SO… dev work was severely impacted by everyone in the house getting a 24 hour stomach bug.

It started Saturday night with my youngest getting sick all over our brand new couch after we went to our local town’s Xmas parade / tree lighting ceremony. I figured too much candy passed out at the parade coupled with a poorly eaten dinner as I cleaned up the mess. This was further solidified (in my mind) by the fact he seemed fine the next day and showed no signs of upset tummy.

Until the wife and I woke up the next day feeling crappy and nauseous. Yay. I somehow got the kids to school when the wife called and said she wasn’t doing well at work and was coming home. So, instead of #MarketingMonday it became, #takecareofsickwifewhileIfeellikecrap day.

And then my eldest got sick in the middle of the night.

So, #TechTuesday went down the toilet as well as I had to take care of a kid out from school, while still getting a wife and youngest child out the door to their routines.

Still – I tried my best to make sure I had no ‘zero progress’ days, so when the family was resting I cleaned out unused assets from my demo and added some effects to the game, like figuring out why my bee didn’t buzz when the player came near (the collider was incredibly small):

So, my #WritingWednesday will be briefer than most – as I attempt to play catch up and make some of my lost time not sting as much as it could.

So, after looking at what the hive mind is doing on #100daysofgamedev – I’ve been re-evaluating my random, throw crap at the wall approach to working on my game and decided that its not pushing me in all the directions I need to go. I’m lacking in organization and need some serious scheduling to keep me on track and focusing on ALL aspects of making a game.

Including the stuff I think sucks.

After watching this incredible GDC lecture:

I immediately realized that I was sorely behind in several key areas of both development and marketing myself and my game. I really should watch that video each and every morning over my 1st cup o’ coffee…

So, I decided something needed to be done. Something a little more concrete than just using my tablet monitor for Microsoft Whiteboard (which has been a handy place to jot notes) and have something physical; staring me in the face to remind me of what still needs to be done, AND force myself to work on those aspects I had been neglecting. So – I found an old corkboard down in the basement and hung it adjacent to my desk; I marked out 7 sections representing the days of the week and marked them as such:

• MARKETING MONDAY – research shows / money / opportunities to apply to.
• TECH TUESDAY – make backups / clean project / optimize game, assets, FSMs
• WRITING WEDNESDAY – write blogposts, applications for opportunites
• TEXTURE THURSDAY – make assets / levels for the game
• FREE FOR ALL FRIDAY – whatever I damn well want to do
• SCREENSHOT SATURDAY – capture images / video / gifs for Wed. posts and Sat. sharing online
• SUNDAY – Day ‘o Rest. Work if I want to; don’t stress if I don’t

In addition to the aforementioned useful stuff – I found this really cool link to a LucasArts Room Design document and immediately grabbed a blank one to start with my ‘mapping out my game’ ideas, a quick way to organize and get all the ideas together in one spot.

I’m hoping that as long as I dedicate at least ONE hour towards these tasks per designated day; I’ll start to see progress in the areas I feel I’m lagging behind in. Time will tell.