Game Update
Started the process of swapping stage one and two. It took some time to swap the two stages on the map, but I managed to get it done. After that I had to go in to each stage to move dialogue around I also ended up making some changes to tighten it up and make it more focused. I worked with my mentor to create a checklist of items that need to be covered for the player to understand how to play the game.
It’s important to make sure that someone can use just the game to understand how to play. It would never be possible to sit next to every person that purchases the game to explain how to play. Even if it did really poorly and sold 1000 copies it wouldn’t be feasible. I still need to finish up with the stage swaps as not all the work is done yet.
Another point of change for the stage swap is ensuring that the difficulty level of the enemies in the stage and the way that they move around. All the enemies are unintelligent and move by way points that are invisible to they player. This makes them rather unintelligent, but it works well enough. You might call this AI that focuses on a pattern. In the stage two of the way points is on the home base which is a threat, but now that stage has become the first one. It would be to intense for the player to have to deal with the enemy invading their base on stage one and so I moved the way point to just in front of the base to make it threatening.
Making sure that the dialogue is focused is pretty important as I don’t want to have unnecessary fluff that doesn’t have meaning in some way. I remember seeing a GDC talk about it. Dialogue should either do world building, or exposition. The first couple stages are more heavy in exposition but the later stages are more focused in world building.
I’m considering adding some more functionality to give us the ability to do enemy dialogue in battle before a combat triggers. We might be able to do this already by attaching a new trigger zone for dialogue that’s larger than the trigger zone for combat. Once the dialogue has been triggered once we can destroy the invisible trigger object which is similar to how we trigger secret zones. Some testing will be necessary to try this out. We might also build in some text that triggers at the end of the stage to give some closure to each mini plot line for the stages.
Personal Update
I think I had a lot of stress from the Thanksgiving Day weekend in which I also did Christmas and on the prior weekend I did a birthday for my oldest. Not having to prepare for another birthday this weekend gave me a bit of a breather but I will need to do one next week. The boys go away for Christmas shortly after that. From there I will need to buckle down and really get to work.
The boys seem to be acting up a little more than usual right now. I think it’s due to having to go away over the holidays. Setting boundaries with my relationships has been a big difficult, but I think that it has already reaped a lot of benefits for my home dynamic. I’m lucky to have found another solid house keeper so quickly.
Moving forward with my application to the church praise and worship team. Meeting people at church and getting plugged in is going well. I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to do this if I didn’t feel like God was prompting me to do it. In their documentation for the team it talks about making sacrifices for the team. Beyond the time commitment I will have to make some changes in other areas as well.
There have been a lot of times this past year and even before that in which I would say that God has moved me, and even my family. I wouldn’t have made the changes myself as I was comfortable where I was. Often I find that’s how He works. Growth means pain, and sacrifice. Sometimes it means doing things I didn’t choose myself, not that I don’t like the path I’m on, it’s just interesting how a path that wasn’t even on my radar can suddenly become everything that I am.
For some time I have thought about writing a book, or doing a comedy routine. Something struck me this week and so I’m starting to write down all the things I find funny and post them on my Facebook to see what kind of responses I get. Facebook isn’t really built for this type of engagement I’m finding that my “jokes” which are basically observational stories about my life experiences are probably to long for the average Facebook browser that’s looking for the next dopamine hit. It just goes to remind me about removing all my swipe apps, and how they were having a major negative impact on my mood and time.
Moving forward I just need to stay focused on my goals. I’m still dating and moving slowly. It’s been good to have the ability to socialize with the possibility of something to develop eventually. I feel very blessed right now.