This week I focused on building out all the enemies for the levels in the game. A similar thing happened when I got to the last stage. I stalled a little bit for about 24 hours. This seems to be something that happens a lot when I’m getting closer to the end of the project. There’s internal push back not to finish.
Chris and I continue to parse out the problems with the tactics in the game not saving after stages. The system wasn’t built well to begin with compared to the way we do things now. Also with the tactics we have available in the game there’s one choice that’s a little to powerful, and so I plan to remove it from the game. I’m a firm believer in powerful options that are to powerful removing choice from other options which means that I can remove them or try to buff up other options. In this case I feel it’s best to remove the option to target leaders. It also makes sense within the construct of combat as it’s not always easy to know who the leader is of a group
In the game time I do spend I’ve been playing a lot of “Slay the Spire”. It really helps me forget about a lot of the stress that I’m under. I’m able to become fully present to the game when I play it which can become problematic when I become less productive as a result. That said I do feel like there’s a system in the game that would make my game some more replayability. There’s a random relic system that changes game play slightly for the rogue like game. It might be interesting to build a system like that into the game. Hmmmm now that I think about it we have a system that’s not getting utilized that does have 3 options like that which is related to settling your population. Maybe I could tie some random rewards to the different options. That would add a lot more weight to the decision. I’ll think some more about it, but I like the idea as it would change the game slightly each time it’s played.
I went against my own judgment and applied to some jobs this past week. I’m working through a test right now, and it’s frustrating that it doesn’t really allow the skills I’ve built up in the game development realm to shine. I feel like I want to develop some tests specifically for game developers someday. The biggest issue is the way that data is handled and I’ve had to learn some things on the fly, even while I’m taking a timed test. Still I put a lot of work into doing the test this past weekend and I’ll be submitting it soon. It’s difficult to do a timed test during the daytime which means that I study for it during the day and take the test at night. I continue to improve though and eventually I’ll just knock it out of the park.
It’s painful going through tests and not doing well, just like a lot of other failures in life. Game developers say, “fail faster” in order to find something that really works. Self development community people say that, “you need to go through pain to have growth.” We are predisposed to do things as easily as possible to stay comfortable and avoid pain. This makes us feel good, but it also keeps us from growing. We need to face down our problems or forever be dominated by them.