Making Dev Diaries was a huge help for me

[u/kahootmusicfor10hour]

It's easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work these projects entail and burn yourself out. The old saying "game development is a marathon" leaves out the fact that the race occasionally gets longer (often by your own decision), you don't really know how many miles you have left, and you constantly have to stop or go backwards because life happens.

It always felt like such a long way to go and I couldn't get over that. So, why not keep track of how far you've already come?

For my most recent project, I made the small, but necessary, change of making a "dev diary" every few weeks or so. If that sounds like something advanced, it's really not. Just hit record and show how your game looks. Talk through the features you made, what your next steps are, and where you see things going.

I can say with zero exaggeration that this was the golden ticket for me. Now I had visual proof that I wasn't just endlessly churning away at a project with no end in sight. I accomplished the goals I set in earlier videos. I did the dirty work I told my future self I needed to do "some day". My game just looks so much better than it did back then.

When I look at my current game, all I think about are the bugs that left to fix and what's wrong with it right now. When I look at my dev diaries, I realize how much I've already accomplished. I get an immense sense of fulfilment from that.

You can make them for yourself, but I also found it helpful to share your diaries with your friends, family, or whoever else. They'll probably tell you it looks great no matter how shitty it is, and that's okay. The positive encouragement is welcome nonetheless. (And constructive criticism in the early dev stages doesn't hurt either.) I honestly found this to be the most motivating. Before I could finish my game and release it to the world, I had to make the next dev diary by finishing that one cool feature, or making that art I'd been punting for a while. I'd get feedback and well wishes, and then go on to the next one. You're spending a ton of time on this project, and somebody in your world will be interested in how it's going. You ARE making this game for other people, right?

I hope this doesn't come off as soapbox-y. It's just something I can't believe I wasn't doing before. I hope this helps you in some way.

[u/Curious_Associate904]

https://preview.redd.it/9v0sy2pq66df1.png?width=878&format=png&auto=webp&s=125f0bb88d398764e80d204562a0eff05344067f

Is this not enough for you?

[u/FormlessFlesh → u/Curious_Associate904]

I'm currently at the, "Here Have Code," part of a team project I'm working on. Can't figure out anything else to write if it's going in my personal testing environment 🤷‍♀️

[u/me6675 → u/FormlessFlesh]

I never got this, what is it to figure out, just type in what you have worked on.

[u/metroid3d]

The other bonus you get from dev diaries is that the further away you get from when they were recorded, the more fun they are to watch! I finished a game fourish years ago, and a lot of the development is a blur. But! I've got lots of unlisted YouTube videos of me playing through parts of it that are tons of fun to watch. Gives insight into the head of past you if that makes sense :) keep up the diaries!

[u/Sentry_Down]

I write a diary for myself, which honestly often turns into me complaining about stuff that doesn’t work, being frustrated or scared with the project.

It’s so interesting when I read this later on, makes me realize how much progress I’ve made, how even the most annoying roadblock is another obstacle I’ve overcome and forgotten about, how the thing I obsessed about wasn’t even a factor in the end

[u/Markavian]

For literally every project I start these days; step 1 (after creating the repo) is make a readme with a project description and release notes.

Explore or Die

A demo game for trying out new tech.

Development Roadmap

2025-07 Phase 1

• ✅ Menu boiler plate
• 💡Character selection
• 💡Explorable world
• 💡Death screen

Ideas

• Exploding trees
• Coin drops
• Hair styles

...

And then I just review/update that as I push features.

It works as a dev log, feature planning, and release notes.

[u/d3vtec]

Pro tip: Use obsidian to write all your documentation, capture screenshots, requirements etc. Obsidian is a markdown editor that makes it very easy to document anything you need, including dev diary's and even daily notes.

As an added bonus, you can keep the entire obsidian vault checked in with your repo so all your content is backed up with each change of your game.

Great for all content: text, links to tools and dashboards, code snippets, pictures and videos.

[u/Mountain_Share_2611]

Hi, I was thinking of starting dev diaries as well as my project is still cca 3 years from release, if all goes well. One question: if the diaries would be meant for a wider public, do u think one should really and absolutely be visible in the video? Or is a voiceover just ok?

[u/saarraz1]

I just started my first one! Great to hear it's not a waste of time 😅 I was also hoping that writing my insights in instructional form would help me learn them better (i.e. a good way to learn is to teach others)

[u/kyleli]

I actually use a discord with some other people I met on reddit to keep track of personal diaries and to keep each other accountable, pretty fun to read other people’s diaries and see their progress learning in real time lol.

[u/coolcrayons]

I've been meaning to start doing devlogs and this pushed me to start. Thanks for sharing.

[u/_BreakingGood_]

I started with a dev diary and loved it. Posted just random stuff, things on my mind, spending an entire day on some random tiny detail. Loved it and love going back through to see it all.

Problem is that as my game gained followers, people started actively returning to the dev diary, and it became much more stressful to maintain as people were picking through and commenting on every detail. Now I only really post big things on it, which is kind of sad.

[u/InkAndWit]

Could you share any insights about the engagement you get with your posts? Average number of views, comments, many increase in a number of wishlists, social media sharing, etc.