Nov

Dev Diary 16: Stress-Free Design

Yac on November 25th, 2008

The design struggle continues and is slowly becoming all-consuming. I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing. I don’t mind thinking about it all the time, if I can maintain a relatively stress-free mental state, but that is obviously a challenge. I know I’m becoming obsessive when it’s the first thought that enters my head when I wake up in the morning.

I don’t feel too stressed out about it right this moment. Ideas are vaguely taking shape in my head, and on paper. It’s kind of hard to describe, because I have half a dozen threads I’m pursuing, and none of them are standing out in a way that yells: This is the game! But stuff is happening, ideas are forming and evolving, and as long as new ideas keep emerging from tinkering with the current ones, I feel like I’m progressing.

At some point, I’ll have to pick a direction and run with it for a while, but I’m not quite there yet. More experimentation ahead. I’m going to mix it up a little bit this week, do a bit of non-design work, and then a bit of intense and focused design, and repeat. Maybe changing the pattern will trigger some different ideas. From what I hear, you can’t really force the flashes of inspiration.

Oh, and we had our first snows this week-end (hence the picture). There’s something calming about watching falling snow quietly at night. I love this time of the year. The brisk air. That fresh smell. The snow. Christmas right around the corner. It helps keep me relaxed.

Lastly, thanks to Adrian for suggesting a nifty little trick to stabilize some of the jitters in the physics simulation.

Site News

After some thought, I’ve decided to stop writing my regular Friday column on future tech. I’ve got a few reasons:

While the topic is fascinating to me, I’m no longer motivated to write at length about it on regular basis. Every time I sit down to write them, I feel like I’m punishing myself. That is definitely not the mental state I want.
I think it is diluting both the focus of this site and my focus. Game development needs to be my first priority.
I’ve generally got more interesting comments to make about game development, and I’m not making it because of limited time.

My interest in the field hasn’t disappeared completely, but it’s not the most productive use of my time. I may still write a future tech article once in a while when the urge strikes me, but for now, it’s on hold. However, I’ve come up with a more effective solution for the readers who are actually interested in this topic. From now on, I am adding all the relevant links to a Delicious account (an online bookmarking site). I’ve also set up a new feed (that you can subscribe to) which is updated each time I bookmark a new link. So if you’d like, you can keep track of any cool links about future technology that I come across.

I hope I haven’t upset anyone who was only reading this site for the future tech column (the new feed should essentially fill that gap), but if you feel strongly one way or another about, please leave a comment.

Delicious account is here.

Subscribe to the feed here.

Work Done Last Week

Another mixed week in terms of productivity. I’ve been experimenting with various control schemes and gameplay ideas, but I haven’t hit on one yet that just feels genius. I feel I’m getting closer, but it’s difficult to judge. All this is causing me to move at a slower pace, dropping my productivity, but I’m spending more hours on it, so maybe it balances it out. Hard to tell.

I implemented 3 small control ideas, and iterated on them a bit. I’ve also done some more work on the physics, addressing a couple missing features (necessary for the ideas I was trying to test).

I’ve been brainstorming as well both by myself, and with couple friends. Seeing different people’s reaction to the tech I have is interesting. Feedback is generally positive (although a positive bias is to be expected); they can see the potential. More importantly, the ideas that emerge from these chats are useful, and help me refine my design.

Work Planned This Week

The design continues, with Milestone 1 looming this Friday. I’m also going to do a bit of work on the rendering, and the editor. The design remains the most important area of focus, but I need to keep pushing forward on the tech side (and it gives me mental breaks from designing).