So I know I still owe the internets three demo previews, and I shall endeavour to complete them by the end of the week, although know that they shall be shorter affairs than the previous ones, due largely to the nature of the demos themselves. What does that mean? All shall be made clear ere the end of week.
So what else has been occupying my time recently? In a word, games.
On the playing side of the equation, the full version of Uncharted 2 (guess I should do a write-up of that too, huh?) and Demon’s Souls landed in my mailbox, along with Brütal Legend (which has surprisingly failed to reach it to the PS3 yet).
But more time has been spent on the developing side, which can’t be a bad thing, right? I’m back working on that word game — the one that started all the way back here, although it now takes a very different form from that primitive version.
Actually, given I’ve never mentioned it here in a public post, let me informally unveil it here now: the current working title is WorldPlay! (although it’s likely to change soon-ish), and it’s a word game with a degree of world building and a whimsical, vaguely Katamari Damacy-ish feel. You can read the official TIGSource devlog for more info and updates.
Progress is being made, and it’s all very exciting and rewarding. Good times, good times.
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.
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.
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.
My first playable iPhone game by the end of August. Need not be releasable finished, but with most game elements intact, working, and balanced.
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.
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.
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.):
This is an old favourite of mine, although more by the name “James James Morrison Morrison” than its proper title, which I rarely remember. Copying the text here purely as an exercise in self-indulgence and childhood nostalgia.
I love how this keeps upping the bar on itself–revealing more and more impressive time-stopped elements (the money, then the bullets, then the glass, etc, etc). And then it tops it all off with the “plot twist” and loop. Brilliant stuff.
As we had another “weekend” of cherry blossoms we headed out again, this time to Yasaka Shrine/Maruyama Park and Nijō castle in Kyoto on Thursday, and then out to Himeji Castle on Friday. Himeji castle in particular was amazing.
It was my first time inside Himeji Castle, which was amazing - especially being able to climb the 46-odd meter main tower and look out over the gardens from the top. We stuck around until well into the evening as well, when they lit up the castle and one of the main gardens, which was also amazing. We’d been to the the lighting up of Nijō Castle the night before, but it pales by comparison–Himeji Castle really does have a certain majesty about it.
By now, almost a week later, the cherry blossom season is all but over–while you can still see a lot a blossoms around, the trees are now also leafing, so they don’t have quite the stark white and pink appearance that they previously did. It’s still amazing to see all the trees here leafing and flowering though, I really don’t think I’ve ever really noticed spring being the vibrant and marked contrast with winter that it is here. You really do get the feeling here, both from the plants and from the people, that this is a time for new life and new beginnings.
So it’s now been about two and a bit weeks since I declared Phase 2. I thought I’d share generally what’s been going on since then.
My days look a little different now. I’ve been getting up, plugging away for an hour or two on my iPhone stuff, as well as keeping up to speed with industry news and commenting on a few blogs and stuff where I have opinions I want to make known. Then I go to work, and do my thing there, and come home. Eat, relax, have fun (and honestly, on more than one occasion that’s meant more iPhone work, ’cause it is fun), and spend time with Chi.
I can tell I’ve made progress with the iPhone stuff–some parts of it have really become second nature to me now. And I’m having more and more ideas, and refining the existing ones. Awesome Stuff is definitely coming in the future.
But outside of that is where the real magic’s been happening. I’ve been so much happier. Things with Chi have been a lot better too–I know I’ve been more affectionate, and we’ve been a lot closer the last fortnight or so. I’m paying more attention to when I’m grumpy or short with her, and I’m doing something about it.
I can look forward to going to work too. I’m having fun, no matter what the students or the lessons are like, I’m really enjoying it a lot more. And I’ve had people comment on how I look really enthusiastic and good, even on those days where I feel really exhausted. It’s been great.
Stuff in the future’s looking good too. Next Thursday we get our new apartment, and a couple of weeks after that Chi and I head off for a one week vacation in Thailand.
Of course, there are time’s when it’s not been so great. The last week or so my morning’s have been busy, and my iPhone work has been really fragmented. There hasn’t been any “flow”, and it’s been tough, but today I’m gonna go over all that stuff again. The changes to my diet haven’t happened yet, not the gym, but I’ll look at them when we move. And there are still times I get shitty and don’t catch it, and am a bit of a short-tempered prick to Chi and others. All that means is that for now I still don’t have to go searching for the next thing to work on, ’cause I already know what it is
It’s cherry blossom season! Those few, short weeks of the year, where cherry blossom trees across Japan bloom, and tens of millions of Japanese and foreigners rush out to see them. Ourselves included.
It’s really amazing, seeing these trees in bloom. When they bloom, they all bloom at once, and after seeing them barren through the winter, it’s hard to not notice them. Maybe they stand out all the more for my own conception of Japan as a country largely without trees.
And for me at least, there really is that sense of a new beginning now. Sure, it’s reinforced by this being the start of our new work year, and how much of a non-event (relatively) Christmas and New Year’s were, but it really does feel like now is the start of the new year.
If nothing else, it was one more thing I get to cross off my list of “things to do and see in Japan”. And yes, they were everything I was expecting and more.
Of course, in a few weeks, they’ll all be gone; their poetic statement on the transient nature of life made. But while they do last, they really are beautiful.
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