Game Update
I keep plugging along finishing 1 to 1.5 new random events per week. I'm so grateful to know that everything was able to be salvaged from my old system. I feel so blessed to be able to buy a new system and continue my work. I'm starting to feel a little more motivation to work on the game during the week when it's not game development night. Realistically I should probably prioritize it higher. I have some other tasks that I have been thinking I want to start prioritizing some other things like painting models, and getting back to Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade.
There is a good chance we can get the next update out in time for Christmas which would be great. Hey only a year late! Better late than never I suppose. There are a lot of quality of life updates in this update. We eliminated a soft lock issue in stages. We also closed an exploit loophole for upgrading troops. I'm not sure if we will keep the old version or not. My mentor is saying we shouldn't. I suppose with the exploit in the game he might be right. Still I think it will be nice to still be able to play the game in its first incarnation before we added on the extra stages. I will probably leave it that way on the non-steam platforms. They haven't had any update love anyway.
The testing cycle will likely be a bit longer this time around as there is more game to play through. I might need to build a bit more on the final stage to make it more interesting. I should set aside a day for regular game development on my own again. It's been so long since I have done that. On the plus side my office is finally clean after so long. It's a lot nicer for me to spend time in there again. I'm always drowning in paperwork though. I need to create a better system for dealing with paperwork. Most of it just needs to be destroyed.
Personal Update
I recently came off of a 30 days no dating challenge. It's hard to say if I was more or less productive. If anything the knock on effects from after the experience have been a bit better in my opinion. I think I might be rather closed off to something new right now, but I still enjoy socializing. My board game group was pretty thin last weekend. Some drama and conflicts were a bit of the problem with that. I've been put in charge of a singles group in the area. The first event I have set out is coming up soon. I also got recruited to DJ for an upcoming Halloween party. I hope that goes well. I am getting out and being social, but I think I'm fairly closed off in a lot of ways. I lost a lot of trust in people recently. I used to run game development clubs when I was more focused on making games. I wonder if I am misplacing my community efforts and they should be more about things like that. I think that was a weekly thing though, which would be quite a commitment. I don't know if I can afford that kind of time. Maybe I am just to self serving for that.
My youngest son had his birthday party last Friday. It was a pretty low key affair at the house. We are moving into the birthday season again where every child has a birthday each month. He didn't really want anything for his birthday, but we were able to go out shopping the next day to find something that would be acceptable for him. We got him a squishmallow that could be turned inside out to be either a sushi or an eggroll. I convinced him that he would like to have a Tamogotchi too.
I managed to keep with my work out schedule and after a 10 mile long run I fell under 200lbs for the first time since last year. I think that focusing on fitness and diet over the last 3 months has helped out with that a whole heck of a lot! This time I want to keep progressing down to 185 like my trainer wanted me to do last year. The holidays are coming up and so I will need to be more disciplined than ever. I'm ready for the half marathon next month. I'm really looking forward to it! I wonder if I should be signing up for more races or not. It does help motivate me a lot when I have a goal in mind.
Sometimes things come from unexpected places. I think it's important to stay open, but also be careful when new opportunities show themselves to us. Something that I have heard over and over again lately is that people will often say, "I would have never expected... but I'm happy." I had something like that happen last weekend, and it was a pretty pleasant surprise. On the other side of the coin I had a few setbacks as well that didn't feel that great as well. It's important to also be free from outcomes and be able to re-direct ourselves to place energy into other places where it can be better made use of. All I can do is keep putting one foot in front of the other and move forward with my life. It's not always going to be perfect, but overall I'm very privileged to have the life that I have. I suppose it's ok to keep pushing myself to see what else I can do.