Dev psychology: your own brain is your worst enemy
summary
Claim: tools don't finish games, people do, and developers' minds regularly derail projects. Cited specifics: a shipped title hits 1 million players in nine days; another promising project is cancelled midflow, causing deep team burnout. Concrete traps: imposter syndrome, perfectionism/feature creep (one team added a full MOBA and wrecked both modes), chronic crunch, ego, and blindness to the build until playtests reveal problems. Remedies: journaling, gold/silver/bronze prioritisation, early frequent playtests, brain‑trust reviews, shutdown routines, and a "Fixing Fun" toolkit of 36 actionable missions across six pillars.
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chapters (11)
- 0:00Welcome
- 1:09Dev Psychology intro
- 2:13Tools vs people
- 11:49Imposter syndrome
- 17:33Perfectionism vs feature creep
- 21:50Passion and crunch culture
- 27:11Ego kills collaboration
- 31:07Identity and feedback
- 35:23Why we miss our games
- 41:03Next invisible battle
- 46:29Q&A
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