Empty Nest

Game Update

Sometimes game development is more than just making games. I would say that I did spend some time this week getting something important done, I cleaned my office enough so I can feel OK sitting in it again. Going back to “Atomic Habits” it’s important to create a place that encourages the activity you want to do in that location. When my office is dirty I don’t want to be in it which hurts my development time greatly. At least having my mentor pushes me through those times.

I feel like this week it will also be important to get my taxes done. I have the same personal taxes I always do, but this time I also have money made on my video game which wasn’t a lot but it still counts. The stock market was down so I’m hoping my losses there will help push me into a lower tax bracket this year. It’s been interesting getting better at learning how to handle my finances better. Still there is plenty to learn. The costs of game development were higher than what the game made this year so I expect that I shouldn’t owe anything still I’ve been wrong before.

Personal Update

My boys are away this week which does tend to throw me off a bit. It’s kind of crazy to think that not having them around makes me less productive. I suppose it’s good to write about the things I should get done in this blog entry. I’ve heard that writing things down makes it more likely that a person will follow through with their tasks.

I had an opportunity come up to work a lot of conventions this summer. If I work all of them it will be more than I have every done in a year. Maybe this will lead to something in the gaming industry. I don’t know if I’d be able to do that without having more assets feeding my finances though. I’m pretty comfortable where I am now, but this does feel like I’m pushing myself enough. Maybe this is “my edge” that I’ve been looking for. I still haven’t heard anything back from the local homeless shelters so I need to call them.

Stalled Out

Game Update

Things are at a standstill right now and last week as my job has flipped me to a schedule that has interfered with my normal game development time with my mentor Chris. This isn’t an excuse however as I have had time to work. This is one of the reasons it is so important to have a time to do what you said you would do, and someone to be accountable to. We will return to work and double up some sessions soon however.

I have thought off and on about fleshing out some of the random events in the game. Possibly creating some continuing plot lines that will unlock and randomly show up. Maybe something that is 2-3 levels deep, nothing to crazy. The problem might be that a lot of the characters I think up for these roles would be based on people I really knew in real life. Maybe that’s not as big an issue as I think though.

Personal Update

Last week I missed my blog entry because I had some more pressing matters to attend to. It was quite a trial but I think that I am through it now and everyone involved is in a better place now. I can’t say much more about it.

Life sort of snuck up on me and I didn’t even realize that spring break is this month. I missed a deadline on a camp for one of my sons so he probably will not be able to go to it. It makes me feel bad, but I also feel like he shares some of the responsibility to remind me too. It’s crazy how time flies. I’m seeing Facebook memories from just last year and it reminds me that I was in a much different place back then.

The Dwarven Forge Kickstarter closed out at the end of the month last month. A lot of my focus was on that and I think I know what I want to do. I am also looking at a Wyrmwood gaming table as they just re-launched that Kickstarter too. I’m really trying to focus my finances more on buying stocks and building up assets, but I have been waiting for these campaigns for quite a while now.

I went from working zero conventions this year to possibly working up to three in this past week. One is at the end of the month. It feels pretty good getting back into the groove of that again. I wonder if this is the next thing that I will want to do to push myself a little. It does seem to fit well with my overall plans and I do feel like I’m pushing myself when I do it. I have thought off and on that I might like to fully retire when I don’t have to worry about my kids and just travel around working various conventions throughout the year. Once I have enough to exit the rat race that might be possible.

Meaning

Game Update

I’m not sure how many times I can say that we are working on levels before it starts to get really old but that’s what we are doing. Still I am chipping away at them. It’s a lot like taking inventory at a really large facility. The work is pre-determined for the most part and it just needs to get done.

I guess a lot of the jobs I had when I was younger led to this. One of my first real jobs was cutting nails to make crosses for a local pastor. He ran the business out of his basement. The work was mostly uninteresting and repetitive. The pieces were later soldered together. I used the money for my first major purchase which was a 20” TV at $230 so I could play video games in my room. Even then I had a passion for video games.

Personal Update

I turned 41 this past week and I think I might be in a bit of an existential crisis now. I asked my father if he had a mid-life crisis at my age and he told me that he didn’t because there wasn’t time to think about what he had accomplished. I’ve set myself up so well that much of my life is automated and I make good money now so I have more time to think about what I should be doing to push myself.

More and more it feels like my passion for making games has been pushed off to the way side. I guess it’s good that I didn’t become a commercial game developer after all. Although back in 2019 that was all that I wanted in the world, well that and something else.

I find myself looking around and I often say that I am very blessed. That’s very true, but if I really got down to what I wanted my life to look like now it wouldn’t be exactly as it is. That feels pretty bad as I know that I have a real abundance that other people at my age don’t have. It’s a real circular logic moment of “I feel bad but I shouldn’t feel bad which also makes me feel bad.”

So how is my midlife crisis going, assuming that I am having one? Well I’ve narrowed down my focus to 3 items which are working with homeless/disadvantaged people, working out to build the body I want, and making more money to build up stock passive income and exit the rat race.

The one that’s the most uncomfortable is working with homeless. I feel pretty helpless in this area. This would really push me. I submitted a form to a local shelter to help out, but that was last Friday. I’m not sure when I will hear back. I like to think there may be something bigger than working for a local shelter that I’m uniquely suited for, but I need to understand the problem better first. I keep thinking that with my skill set maybe I can build an app that will leverage gamification to shape behavior of the homeless. I’m not sure how many of them even have phones, but something tells me the answer is more than you would think.

My fitness journey has hit a fast brick wall as I was sore for 4 days after my first real lifting session. I have been losing weight however and so there might be light at the end of the tunnel. The book Atomic Habits talks a lot about having habits that will eventually produce a lot of positive outcome all at once. I didn’t do as many treadmill sessions as I wanted to last year but I still had around 200 which is pretty good. I think I finally started to see the windfall of that this past week as for the first time in maybe 5 or 6 years my weight dipped below 210lbs. Being sub 200 would be great but I’m not sure if that will be possible at my 6’2 height.

Making more money is in a word, boring to me. I need to find a better way to energize myself to do it. It’s another situation where I just need to save properly and put the money away to make things happen. I picked up a job for Momo Con and I might also go to GenCON this year for work. It’s been so long since I have been there I can’t wait for the opportunity. Hopefully a lot of the mask restrictions will come down this year. I’d like to get my D&D premium idea running as well, but it hasn’t really taken off since when I first started working on it.

I had a great couple of dates this past week. This girl is much more of a slow burn of passion. She’s probably just what I need to be successful right now. She was so thoughtful with our time spent and her gifts for my birthday. I’m thankful to be in a place to have someone so special in my life. I promised myself not to cave in on my convictions and stay on my path this time. I feel like that’s going to be the best thing to do in order for this relationship to have a chance of becoming something long lasting.

Romantic Cities Untold

Game Update

I continue to plug through the level development. I’m still letting some ideas for the stories run through my mind as I work. It gives me some good time to connect more with my mentor Chris during out meetings. I’m not sure when the updates will get a little more interesting. Then again there are mundane parts of every job.

Personal Update

Boys are doing well still as we work through the second half of the school year. Last week they asked for a game night so I did that yesterday. I really enjoy entertaining, so I think I’m going to start looking at that more often. I still need to finish up a Dungeons and Dragons game that we started last summer.

Speaking of Dungeons and Dragons there was a new Dwarven Forge Kickstarter for some town structures. It’s called Cities Untold, and I’m excited to pledge on it of course. I’ve been trying to make some sort of Dungeons and Dragons premium experience for a while now. I’m also waiting on a dungeon master screen from Wyrmwood.

It’s the week of Valentines Day and I’m lucky to have a special someone to spend it with this year. I can’t wait to show her what I got her for the holiday. It feels really good to be with someone I can really feel trust in. Looking forward to allowing this slow burn into a raging fire.

Red Roses

Game Update

Not much to say as I keep progressing through each stage with the task of creating all the invisible zones, landscape, and name all of the towns. Still toying around with some ideas for dialogue but for now all the new towns will leverage the random dialogue system.

I’m starting to play more Slay the Spire, and I keep asking myself if there is something I can learn from that game that might be applicable to my game. One of the interesting things about Slay the Spire is that each class has multiple strategies of their own that only work for them. It’s a flavor of sorts. It would be interesting to have more flavor for our 6 different aspects in the game that is more than damage coefficients in different terrain types. I need to think about this a bit more to figure it out.

Personal Update

Getting ready for Valentines Day this month, and my birthday. I’m so blessed to have met someone so amazing so quickly. At the time I didn’t think my heart could be open again, and yet here I am almost four weeks into this relationship. It’s nice to be with someone dependable, supportive and stable.

I’ve started reading/listening to the book “The Way of The Superior Man”. It is “uncomfortable” to read to say the least. It is reminding me about a lot of areas I could do better. Many of the concepts in the book would be difficult to prove, but I am entertaining them.

The primary thing that is speaking to me right now in the book is the idea of “being on your edge.” Pushing past the things that are comfortable to do something that you don’t want to do. I inspected myself, and am continuing to ask myself what is my edge? I am leaning towards getting involved with the local homeless in some way. Probably volunteer at a shelter. It is an area where I would be pushing myself, and I have some fear about it. It’s not to far beyond my capacity right now though. I am entertaining other ideas but this is the one that is the most uncomfortable for me.

Settling In

Game Update

Getting to a place where I’m primarily just working through the normalcy of creating levels for the game. I’m getting faster at it which makes sense as I “get more reps in” like Atomic Habits talks about. It’s less exciting than making new features but it’s also more relaxing. The nice thing about it is that it gives me the chance to just chat with my mentor during our weekly sessions.

I don’t expect there will be a lot to report for most of the weeks ahead. I have thought off and on about some of the stories I might tell in the stages. It’s likely it will get pulled from a lot of my own personal experiences over the years. Still pretty judgmental about telling my own stories. It was pointed out to me recently that I am maybe a little to hard on the movies and shows I watch.

Personal Update

I missed last weeks music practice with my kids but we managed to re-organize the area and do a practice this week. Sometimes it can be difficult being a leader. I know that if I fail to step up things won’t “just happen.” I feel like I’m getting a little better about teaching the boys one on one. We have a long way to go. It’s another situation where I am getting my teaching reps in and they are getting their music learning reps in. Still having issues with my second son who gets frustrated easily.

I took some time to play a Magic the Gathering tournament this weekend, which went about as average as it can go. My record ended up being 2-2-1 for the day. I had some of the worst draws that day which was crazy. I’ve never seen so many bad hands, but some nights are your night and some nights are not. Still with all those bad draws I still managed to break even, imagine if I had better hands that day. I was also happy to have picked up 2 cards I had been looking for right before the tournament started. Still working out a lot of the nuances.

Spent some time with my new love interest this week too, which was very nice of course. We had a couple things to work through but nothing to difficult. It’s nice to have finally met someone so stable. It felt like I was going to have a hard time finding anyone with any measure of quality in this area that worked well with who I am. Doing my best to make good decisions while praying that God blesses the relationship.

Lies, Betrayal, and Renewal

Game Update

Still pressing forward with building stages. I’m starting to get a lot more efficient when I work. We finished 3 landscapes with their invisible zones to change the landscape the squads move through and fight on. We also have to place towns and create names for all the enemy towns that aren’t controlled by the stage boss.

Recently the idea of creating a stage enemy that is the focus of the players attention has come to mind. I should be able to do this with the text box system that we have already. The issue is that it can be hard to get a feel for the enemy or create a narrative if the player only speaks with them at their final base. We can have the surrounding towns talk about them though.

Some of the ideas I’ve had are a leader that wants the best for their area but their family drags them into poor decisions. Another idea is creating a very cooperative enemy that turns on the player at the end of the stage. Maybe that enemy could be an ally and a second main enemy would be for the stage with the ally being a double agent.

Personal Update

I’ve had quite a whirlwind in the past week or so. It’s been so much to deal with and I have to talk around most of it which is hard. Needless to say I’ve felt the deep hurt and sting of betrayal through lies with someone I trusted. It turned out their problems ran pretty deep so I did what I could for them but now they have pushed me away, which might be for the best within my family anyway.

Living through it taught me a lot about myself, and I really hope it doesn’t hurt my belief in people. I’ve experienced plenty of other people in the area that don’t have much trust in humanity at all. They are afraid to lose everything which makes them look for the bad in people. I find that whatever I seek is what I will find. It’s a bad habit to feed, to always be looking for the worst in situations. When I released the game I would often say, “I’m afraid, anything could go wrong” and a friend told me the perfect thing in response which was, “anything could go right.” It’s important to protect ourselves of course, and to set proper boundaries, but it’s also important to be looking for the good in life wherever we can find it.

I had said before that often things can happen quickly. Wednesday was one of those days for me this past week. I was going through my typical day when I met someone that started to change things around for me. Things have progressed and I’m hopeful again. I was worried my heart wouldn’t be open again, but she had a way of opening me up to make me feel comfortable. The word I would use to describe the last relationship was “unprecedented”, but I would say the word for this one is “consistency”. It’s in our nature as humans to always be comparing, and I would say that so far this seems to be the healthiest person mentally, spiritually, and emotionally that I have encountered. It’s nice not to have to worry although I seem to want to save people often. Trying to be cautious and hold to my standards and boundaries going forward. I’m cautious but hopeful.

We're Getting the Band Back Together

Game Update

The game levels are still being worked on week by week. Some levels have only a few things to do on each pass while others have a lot more. Right now were mostly focused on building the terrain and the invisible zones that control the movement and the combat scenes. I can feel myself getting more confident and speedy as I do it more. Sadly I’ve been bad about consistently getting work done outside of my weekly call with my mentor.

It’s funny to say, but I think the most important thing I can do right now is clean my office. It was cleaned so long ago before a lot of stuff happened this past year. I think I have discouraged myself from working in here. Although as I look around I do enjoy the decor that I have put on the walls, I seem to have a really bad habit of cluttering up my floors and not handling paperwork well.

Maybe I should take the Atomic Habits route of cleaning this and just set aside a small amount of time each day to move some things around in here and it will be clean before I know it. Who knows I might actually want to sit in here after I do that.

Personal Update

The holidays have been tumultuous to say the least. In a word I would call it unprecedented although I can’t say much more. The holidays tend to be hard on a lot of people, and I am no exception. Still I see a ray of sunshine at the end of the rainbow and so all hope isn’t lost yet.

On the bright side I have been getting closer to God during this time. I really felt like He was speaking to me and there were definitely times where I doubted myself, or asked why? Maybe one day I’ll be able to write the story.

Following through on what I had told my boys before the New Year, I picked up a drum set and a keyboard so we can do family band practice. The boys were mostly excited about their instruments, none more than my youngest. In fact it was his idea to do a practice tonight so we all sang while I played guitar. Well… 2/4 of my boys did some singing the others were more annoyed. We will try and work on it next week. I’m giving this experiment a year. I’m not surprised with the push back honestly. My shyest son asked if we were going to perform in front of other people. I see a lot of growth possibilities for all of them. I do need to set up the music area a little better too.

Holiday Slow Down

Game Update

Finished the basics on another stage and we are moving to the next one. By basics I mean that we created a landscape, towns, invisible zones, and set all the basic dialogue. It’s not much of an update this week as it’s mostly just content that I will continue to work at. I’m pretty worried about my motivation to get this done however. I do want to start releasing new stages for players to try out soon as well. We might work on an update to release up to three stages.

Personal Update

It’s been a whirlwind of a week as I finished up with my students before the Christmas break, prepared for two children’s birthday parties, and spent time with my girlfriend. I’ve truly been on quite an emotional roller coaster. Overall I feel very happy about where my life is going and how things keep recovering and getting better and better. It almost feels like I’m waiting for the next crisis right now.

Speaking of crisis, I’m still looking to fix my garage which will take quite a bit to do. I may have to save up for a couple of months to do it. After that I really want to focus on building my investment accounts as much as possible. This year will be the first year that I will be filing taxes for my small business. It’s likely that it will be pretty negligible as I spend a lot more than the game made.

I was listening to some self development video today after spending some time with my parents. It talked about focusing on only one goal at a time and putting all my effort into it. I feel like I’ve become pretty accustomed to taking “massive action” on some front or another. I’m not sure I’ve every put all my eggs into one goal, but maybe I was already doing it. It made me ask myself if my one goal was my video game or if it was something else. To be honest I’m pretty sure it’s something else. That kind of makes me a bit worried as it means that the game will probably take much longer than I intended to finish. I wanted to have all the stages built for the game this holiday season but I am way off the mark from that right now. I need to focus more.

Signs

Game Update

Still working on a better way to create invisible movement zones for the game. We think we have a good process nailed down between Blender and Unity. There is a little big of as learning curve for me as I create these zones for the game. I keep creating shapes with a concave section which won’t wrap properly.

The holiday season has made things pretty interesting for time as I keep trying to motivate myself to find more time. I’m looking at how I can stack time on to make it more enticing for me to sit at my computer. I think what it’s really going to come down to is cleaning my office to make it a more conducive place that I will want to exist in. It’s become very messy again.

Personal Update

My youngest child has been going through some difficulties lately. It got so bad that I had to threaten to take away some of his Christmas presents. I’m not sure if he isn’t sleeping well of or if it’s his visit with his mom over Thanksgiving that did it. At any rate I’m hoping that he can turn things around. Sometimes the holiday season can be very stressful for everyone involved.

Made a lot of progress with my new girlfriend. We made things official last weekend and are moving forward with the various challenges that this will mean for both of us. I’m very excited as I keep seeing signs that this is the right decision for me. That said I shouldn’t ignore confirmation bias either. Sometimes we want something so badly that we look for things to tell us that it’s correct.

She introduced me to the show “Ted Lasso”, and the movie “The Notebook”. Both shows that I think have a lot to say about how we live our lives. The hero in Ted Lasso is especially interesting to me. He is the kind of masculine man I aspire to be. Someone that is focused and brings the best out of people. I guess that’s why I love my job teaching so much. What a blessing to have this job.

The character Noah from “The Notebook” is interesting. I identify with some of his traits but not all of them. I like how hard he works at love, but there is an element to watch out for here as he runs the risk of being “to needy” for love. Still the movie had some very touching moments for me, and I’ve learned not to pass up a chance to cry.

Be Careful What You Pray For

Game Update

This week we worked on a way to increase our productivity on creating the various invisible zones that the player moves into that dictate combat and movement. The map system in the game is just a picture, and there are invisible zones that we need to layer on top of that. These zones know when a player or enemy squad has entered them. Entering a zone may slow down or speed up movement speed on the map. The zone also controls the combat screens.

In Unity we can only create regular shapes like cubes, spheres, etc… We are able to create irregular shapes in Blender and then import them into Unity. The one catch is that in order to use those shapes as colliders we have to turn on “Convex Mesh”. The further issue arises in a shape like a bean which has an indent on it. The indent is not represented when we turn on convex mesh for our collider. Instead the entire shape is wrapped. This means in order to create any indent we have to separate our objects accordingly. Still the creation of objects is still less objects overall, and much more precise in nature.

Personal Update

It’s funny how quickly things can develop in life. One minute there is a crisis with future hopes and dreams looking like they are all gone, and the next a completely new future course is being determined. The Thanksgiving holiday was a bit turbulent and costly for me as I drove back and forth, and searched for that special someone. I distinctly remember praying to God to ask Him for something I didn’t think I would get. As it turns out “ask and it will be given to you” seems to have been the order of the day this time. Still I’m doing my best to move cautiously, but I can’t help but be happy to think of what this new future and direction might bring for my family and myself.

My oldest son had a birthday party this last weekend. He asked for a bicycle and I wasn’t sure with everything going on if I would be able to fulfill his request. I couldn’t have found the right one without the help from a good friend. He was very happy to have a new sense of freedom. As a parent of course I worry about him being away from me and alone, but it’s also important for him to start getting some independence. When I was his age I mostly used my bike to go to my job, or to rent movies and video games.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Game Update

We are full steam ahead on building out the levels. Even if I only work on them with my mentor that will still be forward progress. I think I’m at a point again where I really need to spend some “game development” time to clean my office. I feel like the fact that it is a mess is hurting productivity for me a lot.

The game will be going on sale for the upcoming Christmas sale and so that’s a good thing. I scheduled all of the sales a couple months ago. It’s not something I’m extremely focused on lately as I still need to finish all these levels. I’m a little worried that it might not scale properly and some of the numbers might get out of hand at the higher levels. Marketing will be something I will focus more on when I have a completed project.

Personal Update

Thanksgiving driving was pretty tiring and costly. I drove 8 hours four times over two weeks to drop my kids off and pick them up. The gas cost alone was around $350. I think if I’m asked to do that location again I will have to veto it as it wasn’t that much different than dropping them off at the other location. Everything is in full gear otherwise. We just started setting up our Christmas decorations tonight and the tree is up now.

It’s been two years since I have had my kids available for Christmas, I’m really looking forward to this year. It makes me remember the last time I had this. Everything felt right back then. It was frustrating to see things not go the way I had hoped but I’m still thankful for that time. I think things will come back around again soon. There’s always something new just around the corner after all.

The Long Road

Game Update

It feels like we hit the accelerator on level creation. I found a couple more problems with the levels and I scrubbed through them all to make those changes. Each stage will need some work. I will need to set all the enemies, match them with spreadsheet entries, set way points, set the landscape zones, and build the nice landscape.

Personal Update

This year my kids will be away for Thanksgiving, and the drive was pretty tiring. I have to do it again next weekend and I’m not looking forward to it. Still I make the best of it by listening to self development books on the drive. I feel exhausted. I hope that I’ll be able to get some work done this week. I guess this is just one of those weeks where I don’t have a lot to say. Hopefully next week will be different.

Happy Memorial Day

Game Update

This week we implemented a new system that will allow for random events on towns to be triggered. The idea is to add this to all towns and then come back later to fill in some of the towns with more crafted messages. In this way I shouldn’t have to worry about the plot just yet and I will be able to come back later to fix it.

These random events are super cool because all the functionality we had before where we can manipulate money, stats, etc… will work here. I have to test if we can do yes/no dialogue with it or not. I might even try to build small trees of text using a gated system to unlock the end of an else statement. Basically a card that will track itself through game play and change each time it is accessed. Eventually it will leave the stack of cards after it has been accessed a certain number of times. Just an idea for now, but centralizing this system all in one place should make this idea easy to implement.

We can also control the portrait shown here which will allow for further control from stage to stage. We can do things like have alternate images for the same text. We could easily get very granular with it if we wanted too. The best part is that the old system is still available for use if we want to use that instead.

Personal Update

Memorial Day was this weekend, and it’s always good to see all the local people pay respects to the military. I don’t mind some of the local businesses that have special deals for active duty and retirees like me too. All things considered I had an interesting ride while I was in. Good times, and bad times it was worth the commitment for what it does for me now.

Preparing for Thanksgiving now as I have the boys get their bags ready for that week. The drive won’t be as bad as taking them all the way to where we usually go, but it will still be quite a long drive. They will be missed but having them here for Christmas for the first time in two years will be a blessing. The last time we did this I was just about to retired from the military and I thought I had it all figured out. Things didn’t turn out quite the way I had thought/hoped but I’m happy to be where I am now.

Still discovering myself and playing some Magic the Gathering. I had a positive comment on the last tournament. My opponent said that I was a pleasure to play against as I wasn’t so focused on winning. Learning to be social has helped in a lot of ways, and I see things a lot differently than I used to. I’m still working on my Modern Deck. I’m not sure how much more I can do to push the envelope with it. It may not be as good as I originally thought given some of the cards in the game that completely shut it down.

Finances have been of concern ever since I had some problems with the house. It seems like every time I turn around there’s another liability that wants my money. It’s very difficult to focus right now. I hope I can get back to investing soon, and have my house repaired. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to have everything back in line. It’s still stressful for me.

Dreams

Game Update

We had a sobering look at the game this week. I we have one new stage completed and have busted all of our timelines to complete levels. There has been a lot going on for me, but I think the bigger question is if I really want to do this anymore. Then again a book I recently read said that everyone that is successful has experienced this phenomenon. The difference between the winners and the losers is that winners push through even though they feel like giving up.

In order to attempt to make levels more quickly we are building some default text for the towns. This default text will have 4 or 5 random phrases that will launch. Later I will be able to add more and more messages to this default script to beef it up a bit. Basically we could have a deck of cards that will randomly launch events.

Personal Update

Still working on playing Magic the Gathering Modern. I learned a lot from the last tournament that I played in. I learned that Tefri, and Chalice of the Void shut off the cascade for the deck which makes 8-11 cards almost worthless. I managed to get rid of white and found a blue creature that will bounce those cards. I also found that main decking artifact and enchantment removal with Foundation Breaker.

Had some dreams recently that made me remember the past. It’s probably because of my recent break up. I suppose it’s pretty natural to relive things. I’m worried that I might not be emotionally available. It might be that way for me for a while. I guess there are some things you just never get over.

The boys are doing well and they are ready for the holidays. I’m so blessed to have them at home. This will be the first year in 2 years that I will have had them. It’s amazing to look back and see where we all came from. They are growing up before my eyes. My oldest son says that he wants to try making a clicker video game. We will look at that soon I hope.

Reconnecting with Myself

Game Update

Stage 2 is completely broken and I’m working on repairing it. I think it has to do with some of the testing we were doing to make the all new event system work. It’s likely that we updated a prefab and that had unforeseen consequences. I scrambled to try and fix it but I had a hard time rolling back the level from a previous version. It won’t get repaired until I talk to my mentor on Tuesday most likely.

We did publish a new version of the game, and plan to start pushing out more updates soon. I still need to buckle down and build more content. I haven’t built up good habits to get that done however. I think I am allowing other things to take priority instead and I’m finally getting to a place where I need to really understand if this is what I want or not. I’m not acting like it is.

I have the breaks and the gas on at the same time, and that’s no way to get something done. We all have that issue in our lives. We want things, but we get in our own way. I’m in my own way to get this done.

Personal Update

I’m leaning heavily into playing the Magic the Gathering modern format. I played this years ago but it is completely different now. As such there is new life to explore within some older cards. It’s interesting to see the current trends, because it feels like people forgot about a lot of what was available that came before. Then again, maybe I just think some of the older cards I used to play with are better than they really are.

A long time ago I ran a show on YouTube called “Deck Building w/ Da Squire” and I really enjoyed what I was doing back then. I put a lot of work into the show each week and it never quite got the traction that I would have liked. Starting this week I am going to post my Modern Deck and give updates on some ideas I have about Magic in general. I tend to be someone that looks for ways to break the system, and I’m hoping that the deck this week will do that.

Magic the Gathering

“Glimpse of Tomorrow” is a very interesting card to me. It allows me to reset my entire board and play random permanent cards off the top of my deck. So I got to thinking about the best way to break this card and I don’t think that the current elementals shell is as good as my humans shell due to the creatures being weaker and the need for the elementals to combo off. I started by remembering the old Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki the Mirror Breaker combo that makes infinite angels. As a bonus we have placed some other creatures with come into play abilities in the deck as well in case we don’t see our angels with Kiki.

The new Modern Horizons 2 set has also opened up some interesting creatures with evoke like Subtlety, Fury, and Solitude. When you evoke these creatures you can place their come into play ability on the stack and then flash them with Ephemerate to keep them in play instead of sending them to the graveyard. This only costs 1 mana and 3 cards with one card being discarded. I am interested to see how often we can do the same thing but use Restoration Angel instead of Ephemerate.

We can also combo our Restoration Angels with Omnath, Locus of Creation after cascading into a Glimpse of Tomorrow. If we reset our Omnath we can do all of it’s triggers twice as long as we have the fetch lands to do them the second time. That means that we might be able to heal for 8, generate 8 mana, and deal 8 damage to our opponents entire field and life total. This won’t happen that often but even just healing for 8 can be devastating when our board fills with 5-10 creatures.

Deck List

• 4 Blade Splicer

• 1 Eternal Witness

• 1 Fury

• 3 Huntmaster of the Fells

• 2 Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

• 4 Omnath , Locus of Creation

• 4 Restoration Angel

• 4 Shardless Agent

• 1 Subtlety

• 4 Wavesifter

• 3 Glimpse of Tomorrow

• 4 Violent Outburst

• 1 Ardent Plea

• 2 Arid Mesa

• 1 Breeding Pool

• 4 Cavern of Souls

• 1 Forest

• 1 Hallowed Fountain

• 1 Island

• 4 Khalni Garden

• 1 Plains

• 2 Misty Rainforest

• 1 Mountain

• 2 Scalding Tarn

• 1 Sacred Foundry

• 1 Spara’s Headquarters

• 1 Steam Vents

• 1 Stoping Ground

Game Update

Still moving forward although I’ve lost a lot of motivation. I might be in some sort of crisis where I’m asking if I’m even interested in getting it done anymore. I’m trying to re-ignite my fire for this. It’s at this point that I lean heavily on following through with commitments to work. Having a mentor that I work with every week at least ensures that I do an hour every week to move the needle forward. Just like Atomic

We worked some more on checking the text system and started making changes to how we will do portraits for the characters in the text boxes. I would say that our text system is pretty clunky right now which makes it difficult. The good news is that everything is working. The bad news is that it’s difficult to work with and I should probably create a text document for each stage that has the dialogue written so I can easily copy and paste it in.

I am looking to put a new build out soon. I’m debating on adding new stages to it or not. It will have a couple new features which I won’t spoil here, and if we do add a new stage that will also have some new features in it which will enhance the game play experience quite a bit.

Personal Update

Took two weeks off of my blog as I’ve had a significant life event. It really crushed me, and I’m still recovering. I started to remember some things about who I was a long time ago, before I divorced and was placed in a full emergency mode to take care of my kids. I can’t believe it but I might actually play Magic the Gathering Modern format again. A long time ago I used to stream video games and run a YouTube channel that was all about the game Hex the Shards of Fate. I kind of want to do something like that again, but I know how difficult it will be.

My boys are doing well. We have moved into what I call the “birthday season” in which there is a birthday every month for four months. This year will be the first year that I will have them for Christmas. I missed the last two due to transitions and other complications. I’m looking forward to spending time with them over the holidays this year. I’m not entirely sure what I will do the week of Thanksgiving however.

Still looking at possible business ideas revolving around gaming in the area. I like the idea of premium Dungeons and Dragons games, but I’m still working out the kinks with it.

No Blog this week

Going through a crisis, hoping to be back next week for the blog.

Plot Hooks

Game Update

Plugging away at the levels as always. I think the plot will need an overhaul in the initial stages. We are just putting things in place right now with a pretty loose beginning and end in mind. My industry friend said that they would typically start with an end in mind and then work towards that. I suppose there are plenty of other book authors that also do that.

I need to start getting more intentional with my time spent to build these stages. Things have been rather busy lately, but it’s really no excuse. I did feel like I had a good idea for a board game which took some of my creativity away from Six Aspects but I felt like it was a necessary gear shift to give myself a rest. The way things are going I’m not sure when I will have the full release done by. I wanted to get it out by Christmas but it’s not likely that it will be ready.

It’s a blessing that I don’t have a lot of visibility right now. I can do a lot within the game and it doesn’t matter much when not a lot of people are watching it. I’m not putting anything in that is offensive, but I do have some nods to various things in pop culture that I enjoy. Eventually you just run out of names for things.

Personal Update

My five year old turned six this week and so we did a nice birthday party for him on Saturday. Things looked like it was going to get really crazy with around 30 people showing up but luckily it slimmed down to around 15 or 16. My son had a great time and it was fun entertaining everyone. I even had a chance to DJ which I haven’t done in quite a while now. I’m so happy that my girlfriend was able to help out too. She really made the difference between a good party and a great one.

My garage door broke a week ago and it’s going to be an expensive fix. Luckily I will be able to get it fixed this week but it’s still an unexpected cost that I’m dealing with. On top of that I had a Kickstarter cost that I’m also dealing with for a Wyrmwood GM Screen. I’m also looking at another kickstarter for a game table which will end next month. It’s just cost after cost coming down the road fast and furious. The good thing is that it has pushed me to get more creative with trying to make money and I finally got around to starting to sell some of my old games, and Star Wars collection.

Back in the 1990s I played the Decipher Star Wars game and I really enjoyed it. It’s been hard thinking about letting go of my collection. Even more frustrating is as I was going through it I realized that I have an entire deck of cards that is completely missing. I have no idea where it went but I was in the military for a long time and so it probably disappeared in a move or something to that extent.

I see that the DM Lair will be here in Pensacola next month and they are looking for GMs so I volunteered. I have a bunch of terrain that I think would make for some great games, so I hope they will give me the opportunity to run games for them. I sent them an e-mail and filled out their form last week but haven’t heard back yet. I’m hoping it will be an opportunity to start moving toward professional Dungeon Master.

Happy Labor Day

Game Update

This week there was a request made by one of the fans of the game to give players the ability to rotate around the overworld maps. We spent about 40 minutes building that feature this week and I think it will be a nice option for players to have now. It will show a lot of that extra work we do on parts of the terrain that weren’t able to be seen before.

We finished up the zones for movement on one of the stages. I’m still unsure about the plot line for the game and I’m not getting as much done as I need to. Still forward progress is happening and eventually if I keep chipping away at the stages we will finish.

Personal Update

I’m still feeling more interest in working on my board game than I do on my video game which might be a problem or it might be the break that I need. I spent some time with my girlfriend and her mom which was a lot of fun. My boys had a great time too. We got to go swimming, play board games, watch TV, go to a park, and watch a sunset together. It was nice to have this family time together.

I have a lot of costs coming up which have me a little worried, but not for good reason. I’m looking at using it to leverage myself to get more creative in making money. I’ve been talking about working on an Ebay account forever and I need to get that in place. I just need to focus and start doing it.

My friends from work have started a D&D game and it was a lot of fun to do the first session together. I’m still looking at trying to creating some sort of premium experience for people in my local area. I’m not sure how much of a market there will be for something like that, but you never know until you try.