transient thoughts

So, it’s been quite a while since I wrote a public post here. I might say that I’ve been technically fulfilling my posting goal here, but I don’t know that it would be entirely accurate. In any event, I’m pulling down the majority of the design posts I’d had floating around here – they were cluttering things up a little, and this really isn’t the most appropriate venue for them (I have a forum, recently resurrected, for that).

Though I named this blog a yardstick for my creativity, my absence here belies my recent creative efforts. I’ve been bashing away at my iPhone app, and putting together a complete working model of its most basic mechanics. It is a tad boring at the moment – as it stands, it’s more a complicated toy than a game – but it’s a game, and it works.

If I let myself stop and enjoy it, there is a strong sense of fulfillment and pride (wow, pride :D) in there. Of course, I have many ways to not let myself enjoy it – my mind has a long list of pre-prepared statements with which to undermine my confidence – but at the end of the day, it is still there. It’s the thing that lets me say, without hesitation, that I am a game designer.

So far this app has been a huge learning experience. I should make the time to go over the code that I’ve written and document exactly what I’ve learnt to do. For all that I have learnt, there is still so much more; yet that doesn’t hold the same fear and significance that it once did.

Wow… This is one more reason I should come and post here: I really hadn’t given myself time to look back at this, just by myself. Self-indulgent back-patting it may be, but it’s probably something I could safely allow myself to do just that little bit more often.

written by .klik2

The posts title is rather devoid of humour, wordplay, archaic language or unnecessary formality. This does make me a little sad.

Moving on, time for some goals (SMART goals!). There are six initial shorter term ones I’m starting out with, as follows:

1. Finish reading The Art of Game Design by the end of July.
2. Work my way through iPhone SDK Development (including completing the projects in each chapter) by the end of August. This starts now, not after finishing The Art of Game Design.
3. One piece of random creating fiction each month, by the end of the month (first piece by July 31). Why should games be the only thing I’m creating? This is practice in creating worlds, use of language, and somewhere for me to do whatever I like, really.
4. My first playable iPhone game by the end of August. Need not be releasable finished, but with most game elements intact, working, and balanced.
5. Improve my Japanese, such that I can pass the JLPT Level 2 in December. This goal needs a little more detail in how I’ll execute it, which will in turn be done by the end of the month.
6. At least two posts here per week, on any topic; at least one dedicated gaming post per fortnight. More is always better though!

Longer term, and more vaguely speaking, I’d like to be in a position where I can seriously look at applying for work at some Japanese gaming companies for next year (April onwards). I’d also like to have a few games under my belt by the end of the year, say 3. These goals are a little less SMART, though.

written by .klik2

My name’s Zaid, and I’m an inconsistent blogger. It’s been two and a half months since my last post (and another half a month sine my last “work” related update).

I fell of the wagon.

I know exactly when and why it happened. There was a two or three week period where there was a lot happening - first we spent a significant portion of our free time on the move, and then we went on holidays. By the time we got back, I had a hankering to play WoW again, and here we are, two odd months later.

It’s interesting to see – I hadn’t fully realised the extent to which the work I had been getting done was a result of the routine I’d gotten myself into. But it needn’t take much to break a routine, especially a new one, and so the progress I was make came to a grinding stop.

Time to get back on that wagon.

And so I’m back here, planning what’s next and publishing it for all the world to see, even if only a handful of people actually look (you know who you are; writing this is, in a way, my way of reminding myself that I have your backing and support). In some ways, this is a yard-stick for my work. When I am working, and thinking, and being productive, I write stuff here, or share stuff. When I am not creating anything here, I’m probably not creating terribly much anywhere else either.

My intention is to write a lot here

I’ve started reading Jesse Schell’s The Art of Game Design, and so far it’s a fascinating read. It’s kind of like the Landmark of game design, full of different perspectives from which to look at game design. Of course, there’s a lot of straight info, advice and suggestions in there, but just as much of it is written to stimulate more thought, more questions. So far, it’s been more than a little inspiring – I find myself again being a demand on myself to create.

Alongside this, I’ve started working my way though iPhone SDK Development again – it’s had significant re-writes to keep it up to date with the iPhone SDK 3.0, and it’s doing me good to go over some of the basics again after my little hiatus.

While I’m all inspired and excited now, I know it won’t last. Not that that’s a drama in any way, shape, or form – for though it won’t last, it will come back. That roller-coaster of inspiration, crash, and re-inspiration is, last I checked, colloquially referred to as “Life”. Time to start enjoying the ride. One thing to do is to start holding myself accountable to some specific goals, but I think I’ll put them in another post (if only so I can spot them more readily).

Let’s do this!

Oh, and one more thing, for anyone who had any doubts on the matter (especially Y.T.):

I am a game designer.

written by .klik2