GBGamesFor this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 142.25 (current year) = 718.25 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
I’ve been putting in some good work on my vampire game, making significant progress and writing unit tests along the way. I hope to have some screenshots in the coming weeks.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 137.5 (current year) = 713.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
I spent more time working on the vampire game, specifically driving the development with unit tests and learning how to do so along the way. I’ll have more to say about that topic later this week.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 133 (current year) = 709 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
I worked a bit more on my small vampire game, although I was running into trouble with unit testing. There were a couple of development sessions in which there was either no tangible result produced or it was thrown away. I initially felt as if those sessions were a waste of time, but they did provide insight into what I was trying to accomplish.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
This past week, I decided to focus specifically on the habit of doing game development, mostly programming, for an hour a day. At some point each day, I sit down with my laptop, and I refuse to allow any distractions to stop me for at least an hour. I could do more, but I should do at least that hour per day. I can easily wake up early, do my hour, and then go about getting ready for the day job. Then I also have the evening free to either work on game development or relax or focus on some other task. Successful authors will write a set number of words per day. Successful direct marketers will write an hour per day. Why not borrow this habit for game development?
Since the important thing was developing the habit of daily game development, it didn’t matter too much whether I accomplished a little or a lot in that hour. That is, if I wrote a bunch of code that I’m unhappy with and end up deleting, it’s still better than not having written it, not having learned from it, and not ever seeing a better way afterwards. I’m not hacking, of course. I’m simply saying that if one day happens to result in worse quality than others, I’m not going to see it as a setback since the important thing is that I produced something rather than nothing, which is what I usually accomplish.
The bad news: I only did 5 hours. Out of seven days, I kept the practice up on five of them. One day I woke up late, and when I thought I could do my hour in the evening, I was reminded about a charity event I planned on attending. On another day, I also woke up late, helped some friends move, and had hardly any free time that day.
The good news: since I usually do 0-2 hours per week, five hours is still an improvement. Also, these were high quality hours. I made more progress this past week than I have in the last few weeks.
So what have I learned? Regular game development means sustained focus. When you work for an hour per week, it’s easy to be distracted or feel confused when you finally do get back to working on game development. If you do it each day, however, it’s easier to remember what you were doing from the previous session. Wednesday’s hour isn’t standalone. It has the power of Monday and Tuesday’s hours behind it to give you momentum as you work. Also, if you don’t finish something in a session, you know you will tackle it tomorrow.
Duh? Yeah. But there is still something about experiencing both cases and seeing the difference to really make it clear.
A surprising benefit: I felt better about doing other things with my time. Once I got my hour in, I was at ease with taking time to read, wash dishes, talk to a friend on the phone, or go out. Normally, I’m in a constant state of unease about doing anything because I always feel like I should be working on game development. At the end of the week, I find time and time again that I’ve only worked on the act of creating a game for an hour or two at most, and the next week I just feel worse when it happens again. This past week, however, was anxiety-free for the most part. Go to a cookout and then to a birthday party later? I already did my hour this morning, so I’m good to go! I felt good about accomplishing that hour each time, too.
It would help if I could do the hour at the same time each day. Ideally, it would be first thing in the morning. I used to wake up at 5:30AM every morning, but I fell out of that habit some time ago. Relatively recently I managed to wake up at 6:30AM consistently. The problem is that the previous evening’s activities can affect my ability to wake up early, which means that if I was out late with friends on Wednesday, Thursday morning I’ll be rushing to get ready for the day job, and then I’m depending on tackling the hour of game development in the evening. Of course, the whole point of waking up early is to get a head start on the day, when no one else is up and capable of distracting you, so waking up late can cause a domino effect on at least part of the week.
I’d like to see my habit provide me with a baseline of game development hours. I should always accomplish 5-7 hours for the Thousander Club each week, and on more than one occasion I should be able to double those hours with my weekends and evenings easily.
I’d say this week was a success, and I’m looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish after a month of daily game development.
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 126 (current year) = 702 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
This past week, I worked on taking some boilerplate code from my game projects and throwing them into a library. I then started a new game project to test out my library. Although there isn’t much to it yet, here’s what I’ve got so far:
$ ./testvampiregame
Success: 1 tests passed.
Test time: 0.00 seconds.
I’ve also started learning how to use git to maintain a repository. While my projects are usually in a subversion repository, on more than one occasion I’ve had my laptop disconnected from the network, which means that if I did any modifications, I couldn’t check them in. My repositories are on my desktop/server. Using git, it would be like taking a repository with me, making changes to it, and then providing the changed repository to the server once I have a network connection again. Nice!
A new game project, a new source control tool, and a new habit of game development. It’s been a good week.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
Stephen over at Unobserved Musings wrote about an ambitious plan he tackled with a colleague: creating an iPhone app in 8 days. It’s not 8 days of straight development for this project, either. He and his colleague have other obligations, too.
Is what we are attempting even possible? Can two individuals really give up all of their free time, and perhaps much of their sleeping time, for 8 days, just to make a single product on the side of their other commitments? Success or not, it’s going to be a wild ride – but Josiah and I are determined to push ourselves and prove to ourselves we are capable of anything.
Over the course of the next few days, screen shots were uploaded, and details of the development process were hinted at. By the end of 8 days, a finished game was indeed ready, and it was soon available for purchase for iPhone users everywhere. After a week, Stephen posted about the first week of sales.
Bottom line: sales were disappointing, mostly due to the fact that of the people playing the game, only a small percentage were doing so legally.
On the other hand, in a little over a week, Stephen has created a game that he can sell, and his marketing efforts are still kicking into gear. And he does have legitimate sales, which still seem to be coming in. I’m more encouraged by the fact that he was able to start selling a game that didn’t exist as of a couple of weeks ago! When I created Sea Friends, it took me a month, and I felt that was fast!
After only 8 days, Stephen now has something that can be nurtured or abandoned. If sales start to pick up, great, but if not, he only lost a little over a week of development time and has learned so much from doing so. Sounds win-win to me.
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 120.75 (current year) = 696.75 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
I wrote some test code to see if I could create my own static library. This way, when I create a game, I can include my library as if it was any other library while also getting the benefit of keeping boilerplate code in one place. Soon when I write a future C++ game, I can have it derive from my GBEngine. B-)
I’d like to build up the habit of programming every morning for an hour. Some authors will write so many words per day, and I know I used to have a habit of waking up early and working on things before leaving for the day job. I’d like to regain those habits.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 118.5 (current year) = 694.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
Ugh. Another slow week. And actually, the increased numbers represent two weeks. I’m doing a horrible job of focusing on game development. On the other hand, I’m doing a great job of focusing on other aspects of my life, so lulls are to be expected. I just fear that this lull is taking longer than it should.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]
Congratulations go to mrfun, dessgeega, and rob for their top three placement overall!
I managed to pull my second gold medal out of the Food category, and I seemed to have a respectable showing in the Journal category as well. As expected, I did pretty badly in the remaining categories, although it seems some people liked the graphics, even if there wasn’t much to see. B-)
To see the full set of rankings for all categories, check out the Ludum Dare website.
For this week’s Thousander Club update:
Game Hours: 576 (previous three years) + 117.5 (current year) = 693.5 / 1000
Game Ideas: 775 (previous three years) + 10 (current year) = 785 / 1000
Not too much to report this past week, although I did manage to get a little development in. Not as much as I would like, but it also feels rather aimless right now.
[tags]game, game design, productivity, personal development, video game development, indie[/tags]