May 2013
May 24, 2013
Month 32 Report
TIME
These past few months have been interesting, to say the very least. Not so much in terms of game development, no, that’s become more or less a constant. It’s almost like I’ve reached a plateau with the skills, & although there’s still a strong level of interest & drive to succeed the attention’s been diverted.
I’ve been sleeping & working when I feel like it, & that’s been working out very well. There are many schools of thought on effective time management & useful scheduling. When you’re employed it’s all done for you based on templates that’ve been around for ages. Someone decided that 8-hour shifts were productive. Starting at 9 AM & finishing around 5 PM was useful for living a happy life.
It’s probably bullshit, but a lot of folks stick with it because if they don’t they’ll lose their jobs.
Fortunately I’m in a position to eschew all of that tradition & try new ways of working. As a creative one of the first things you realize when “taken off the chain” is that you’re not always capable of producing on demand. Inspiration comes in waves, & isn’t always backed up by the motivation to express your impressions. Impression & expression often intersect at inconvenient moments, like in the middle of a hot shower or mid-afternoon siesta. Those moments need to be seized, the creative tools at the ready.
It’s no wonder so many creatives are unhappy & driven to depression or worse in structured environments.
So I’ve been doing things when I feel like it, trying to determine if I’m acting the genius or playing the lazy oaf. The jury’s still out, but as work seems to be getting done I’m not going to dissect the results until it really feels like there’s failure in the brew.
DARESULTS
PRISMA’s sounds scored 16th out of 1610 entries in the Ludum Dare 48 no.26. Top 1% for rushed audio? I’ll take that.
The “overall” category seems some bullshit to me, but it’s more likely the fault of whatever arcane algorithms they’re using to compute the results. Entries that’s I’m certain only received a handful of ratings end up with higher “overalls” than those picked apart by hundreds of entrants.
It’s occurred to me that the best solution to any gripes with the process would come from establishing a new competition altogether. Too bad my interest level in putting something like that together is nil, so I’ll struggle along & keep holding out the belief that eventually I’ll produce something that will win the Ludum Dare. Or I won’t. Whatever.
RE-TALE
The re-release of Tale of the Madeus should be on sale from the Acre around the start of June. I’m super-happy with this 3rd revision of my first novella, & while it’s by no means a perfect work of fiction it tells the story I wanted to tell. The latest edit brought it down to around 26K words, 1K short of official novella status but it’s not like that distinction matters any more.
I’m looking into re-releasing Ambia for July or August. It’s going to take at least twice as long to do a revision of that text as it did with Madeus, but it will be good to have unification in the format & lore of the Solarus Cycle.
GOLFISHING
Something’s happening as part of the Fishing Jam. Still not certain what that is, exactly, but there’s some documentation on the official forums & a playable build. (Lost content, though a playable build still exists. –Ed.)
This also covers the #1GAM entry for May. Convenient, that.
RANDOM & ETC.
Solo independent development is a juggling act, & one that’s perhaps more tiring than most creative endeavors. You’ve got to balance the time & money spent on skills improvement, self-promotion, keeping up with the industry movements, & actually producing new work.
Maybe if the whole thing wasn’t so toxic it would be better. The act of sitting at a machine & staring into a monitor is something that’s got nothing good to offer the physical self, & the whole gamer/game-maker dichotomy is a nightmare to absorb mentally, but these are trials we have to subject ourselves to in order to be as well-rounded as possible.
Thankfully it’s the most fun I’ve had in my 38 years. Well, aside from those years spent high & debauched, but we don’t really remember that time very well anymore.
See you in 30.
Make games for stupid people, there’s way more money in it.
2013.05.01 – 2013.05.31