I’m finally starting to get back into the groove of getting real work done now. It’s been a pretty funky week for me with some ups and downs. I had a lot of issues with 3D models and I’m spending time getting those worked out to really add a lot of diversity to the game. Sometimes it feels like things are going really slowly. One good thing to keep in mind is that every hour I spend working on the game is a hour that had to be spent.
Somewhere in my mind there’s the idea that programming will take the longest, and content creation and hookups won’t be so bad. Although making content is more enjoyable and creative it can also get tedious. In order to function properly in Six Aspects each model needs a laundry list of things before it’s ready for prime time. Animations need to be set properly, scripts need to be added, model names have to match expectations, and everything needs to be applied to the prefab.
I need to get this done to flesh out the models and then move on to working on spell particle effects. I’m in the final stretch of polishing the game up now. It’s a lot of hard and tedious work but once it’s done it will be worth it.
On a positive note I went back and played the old SNES Ogre Battle this week. I found that a lot of the things I specifically targeted to make better are accomplished with my game. That’s very encouraging to know that I didn’t just do the exact same thing and call it a game. It’s likely I will have to push my early release date back though.
On the programming side Chris and I finally managed to stop out that pesky Leader bug which had been plaguing the game with some soft locks. It turns out that the game was saving the leader for each player squad based on a uniqueID number. When a player goes to the save screen and then returns to the game the uniqueID’s were counting up which means that the old leader ID on the squad wasn’t matching. The problem is fixed however the tactics on each squad also needs some adjustments as it is also not getting saved when exiting the game. At least it isn’t a game breaking problem right!
Doing my best to take care of myself as I had quite a social blow this week as well as a job application that didn’t go to plan. It’s so important to have friends and family to reach out to when you need to talk. Everyone is less able to be social right now due to Corona Virus. I’m pushing really hard to exit the military but it might not be the best idea so I’m entertaining staying a year until this whole thing blows over. It will depend on a programming course that I’m taking and job interviews. Releasing the game will be a big deal for my portfolio and resume.
I decided to take the plunge on Fiverr as well this week to offer simple Unity Game Development Skype mentor services as well as services to teach social skills. I know what it’s like to feel like to want to make something and have no idea where to start in games. I’m also empathetic to people that want to be social but are to afraid to engage because they don’t want to be judged. I really hope that I can help some people out.
Sometimes when I’m working on my game I think, “Wow this is really easy” and then other times I think, “Why is this so hard?” I’m pretty happy when I get to the hard parts because if it wasn’t then everyone would do it. It’s easy to stand still and not grow. It’s easy to do what’s comfortable and then complain about all the things I wish I had done. It’s much more painful to actively make changes and do things that are better in the long run. There are a lot of things I could do if I wanted life to be easy but ultimately it would be unsatisfying. Dealing with the pain and embracing change is the tougher road, but I’m happy to walk it.