Who’s Tucker Max? He’s a writer and blogger who chronicles his drunken adventures and mishaps with incredible wit and humor. On a bet, Max put up a website 7 years ago to share his stories with his friends and the wider public. In the process he’s built up a fan base in the millions. He’s actually not just a writer, but a NY Times Best Selling Author (for the last three years).

Now he’s about to release a movie based on his stories (NSFW trailer here), penned by him and best-friend Nils Parker. And he’s currently touring – premiering the movie to students across the US in order to build up the buzz. His style of humor nay be brash, rude and offensive, but it’s also hilarious and honest. It won’t appeal to everyone, and I’m not trying to convince anyone. What I want to highlight is why this man inspires me: he lives life by his own rules, and refuses to bow down to preconceived notions of how things “should be done”.

He says what what he wants, and does what he believes. He refuses to sacrifice his artistic integrity nor the ownership of his art in order to achieve his goals. This is not anymore evident than in the path he took to get his movie done. He turned down multiple studio offers so he could retain creative control. He turned down upfront money in the belief that if he created a good piece of art, he would reap much bigger rewards. This, and the rest of the development process for the movie (from writing, pitching, casting and shooting to marketing, touring and the upcoming release) has all been meticulously documented on his entertaining production blog. It’s a unique and unrivaled look into the process.

More than anything, this one piece encompasses why he inspires me: how the changing internet-driven world is creating immense opportunities for art creators to take control of their future.

Max has also taught me the value of hard work. While his book and movie success may now look easy, it’s been anything but. He has offered an unrivaled behind the scenes look ever since his site went up. His regular participation on his forums has provided fans with a front row view on  his trials and tribulations over the years. I got to see all the failures and setbacks, the mistakes and the corrections, the analysis of what went wrong and why, the predictions and the payoffs. I saw all the hard work that is necessary to reach his level of success.

I could stop there, but it would be a shame to overlook how he has used his writing successes to help nurture and launch the careers of other writers. His company, Rudius Media, now supports a dozen independent and unique writers. Rudius Media seek out artists with an interesting story to tell, help them hone their craft and build an audience. Check out Philalawyer and his book deal. Or Love on Wheelz. Or The Bunny Blog. Or Ben Corman. Or ShrinkTalk.

It doesn’t take a leap to see what he will do if his movie is successful (and I predict it will be). He can then help artists in the movie medium the same way he has done for writers. He will be in a position to help them achieve the same sort of success, while helping them retain creative and financial control of their art.

I know all this comes across as hero worship, but I don’t care. I’m a big fan. I love his work. Mostly, I admire his honesty and how he pursues his goals without ever sacrificing his vision.

I used to fancy myself a writer. I gave up on that a while back, and have focused instead on where my talents lie: game development. I’m still learning every day, but I have used the lessons imparted to continually improve my skills. One of the quotes posted above my desk is from Tucker:

“Only failures think that natural ability is what separates them from success”.

Whenever I doubt my abilities to succeed, I look to those to refocus myself. I know I have some talents. Maybe not much but enough. I know that if I put in the work necessary to be great, I can achieve something tangible.

Related posts:

1. Dev Diary 53: Inspirations, Part 2
2. Milestone 3 and 4: The Demo
3. One Week In

Last week, I was going through a new chapter, and I kept getting sidetracked by the lenses. Within the book are interspersed 100 of these so-called “lenses” – brief sections which reinforce the current subject being discussed. By asking you open-ended questions, the lenses help you focus your mental energy on a particular aspect of your design. These exercises will usually lead you to new ideas and insights.

Anyways, I was actually finding these lenses quite distracting as they were causing me to pause my reading and go off on mental tangents. Not a bad thing in itself, but I wanted to finish the chapter first, then return to the lenses. It’s at this point that it struck me that I could really use the lenses as a standalone object. And luckily, Jesse Schell provides exactly that in the form of a Deck of Lenses.

I want to read the book once thoroughly, but then only return to it as a reference when I need a deeper analysis on a particular subject. Having the lenses in my hands would allow me to quickly focus on a particular aspect of the game. When I originally bought the book, I decided to forgo the cards as they seemed like an unnecessary extra expense. I know understand why they are provided.

Unfortunately, it’s a pain in the ass to order the lenses from Germany. You can only get them shipped from Amazon.com, which takes a couple weeks, and is expensive. Luckily, after contacting Mr. Schell’s company directly (they’re the ones who actually make and sell the cards), they generously offered to ship them free of charge immediately. The cards arrived yesterday, and they look fantastic, but more importantly, they will definitely serve their purposes.

So thanks again to Mr. Schell and his helpful staff. If this game ever finds success, it will be in no small part due to his book.

My new deck of lenses!

Related posts:

1. Moment of Inspiration
2. Dev Diary 16: Stress-Free Design
3. Dev Diary 15: More Adventures in Design Land

I know that procrastination afflicts a lot of people, but it doesn’t make me feel any better. The successful people that I know are not lazy. The most important thing I’ve learned the past few years is that if you want to be successful, you have to put in the work. It’s that simple. The most brilliant idea is not going to make you rich and famous unless you actually implement it. This is why I have this quote (among others) posted right above my monitors:

“Everyone wants to be great but very few people are willing to put in the work necessary to be great”

Fighting procrastination is something I have been trying to do for many years. Even when I was working for someone else, I knew that I would need to overcome it when I went indie. And I’ve been trying. The appeal of working for myself and on my project is invigorating, but it is not always enough to motivate me to get up early and work. Sometimes you’re in that wonderful zone, and you can’t wait to get back to work. Other times you’re slogging through some terribly boring shit, and you need ways to overcome the sloth.

These are methods I developed for myself, which help me form better work patterns. I don’t know how effective they would be for anyone else, but they work for my psyche, so I’m sharing them:

• Do it now. More than anything, just start on whatever task you need to do. Once you start, it’s easier to keep going. This here is probably the first self-motivation article I ever read, many years back, and I still find it useful today.
• No clear direction, or conflicting ideas. When I get overwhelmed by the different issues demanding my attention, I write my thoughts out, my worries, and how to address each of them individually. By this stage, the picture is usually much clearer. I then logically evaluate the highest priorities and address those first. For the rest of the issues I ask myself whether they are truly important. If not, I just forget about them. Those that are, I decide exactly when I will address them. Once all that is done, it’s easy to get cracking on the highest priority task.
• Break down your tasks. It’s a small corollary to the last point. Big tasks always seem more daunting. If you can break them down to discrete, achievable steps, you will have a clearer picture and feel less inclined to procrastinate.
• Don’t be complacent. It is important to review why things go wrong, why you were lazy, why you were successful, and what you can do to improve on your flaws, and continue doing your good work. For me, this weekly dev diary is part of that process. I know that at least once a week, I will sit and reflect on my progress, and take an honest look at myself and the project. It keeps me grounded, it keeps focused, and it prevents me from blowing weeks of my life without accomplishing anything.
• Eliminate distractions. Use them as rewards instead. The internet is my biggest time sink. I regularly make mental contracts with myself. “I won’t check my browser till this feature is implemented”. It helps a lot.
• Be disciplined. Getting up at a regular time (something I struggle with). Establishing clear work hours allows you to separate work from play/rest. All these things help you stay focused. Being disciplined in any area is a learned skill. The more you do it, the better you become at it.
• Be positive. It’s easy to get down on yourself for being lazy. I mentally beat myself up a lot over it, but it is something I strive to avoid doing. Instead of focusing on the negative (which sometimes only furthers your procrastinating), focus on the positives of getting things done: how you will feel when you accomplish a task, complete the next major feature, release the game, read your first review. Mentally picturing positive outcomes helps you on a multitude of levels.

Writing this post has had a cathartic effect on me and has helped me refocus my energy. I think I’m going to have a really good week.

Work Done Last Week

Productivity improved this past week. It’s still not 100% where I want it to be, but I am a lot more focused and making progress.

I’ve focused on the game play and control schemes. A lot of old test code has been removed and made way for a cleaner system of controllers, allowing me to easily add new “abilities” to the player’s avatar. I’ve been trying out different ideas, so the path forward is not always clear, but it’s starting to evolve into something tangible.

I’ve also spent more time immersing myself again in the design book – something I had neglected while I was focused on the editor. It doesn’t always have the answers, but it helps me ask the right questions of myself, of the game. It definitely helps spur new ideas.

I fixed a few small editor issues, but as planned, most of my time was spent on the gameplay.

Work Planned This Week

The focus remains on the gameplay this week. I have two weeks left to complete the first demo, so the pressure is on. I’ll be evaluating the remaining tasks to ensure that I hit my deadline as effectively as possible.

I will also be fleshing out a couple test levels to try out some new ideas, and use those as the basis for my demo. I’ve attempted to let the various control mechanic ideas grow organically, and guide the shape of the game. At this point, it’s all about experimentation really, to see what works and what doesn’t. Right now, the game is starting to resemble a platformer and I’m not sure yet if it will remain that way (or whether I want it to). We’ll see…

Related posts:

1. Dev Diary 24: A Quickie
2. Dev Diary 40: Project Management
3. Dev Diary 11: IGF No Go

• Finish the game: I want to finish the game this year. If things go according to plan, and I keep the scope of the project within reason, I’ll be able to wrap things up in 2009, even as a console title. Whether it gets released this year is a different matter. If I’m pushing right up against Christmas, I’ll let the release slide into the new year. I was kind of surprised not to be included in this list.
• Earn some money: Whether through the game, or through some other project, I want to earn some income in 2009, enough to justify the plunge into indie life. At some point, this whole venture has to start paying off in order for me to continue living as my own boss.
• Enter the IGF: I was not very happy that I missed the deadline this year, but I won’t dwell on the past. If the project continues as expected, I will definitely have something to enter this time around.

That’s pretty much it. The goals are ambitious but reasonable. We’ll see how I do.

Related posts:

1. One Week In
2. My Motivation to Become Independent
3. Inspirations, Part 2: Tucker Max

Related posts:

1. Dev Diary 19: Inspire This
2. Dev Diary 18: Tools and Milestone 2
3. Dev Diary 16: Stress-Free Design