Game Update
Started working on a special stage this week with a neat water geyser feature. There are a few stages on the map that have a volcano feature, but this map had an indentation which seemed more appropriate to be a water geyser much like “Old Faithful.” We spent time looking at reference photos and working on some of the basics for the map. About twenty minutes was spent playing with two separate particle effects to make it look nice. One with some bubbling and churning and another a spout that would shoot off intermittently. I’m not sure if we want to make a special combat map for it or not. I’ve also considered making a special combat map for the bridge portions on a couple of the stages.
I think that very soon we will be looking at elements to build out the enemies, and plot lines for the stages. It’s just kind of something that we keep chipping away at and eventually it gets done. If I can keep this momentum going then I might be able to finish all the stages this summer and start tightening things down for full release.
Personal Update
Boys have come back, and I have to say I’m happy with my productivity this week. It’s possible that setting down what I wanted to get done helped out a lot more than I thought it would. Things did get a little simpler this past week overall. There are some items that I have been putting off that do need attention before the boys leave for the summer though.
My treadmill died this weekend which is super frustrating given the cost of it. I’m still baffled how Nordic Track can dare to say that this is the “commercial model” and it stopped working after only 200 work outs. I would assume that if it was in an actual gym it would be breaking down every two months. What’s worse is that I can’t get someone on the phone to help with it. I had to submit a support ticket through their website and it was very minimal as far as the information it asked for. I’m really not to happy with it overall. I seem to remember more problems with it when I had to deal with shipping. The customer service has been pretty abysmal overall. They typically try to make you happy by giving you “3 free months of ifit” as compensation. There were other issues too with the system and now it seems there is no help.
Work has been going through some changes. It’s strange for me to be in the civilian workforce now and see people come and go whenever there is a better opportunity in front of them. I’m to used to the military model of sticking with a job. I’ve been told that is typically the way people get a raise is by moving around like that.
I continue to work on my office area and it’s become a lot more tolerable to sit in now. Sometimes it’s important to understand that cleaning up your desk is also “game development”. I need to encourage myself to do the work and sit in here. Speaking of things that aren’t making games, I’m also doing my taxes this year for the company for the first time. It’s crazy because the cost of internet, website costs, and phone have far outstripped what the game has made this year. That means that the profit made on it is actually negative. There were other negatives money totals to look at too like contract work etc… I wonder if it will ever be profitable.