Game Update
The stage swap is complete but I need to do some testing to see if I missed something. The next step is balancing the spreadsheets and creating a game trailer for steam. I figure that making a trailer will probably take between 10-20 hours to get right. It will probably be the most editing that I’ve ever done. I think the main issue right now is that the office in my house has been a mess for the past year. I’m going to focus on getting it into ship shape to encourage me to get the work done.
We also have a bug that isn’t game breaking but it’s still annoying. I will focus on doing that with my mentor for the next couple of sessions. The issue is that if a leader is set in a squad and then is subsequently moved to the toy box the squad still thinks that a leader is assigned. All the squads need to have leaders assigned in order to start a stage, but when the squads start the stage without a leader it triggers more issues. It’s not game breaking as it doesn’t benefit the player in any way, but it’s still an issue. Hopefully the player would only make that mistake one time. It’s a bug, but I can release with it.
Fixing all the spreadsheets is going to come down to setting the appropriate numbers for the game to keep things feeling good. As an example it’s likely that some of our defensive troops have to much health and defense which goes against our tenant of keeping the stages short. What’s going to be more difficult will be the damage done when multiple factors are increasing it. Most of that isn’t very intuitive, it just sort of happens when the stars align and the player probably won’t know why a troop that does 20 damage is suddenly doing 67 damage.
Personal Update
I started reading the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad”. It’s been pretty eye opening as I realize that for most of my life I was investing in a lot of “liabilities” instead of “assets”. Luckily I had accidentally been doing some things right which has been helpful overall. I’m hoping that the lessons learned from the book will help when I start selling the game soon. It’s made me want to take some more financial classes to shore up my financial intelligence. I have been worried about government taxation.
I released a couple of jokes on my Facebook, and I had a couple of good responses. The well seems to have run dry for now. I’m not sure if I should push to write even when I’m not inspired or not. The book Atomic Habits says that Jerry Seinfeld would write a joke every day and focus on not breaking the chain. Maybe I’m diverting to much energy to things that aren’t my game development. I might shelve the idea for now and just hit it when I’m inspired. If I’m going to create a chain that I don’t want broken it needs to be focused on working on my game instead.
Waiting to get the audition information for the church praise and worship team. I will be putting my best foot forward as it’s renewed my interest in playing. I’ve done some practicing at home lately, and I had a chance to spend some time with my family and play some music this past week. Maybe it’s finally time to get back into the music scene. The last time I played in a band was about nine years ago. I distinctly remember moving from the band to children’s church as they needed the help, and I wanted to work on learning how to make a game. Maybe in some ways I do this thing where I will put things off until I feel like the timing is right. The problem is that when my timing is right, often the moment has passed. Such is life I suppose.
I’m still dating and socializing but not putting a lot of effort into it. It’s nice to have people that are supportive in my life. It’s still strange to me to live somewhere and not expect to move in 3-4 years. I guess I’m starting to build up friend groups for the coming years.