Blogs - PixelPun

So working alone on games is someone what hard. There is only one person to rely on and that is yourself. The problem with only relying on yourself to do things is you have to be highly motivated.... so when you are not motivated at all... nothing happens. Even when I am not motivated to work on my games I still try to read about development or interesting happenings with in the world of indy gaming. I find that it also helps to just sit down with something I would have never thought to play or thought I wouldn't like and just try it out. This alone can sometimes bring me out of that slump. Going to post more soon... just have to find my motivation.

Played a really neat Indie game check it out its called The Love Letter... only takes a few minutes to play... really cool idea! Lately I have really started to like games that are not really games, but comments on society and different situations. Check this one out!

Newgrounds.com

So lately I have really been into these games that are not really traditional games. Games like Take on Mars and Gone Home. I really like the idea of exploring an environment for clues to advance a story. While the normal games of blowing stuff up or killing endless waves of zombies are cool. I believe these games that let you just explore an environment you might not ever get to otherwise have much more impact on me. I am going to play more of Take on Mars over the next few weeks and I fully intended to talk about it more and maybe even write an article on the subject.

Going to start trying to do daily updates when ever I work on my projects. I had some really good ideas today for my current project InFlames. I am still kinda looking for a direction to go in as far as gameplay goes with the bosses. I have been thinking about leaving the health bars of the bosses out and just giving visual queues that they are dying. The bosses in my game have to be taken out a certain way and I want layers to have to figure that out with out the help of a health bar. Still playing around with it...

So I have been working on my simple iPad game for almost a year now. I believe that if it was my day job to work on it would have been about a 3-4 month project, but because I also work as a designer I am forced to work on my game as a hobby when I get home from work. The problem that I am finding is that it is very hard to come home after sitting all day at a computer and then sit at another iMac to do more coding. I am also finding it very hard to put the finishing touches on my game. I don't know if I am just scared of what people will say about it... or if it is just my perfectionist nature that whats to make sure the game is the best it can be? Well hopefully I will be able to finish up my game over the next few weeks and submit to Apple... but we will see what happens.

So working at my new job has been such a breath of fresh air. I pretty much just work on and design interactive children's storys for iPad all day long. It is wonderful because while I am working I also get to learn more about coding and animating.. I would say my programming knowledge has grown 10 fold over the past month. I am still very much focused on my game PLOCKS! for my company PixelPun.. But this job I have now most defiantly helps...

I have had the past 5 days off from work and school and it has been such a relief to just work solely on my video games. It is amazing because all the stress and tiredness I feel after coming home from work and sitting down for 4 hours designing ceases to exist. It has truly been an amazing experience for me. When you only have to work on something you love that something becomes so much more important and everything your pour into it is good. My goal over the past few days has been accomplished about three times over. These days off have really showed me that game design is in my blood.

I'm sure most indie developers all have day jobs. And we all dream of working on games when we are at these day jobs. It is very hard to work all day and go home and work on games even when it is something you love. But sitting here thinking about working on games makes me think that maybe I am getting burnt out just by thinking about it all day. It also makes me wonder if I will ever get burnt out at making games if it was my full time job. There is the saying if you do what you love... you never work. I'm sure it's everyone's dream on indieDB.com to become the next great developer and to put out a great game. What do you guys to to keep the focus while working a day job? Do you keep special hours at night to work on your projects? Or do you wake up super early in the morning and work until you have to go to work. How much of the day is spent thinking about the projects at home... while at the day job?

It's hard sometimes to be the only person working on a project. It really lacks that comradery that you would have if there was just one other person involved. It is weird because I myself am highly motivated to work on my games and to get them out to the public. But I do find there are times when just the smallest hiccup will throw me off track for a week or more. I think when you have that other person to help they keep you focused on the task at hand and really help push the production along. I just say this because I have been working on getting a game out to the Apple store for over a year now and something always comes along to slow down the process and getting an actual game out almost seems like an impossibility.

Well just kinda venting while I am at my day job, hopefully I will get this game out there... and either it sales or doesn't sell I will be happy because I completed a game.