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+--- Thread: How do you find time to play? (/showthread.php?tid=391)
How do you find time to play? - Wild Boar - 11-23-2025
I've changed my daily routine and have been feeling quite tired in the evenings ever since. I notice that I just don't feel like doing any more brain teasers.
On the other hand, games like FaceNoir, The Lost Crown, and Black Mirror only work in the dark.
RE: How do you find time to play? - Space Quest Historian - 11-23-2025
I started doing YouTube as an excuse to be able to play games again. There was a lengthy period of time during the 00's when I just didn't really play games except for a bit of Wii Sports Golf. But then I started noticing a community of adventure gamers on Twitter (yes, Twitter used to be a great place) and I started wondering what I was missing out on.
I still didn't feel like I "had the time" to play games, but when I saw JackSepticEye play Gone Home on YouTube, it opened my eyes to the idea of doing Let's Plays. So now I could (sort of) justify wanting to go off and play a bit of a game because I was also doing something creative at the same time (at least arguably).
I still very, very rarely play games just for myself and on my own. Pretty much every game I ever play is for a video, and even when I actually do try to play a game for myself, it ends up becoming a video anyway. Stray, Monolith, and Hob's Barrow were all games I just wanted to play for myself but I ended up doing videos on them anyway.
The only game I've played all the way through that didn't become a video was The Drifter, but we had Dave on our Back Seat Designers podcast instead, so it _technically_ turned into content somehow anyway.
"Luckily," I suffer from chronic fatigue, so I'm home most of the day and have about 3-4 hours of active energy during the day (on good days) where I can get stuff done, and sometimes a couple of hours in the evenings after my son goes to bed. I never excuse myself during afternoon family time to play games unless it's to play Minecraft or Roblox with my son.
Long, rambly non-answer, I know. Sorry.
RE: How do you find time to play? - Octavi Navarro - 11-23-2025
Ugh, I know the feeling. I've reached a point in my life where I only have the energy to read about games or watch some streamer playing, but I feel exhausted just thinking about playing games myself. Sometimes I wonder if it's no longer the right hobby for me.
The few times I do play it's in search of inspiration for work, and thanks to that sometimes I find a gem that hooks me from beginning to end.
It's definitely a hobby that requires time and mental energy, two scarce resources for me right now.
RE: How do you find time to play? - BobVP - 11-23-2025
You're all doing smart jobs with all this mental labour. Kudos to you, but man, it has a flipside.
I'm in elderly home care. I spent most of my days just being gentle and patient, talking plainly. I have shifts from morning to late in the evening, with plenty of space in between. I used to work in a nursing home, with regular break time, now I have often have a couple of hours between shifts at home.
On the one hand, finding that mental/intellectual challenge in your work sounds interesting and rewarding. In the meantime, I spend it on entertainment/irrelevance. Flipside.
RE: How do you find time to play? - Hexenwerk - 11-23-2025
Oh, I posted something here but then my internet connection was suddenly lost, so it didn't get through.
I am working on a screen the whole day, so playing in the evening means sitting in front of a screen again. If I decide to do that, it is a decision between "do I want to play something, or do I want to create something and work on my own creative projects, like developing another game?". And sometimes, for weeks or months, I am doing the latter instead.
But when I had a hard day, I choose playing over being propductive and creative. But then it's not always something that needs a brain ... rather funny or cozy puzzle games like "Is this Seat taken?" or a funny game like "Four Last Things". Still playing a proper adventure now and then, of course, but for this I sometimes need a vacation / a few free days.
@BobVP
The work you do is so important and I am happy that people are able to work in that area. And it sounds like a way better balance than sitting in front of the screen the whole day until night.
RE: How do you find time to play? - Octavi Navarro - 11-23-2025
(11-23-2025, 11:17 AM)BobVP Wrote: You're all doing smart jobs with all this mental labour. Kudos to you, but man, it has a flipside.A quick off-topic to say that my mother's life quality has improved so much since she was admitted in an elderly home, and it's all thanks to the workers there. My most sincere gratitude and admiration. I can't think of a more psychologically draining job though! I'm glad you find the strength to enjoy your small corner of free time!
I'm in elderly home care. I spent most of my days just being gentle and patient, talking plainly. I have shifts from morning to late in the evening, with plenty of space in between. I used to work in a nursing home, with regular break time, now I have often have a couple of hours between shifts at home.
On the one hand, finding that mental/intellectual challenge in your work sounds interesting and rewarding. In the meantime, I spend it on entertainment/irrelevance. Flipside.
RE: How do you find time to play? - ClusterLizard - 11-23-2025
I most often play an hour or two a day. If I'm not feeling like playing, or busy with other things, I'm fine with skipping days, and perhaps even weeks or months at times too.
I try to play only one game at a time, so whenever I power on my Steam Deck (which I exclusively use for game playing these days as I don't like playing games at my desk and it keeps my computer for work only) I usually know exactly what I'm continuing with and avoid wasting time jumping around between multiple games.
While playing games is obviously for entertainment, there is a small extra incentive for me to play them. As I'm working on my own game I can partially justify the time investment as a form of 'research'. It's with this angle in mind that I sometimes aim to play more obscure games, hybrid genre games or even games that were badly received, so I can see for myself what they did differently, or if they 'failed' why they 'failed'.
RE: How do you find time to play? - EirikMyhr - 11-23-2025
How do I find the time to play?
Short answer: I don’t.
The more nuanced answer: I *sometimes* do. Maybe I’m on a job trip and gone for a few days, and got an hour free in the evening, in a hotel room with nothing else happening. Very occasionally when my son is asleep and there is nothing left to do in the house until all hell breaks loose again the next day, I can very occasionally put in an hour or so. Those occasions are usually months and months apart.
But I have a feeling that my son just *might* grow up to enjoy adventure games – I certainly won’t stop him! At three years old, he has a really vivid fantasy and we are already having so much fun inventing our own worlds, characters and stories.
So a few years down the road, maybe things could change
RE: How do you find time to play? - Jen - 11-23-2025
My kids always wanted to “help” me play adventure games, then as they got older, AGs were a mom thing and thus Not Cool*. They both are heavy gamers as adults but never play AGs.
*I am the literal Black Hole of Cool. When cool gets anywhere near me, it is sucked in by my gravitational field, never to be seen again.
RE: How do you find time to play? - BobVP - 11-23-2025
lol! Jen!
@Octavi and @Hexenwerk: Thank you, I really enjoy this work. I've had a lot of jobs, this is probably the best fit. Honestly, right now I could use more shifts (broke my foot about two months ago, it was a whole thing).
Back to finding time (and energy) to play adventure games.. I honestly haven't played that much lately. One text-based exploration game by a forum member, the last couple of community playthroughs. I've been stuck on the menu screen of Kathy Rain 2 for quite some time. (long story)
Maybe playing adventure games is a habit similar to reading books, where you have to get back in the habit if you haven't kept it up for a while.