This past week I made the difficult decision to stay in the military due to the job situation that isn’t panning out because of the Corona Virus. It wasn’t an easy decision but it has given me a lot of much needed focus in my life. The next steps will be to move through the process to take back my retirement, and figure out where I will be. I promised my boys a better house when they return, although it’s difficult to say where that will be right now.
I often think about how “hard” I have it but realistically I’m very lucky and I should be counting my blessings. The more people I meet the more I understand just how hard it is for everyone. I’m especially blessed just to have a job right now in these trying times. There is a report that unemployment is at 11% but I still have a hard time believing that when a UK report said that 75% of people aren’t working. Of course that may mean that they have jobs to come back to, but the work place isn’t ready yet. Still my friend in California says that it’s just as bad as ever right now and that the recent race related riots made things a lot worse. Yes I am very lucky to be safe and secure where I am right now.
That said I had a distinct reduction in my own push to get work done on Six Aspects this week. Yes I was attending to a lot of work related things, but it does feel like because I’m secure and comfortable I’ve lost a lot of the drive to get it done. I need to re-capture that but the possibility of a move soon also has me in a state of uncertainty about the future.
Due to my choice to stay in the military I have finally closed out a chapter in one of the best relationships I’ve ever experienced. I was hoping against hope for something to happen where we would come back, or at the very least be friends but it looks like that’s just not possible now. I guess I can move on now. I still pray about it, along with prayers for my children, my own direction, the future of our nation, etc… It’s difficult because there are some times when it really does feel like I’m firing off prayers into nothingness. It’s frustrating dealing with a God that has all the excuses ready and is infallible. Many times I feel like He isn’t speaking at all. I probably just need to seek Him out more by reading my Bible and praying more often.
I guess this week is less about progress on the game and more about what I’m personally dealing with. I’m hoping that next week will be a bit better. That said on a positive note I do have more focus on what the next steps are. I have an opportunity to DJ at a local club coming up, and I’m still being as social as I can with people from my house. I took the plunge and started playing World of Warcraft again, mostly for the social aspect. I figure I’ll do this until my children are back. Investing in the stock market has also been a good way to distract myself as I’m really starting to get used to the ebb and flow of things.
Last week in Six Aspects we tightened up some simple things like feeding the escape key into a conditional statement to end the game. I talked a bit about polishing up our menu’s some more. We also looked at the “Go Button”. There is still an issue where the player is able to use it to exploit the game a bit. Not that it matters to much as it isn’t an online game, but it is something that can break the game experience. I still want to get the game out on early access this summer. It feels like we’re getting closer.
I was thinking about Six Aspects when I played World of Warcraft. I asked myself what the WoW game loop was at the most basic level. It seems to be killing a thing to get a reward rinse and repeat. I would say that the rewards in Six Aspects could be better or more engaging. I also think it might be important to have the player click on something when they receive a reward as well. We have no items in the game and that might have to be something that I have to add after early access. Random rewards is such a big deal for driving engagement as a skinner box mechanic it’s insane. It’s really difficult to just sell the game on the merits of moving troops to win battles. The incremental random payout is a big deal.
Overall I’m happy with my decision to stay in the military, but at the same time it wasn’t exactly my plan. These last few months have been very stressful for me and for people around the world. I’m glad to have the things God has given me and I will press forward to the next challenge.