Game Update
We are still working on the final stage. We have mostly been making the stage look good right now. We’re really interested in the look and feel of the stage. It should feel very industrial, like a capital city for the empire that is more focused on power and corruption than taking care of its citizens.
This week we talked a bit about how the player may not be spending enough time in the force organization screen. In a lot of cases the player can simply heal their squads and start a new battle. We might add a graphic that can alert the player when new classes are available. I’m still thinking about creating a “hard mode” that will allow the troops to die sometimes, and be injured other times. This should make it more interesting when playing stages as the player shouldn’t want to run squads in and just sacrifice them all the time with no repercussions.
Personal Update
I was struck by something this past Friday when I was playing a modern Magic the Gathering tournament. I had just finished a close match and after the match I mentioned that I had seen a deck that he might check out. His response was very telling, he said, “ I don’t net deck, I only play all original decks.” I let it go and didn’t continue on with the conversation. What he stated was a belief system that he holds very close as part of his pride and identity. It wouldn’t be wise to attempt to change that in the limited time between rounds. This belief means that instead of leveraging all the experience and testing available the persons pride would rather start from square one.
We are all the main character in our own story which means that we don’t like being corrected or shown a different way. Part of self development is giving a real consideration to the possibility that there are better methods for the things we do. These limiting beliefs keep us from our full potential in many ways. We must always be ready to challenge our presumptions which can be mentally painful at times.
I also had the chance to help out a couple friends with their own personal problems this week. It reminded me about my idea of writing a book. I’m not sure how I would do it right now though. I’m worried about what it would mean and the impact it could have on people’s stories that would be part of the book. I suppose I would have to find a way to write the book without any of the stories that I’ve experienced.
I had a thought this week that I might have spread myself out to much with my hobbies. I may not be focused enough. I might have to put some things down. If I don’t focus then I might look back someday and be disappointed. I used to spend so much time thinking and working on my video game. Somewhere along the line I think I lost my passion. I used to work on the game during my lunch hour. I blocked out a day to run game development club. I used to listen to GDC talks every morning. I think somewhere along the line during my separation, divorce, transitions, and self development I changed. I still want to finish but it’s not as easy as it used to be.
Maybe I don’t believe that I can finish. Still the book “Think and Grow Rich” talks about how some excavators stopped short with some mining. They sold their equipment and went home. Later the person they sold the equipment to went back and found a fortune in gold. I’m worried that if I stop now I will have sold the mine before striking gold. I need to believe in this, I need to bet on what I’ve put all my work into for so many years. I need to get my passion back, and that might mean taking some more chances and building some more features. Features that I have thought about for a while now. First thing first though, I need to finish these stages and then add those features on.