Lack of motivation. Please help

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I know there are numerous “lack of motivation” posts, and yes, I have read through several, but it’s mostly just the same generic replies. But please hear me out.

Naturally, I have a passion project that I haven’t ACTUALLY properly worked on since November of 2023. I set the game to private on this date because I wanted to overhaul it, replace all my old messy code with modules, and optimise it.

Now it’s June 2025, and over that time, I’ve just lost all motivation. But, I still have a strong passion for the project, and I want to work on it again. But I guess the only way I can describe my feelings about it is overwhelming, uneasy, and difficult.

Furthermore, I’ve attempted to work on it again and again since I made it private, by attempting different approaches, like building a new system for the project in a nice, clean, empty baseplate. But, I usually just give up, like after a few hours, I get bored? Then distracted onto something else, like music (if that’s at all relevant).

Also, I have tried working on other projects, even created new ones, but eventually I even give up on them quite quickly, because I want to work on this main passion project. I don’t know what’s going on.

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When that happens to me, I just do something else; movie, video game, maybe a book, etc. when my brain relax, I begin to imagine about the game with any crazy idea and add it to a list, I know that I will not add it but I like to think about new things.

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Had this conversation with someone tonight and the best advice I can give is just stay in your league and become a master in your league. You have to first try a bunch of things before you’ll know where you stand. Your league will look different than everyone else. Become a master of something you know you can become a master of but you’re just not quite there yet. Try to do the impossible and well you’ll end up not doing it. How many people every year waste their money buying lottery tickets thinking they would win the million dollars. There’s so much to gain from doing something not only that you’re good at but that you enjoy doing

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I will offer a unique opinion.

It is fine to lose motivation, you must have other priorities like school, university, or a j*b. I think I started with some systems and reworked mine gradually since 2021 and even stopped it 2024 and continuing now.

Even if you do make your game you will also have to keep working on it before people get bored of it and dies out due to the sheer amount of competition out there. As a player I would rather play factorio over my own game at the moment tbh.

Perhaps you (and I) should sacrifice Roblox first and work on efficiently doing whatever it is you want to do first and then return back.

Focus on your music until you get bored and you notice yourself scrolling through an endless playlist relistening to the same songs and you cannot find new ones. Then instead of doomscrolling you hop onto this.

So yeah boredom like @SOTR654 said is the solution.

Plus there might be some new Roblox updates coming soon which makes development a lot easier like Proximity prompts.

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Thanks for censoring the famous word , u saved my life :pray:

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If you want to work, finish your game learn and search for “discipline” on Google not motivation.

Motivation comes and goes, you can’t control it, and it doesn’t last long.

You can set a schedule for when to work on your game and for how long.

or trick your brain and try to start working on it 30m a day.
After a few days you’ll like you want to add mkre time, but don’t increase it too much suddenly.

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Sorry for the late reply.

I do the exact same thing, but I can’t make the fanbase that it’s attracted just sit and wait any longer, it’s already been almost 2 years now, and I myself want to work on it again. I just don’t understand it.

Strong passion still, but overwhelmed by the work I guess, my mistake is I try to shove everything all at once, even if I’m already working on another feature.

I am very forgetful, so I “think” my work around to the forgetfulness is, add as much ideas all at once, so much work becomes overwhelming and tiering. I need to somehow stop myself from doing that and get out of it! Frustrating!

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Sorry for the delayed reply.

Thank you, but I know I’m good at this passion project game because it’s survived since it’s creation, and has developed quite the fanbase, and I’m so happy it has got this far, but if I carry on like this, not wanting to do the work then release it back open to the public, the fanbase is just going to leave.

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Apologies for the late reply.

I do indeed have other priorities, that I can’t really help nor walk away from, and also some personal things going on in my life which stress me out and bring me down.

But I say and think to myself, why should these issues I have in my personal life or these other priorities stress me, and stop doing what I love. Doesn’t make any sense.

Yeah, I know, the game doesn’t get loads of players, there was only usually 1 or 2 servers with a few people in them most days of the week. It’s just a little fun thing for people to have fun with friends with, not a big studio game or whatever.

And since it’s based on other games which are pretty much the same as my game, it does kind of have competition, but I’m not bothered about all them figures or analytics, if it entertains someone and their friends, I’m happy.

Well I do have other projects I want to accomplish in real life, but I put them on hold all this time so I could finish my game… But, well, as you can see, that didn’t work out so well, and to be honest, I think if I was to step away from my game now, and onto one of my in-real-life projects, I would have the same “oh the work is too overwhelming” issue even then. Caught in a vicious loop I guess.

I don’t usually talk abotu my personal life, but if it helps:

Oh, hoho… I will never get bored of music, I love music. But I have indeed found myself listening to the same stuff over and over again, and I try so hard to look for music I haven’t heard in a while. But I end up spending way too much time looking for music I haven’t heard in a while, I usally just go and watch a movie or something. Or if it’s daytime, go outside, and repeatedly do something until I get bored of that, because I’m thinking about the game (among other things). Sounds quite the life huh?

I’m sorry, I can’t get my head around that. How I can be bored of it, when I still have a strong passion for it? AND have had a break from it for almost 2 years, even though I’ve attempted to work on it in that time a few times.

Maybe.

Also, Irrelevant, but, Proximity Prompts where released ages ago.

Thank you for your reply. :slight_smile:

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Hm, alright, I’ll search that up.

Lasted a few years for me. I don’t want to lose interest in developing on my game though, I still have a strong passion for it, just the work is… Ehh…

I’ve had that suggested before, but I think a passion project is meant to be worked on whenever you want.

I try, but like I mentioned above, I usually look for distractions, it’s got to the point now, where I can’t work on it, unles I have music playing, so when a song ends, spend ages looking for another.

I don’t have an issue focusing, because when I first made the game, I wouldn’t get distracted and just stayed concentrated, for extensive periods of time.

Thank you.

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No prob, I realized by advice is probably incomplete. I meant by being bored with music not with your game if you say you are getting distracted by music. So what I meant to say is basically sacrifice one for another which is a tough decision. People refer to this as work-life balance but I prefer work-life sacrifice to be blunt.

But also @yousefyamen3 has a point, you also need discipline because game dev is in fact painful, you are not always creating a new gameplay VFX system that is flashy and working on the next crazy idea which probably was why you got started, you need to do the boring stuff like UI and datastores. There is a lot of tips like “biting the frog” first thing in the morning, it’s different for everyone so you have to discover this by your own.

This probably traumatized you, it did for me. Definitely a motivation reducer.

Yep this is normal and healthy.

Perhaps you are being pessimistic, I would say these new systems are learning prototypes that all will link together and contribute for your main project. If you keep dismissing your own work you are going to keep demotivating yourself.

In the end just keep going, think hard but also don’t overthink it.

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Ah alright. So what your saying is; when I work on the game, don’t listen to music, never mix them both? Working on a game, in complete silence… Thrilling.

I see, alright. Work on one thing at a time is something I need to discipline myself to do, rather than doing it all at once and burning myself out.

I suppose I attempt to do it all at once because I’m worried I’ll forget the idea(s), even if I have wrote it down, or made a comment about it in a script, I might close that script and never open it until like a month later. doesn’t seem that bad I know, but I don’t know why it scares and bothers me. Like I said, vicious loop.

Quite. Although, I feel like I can do it, like right now, I want to go and do do some coding on the game, or maybe a bit of moddling, but I’m worried I will just enter that stupid vicious loop and do loads of things all at once again and just distract myself onto something else that doesn’t require a lot of work (i.e. relaxation).

Huh, so what your saying is, don’t work in an empty baseplate and create/test new systems, do in the actual game, so you don’t avoid it over time or something?

Also, that’s what I tend to do, a lot, overthink. Another IMPORTANT thing, I tend to overkill in code, so rather than writing the basic logic to see if an idea even works well or if I can adjust it, I spend ages perfecting the code and type-checking and all that good stuff, when its really not necessary right now, and I can always do it later, but I’m worried when later comes, I will forget. You see?

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write down ideas and things to do on a notes app and once you feel like working a bit on the project go pick whichever idea you feel the most like working on and once you start working on it focus on making functional test setups as much as possible, staring at a wall of text for hours can get very exhausting, you need to reward yourself by seeing and feeling progress even if it’s in tiny increments.

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Trust me, I have a notepad full of ideas, scrolling is endless. I also tend to work on the easiest ones first, but you know what they say, get the hard stuff out of the way first, I just tend to look for the easy route, no idea why.

I have, but it always ends up in the same result: Find a way to get distracted, and give up.

Quite, also I used to feel like that, I remember when I was so angry because this system for handling UI broke, and I just couldent find the cause, but after a few days, I found a simple mistake, fixed it, and I felt so good that It made me work on a new feature!

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i think the saying of get hard stuff out of the way first is a fast track to failure, i sometimes take a couple weeks of a break after working on a complex and difficult system and work on simple stuff after, working on hard stuff back to back would really suck

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Yeah, but I just kind of went with it, big stuff, small stuff, random.

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Thank you guys for your support. Means a lot. :slight_smile:

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It kind of is, but you left it for 2 years
I know setting a schedule will make it feel like a job in the short run, but in the long run you’ll thank yourself for finishing the game and for working through the boring stuff to make the fun ones.

I mean it’s very different for everyone. I mostly work with music/songs playing in the background with a lowered sound so it doesn’t distract me.

Sometimes when doing boring tasks that don’t require a lot of thinking, I play the loudest songs to make it feel a bit more fun.

Write it down, pen and paper, Word, or any note taking app. your choice
But keep it short/simple; don’t make writing/reading it a hassle.

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I don’t think there’s anything wrong with striving to find the motivation to continue but I want you to recognize something. If it takes you weeks or months to find the motivation and all you’re doing is spending time trying to find motivation to continue, then I don’t think it’s the greatest usage of your time. You have to stick to something for it to really work. Lacking motivation is normal and happens to all of us but if it happens for extended periods of time it might be a sign to move onto something else that you’ll be passionate enough to stick with. I hope this helps

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I see, but to be honest, I feel more comfortable working on my game passion project whenever I want to; it’s not a studio game, nor is it a game to keep up with competition. It’s just a little fun thing I do in my free time, or well, used to.

Oh, okay, yeah, I usually listened to music when I worked on my game. Hum along while working, you know, haha. I would love to go back to being like that again.

It was never boring. But yeah, I usually just had my volume set at a nice balance.

Like I mentioned before, I have, I have a long notepad file with loads of ideas. However, before that, I started with a script to begin with, it’s in the deep depths somewhere in the game, haha, and I called it “DevNotes”.

But, I tend to make them long/detailed, because I have encountered an issue before with short notes. For instance, say I have one like this: “Set this value to that”, first of all what’s “this value”, second, what’s “to that”, you see?

So what I do is something like this: “Set the [name of the value] value located in replicatedstorage to this [value] when this time has elapsed” or something like that.

Thank you.