why the fuck do these people think its reasonable to put in at most half of the work when they start doing this full time? When you talk to most Youtubers, they're putting in 60+hrs a week easily and most love it. With the exception of digi and Artemis, no ones doing merch. Why are solo BG3 modders cranking out entire story expansions in highly complex game engines at a significantly faster rate than AVN devs are in a very simplistic engine? There is so much self-destructive behavior in this space that it's maddening.
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