So I was planning on doing more work on the game but I ended up writing random stuff. Saturday is the free writing day though, so it is okay. I ended up writing a completely random thing for a zombie novel. Not sure why but I been in the mood recently for that sort of story.
So I am still working on the game and it is a bit early in the day so I can still get more done. However, I have reached the point where I can say I met all the goals I set. I feel like some things can be fleshed out a bit more, which is what I am going to work on now though they are complete to the point where I would feel okay with moving on to the next area for the time being.
I am still thinking if next week I should include a more specific goal like having x number of scenes, passages, choices or whatever. Then again, it can be hard to tell ahead of time how many scenes it will take to do what I want. Anyway, I think overall the schedule is working, since I was stuck on day 4 for a really long time and in a week I finished it up and got half of the next day done and at this rate maybe I can release the first version of the game next week.
So making good progress on my goal for the week. I think I should have everything done tomorrow on time for the deadline. Though I think I might spend some time on Saturday going back over a few things.
I have Wednesday goal mostly complete, and I feel like having these subgoals are helping me stay focused. Though I also feel like I could make the goals even more specific as well. I definitely been feeling kind of unmotivated today and most of yesterday but still making forward progress. Which was the purpose of this new schedule in the first place, to help me work when feeling unmotivated. I do feel like part of the reason I feel unmotivated though, is because I don’t feel like I pushed myself hard enough. I still think stuff like ‘Oh I can reach that goal so I don’t have to rush right this moment can finish that later.’
I feel like if I made it a really difficulty goal where I am not sure I can even make it, I would work a lot harder. Well I can always up the difficulty next week too, that is why I have a full day for planning things out and adjusting goals. For the moment I am happy to be making forward progress though. Especially in a part of the game that was really bogging me down up until now too.
So I completed my goals for Tuesday. I feel like there could be a bit more to do at the convention, but I do want to focus on making forward progress and not expanding things out into a million branches. Because if I get too distracted on branching paths all over, then it will take forever to get anyway. I do plan on going back and adding more stuff throughout most of the game though as there are some areas in early parts as well that could be expanded a bit.
Schedule
Okay, since I been doing really well in posting every single day, I thought it is time to kick things up a notch! I am going to make a weekly schedule for what I am going to do every week and what I will post with every day. I am hoping this not only improves my writing and game making but also improves me as a person. So here goes!
Monday: Planning Day
From now on, I will make Monday my planning/evaluation day. Each monday I will evalute where I am, and where I want to go, set goals for that week and also fix things in my schedule if they are not working or need adjustments. I will then post my plan for that week so everyone knows what I am going to be doing. Also if I have any website related stuff to work on, I will work it in to Monday.
Tuesday: Getting into it
So planning and organizing all my work Monday, means Tuesday is the day to really get into the work. I know I need to really focus here because I suffer from procrastination often. So Tuesday is the most important day to get started on the right foot. On Tuesday I will make a post on what I am currently working on to try to hold me accountable. If I don’t work then I will have nothing to post and it will be a bit embarrassing.
Wednesday: Working Hard
Okay, so Wednesday is another pure working day and hopefully I can just keep a good pace going. I will make another post on what I been doing that day, so if I am slacking I wont have anything to post again, so it will be super embarrassing two days in a row!
Thursday: Crunch Day
Okay, so I am going to make my weekly deadlines on Friday which means the do or die time is Thrusday! Keep in mind, I want to make this a life long schedule to help with my life, so I want to be able to do these things every day, every week, going on forever. Having a busy week is no excuse for not working on games anymore! I will allow myself to change the workload on Mondays, so if I do have a super busy week or something coming up I can make a more moderate goal but once a goal is set I want to strive to reach it no matter what. Thrusday is the day to be motivated and say to myself, “You can do it, go!”
Friday: The Deadline
Lets be honest here, Friday might actually turn out to be crunch day for me since I am kind of a procrastinator. Though this is the day the deadline will be set for. I will strive to finish the work no matter what and then I will post the final outcome for the week! Today is the day for accountability, did I make it or not?
Saturday: Catching up or free work day
So the Deadline has come and gone on Friday and I either succeed or failed. Hopefully if I did fail I was just being overly ambitious and not slacking. Either way if I fail then on Saturday I will work on whatever I missed. Also if I technically reach the goal but did it a bit sloppy, then this is the day I can go back and edit and revise some stuff. If successful then I will do off schedule work. This could just be creative writing stuff for fun, or working on random games outside my main project. I do like to make random stuff some times and it distracts me a lot from my main projects. So having a day where I can just do whatever is good for me. This isn’t a slack day, as I should still be working on something. It is just what I work on can be anything, and I will post what I am up to or about any side projects I am working on. During the week if I do come up with sudden sparks that give me great ideas I am going to commit to writing them and leaving them until Saturday. So instead of resisting the urge to do random projects, I am organizing it by putting it off to here.
Sunday: Reward Day!
Okay I have several sticks in there in the form of making embarrassing posts about not doing stuff, if I fail to stick to my schedule, so of course I need a carrot too. Sunday is my reward day. If I accomplish all my goals then Sunday will be guilt free gaming day. To be honest I will probably slip in some gaming time throughout the week but only after finishing my work each day! However, on Sunday if I spend the entire day playing games then there is no guilt. I am free to waste the day however I want as it is a reward! I will then post about whatever games I happen to be playing at the time as well. I actually have 100’s of games on steam and dozens of games in my backlog of things I want to play/finish. So I definitely can game all day long every week if I allow myself, but that is only if I accomplish my goals for the week! If I don’t meet the Friday deadline then no guilt free gaming day, even if I catch up on Saturday. If I don’t meet the deadline even after the Saturday extension, then I will be working all Sunday to do it. If I do make the deadline late and finish it Saturday, then I get to play games all Sunday but I have evaluate what went wrong and how to improve things going forward and then post that on the website. And only after that will I be free to do other stuff.
So there you go, that is my new plan! It makes things a lot more organized than what I am used to, since I am kind of a chaotic person but I don’t feel it is an unreasonable level of organization. The key will be on Mondays, on picking goals that will work out. Anyway, since today is Monday, lets get into my weekly schedule for this week, the week of February 22nd, 2021.
I am currently working on Kawaii, the game where you turn into a girl and go on vacation to explore girly and cute things! So last week I wanted to finish Day 4 of the game and I mostly did that. If it was under this current system it would likely be a failure but my goal wasn’t entirely clear. So I am going to fix it this week. So as it stands, you go to a cosplaying convention and you are free to explore around and do whatever and a lot of that is done but there is some areas that are a bit lacking. So here are my weekly goals:
Since this is a brand new schedule and I am not used to it I was considering making 5 a bonus objective. Though thinking about it, I can’t give myself that sort of leeway from the start! I feel like trying to completely finish the first half of Day 5 is biting off a bit much, but I know I can do it if I don’t slack earlier in the work, so I am going to go for it! To help me go forward and stay on task I am going to set a soft goal for each day. I don’t have to meet these goals but if I don’t it is just making more work for myself later.
Tuesday: Have goal 1 and 2 100% complete.
Wednesday: Have goal 3 and 4 100% complete.
Thursday: Be able to play the game from start up to the end of the first half of day 5.
Friday: 100% complete goal 5 and hopefully complete everything.
There we go. That actually took like 2-3 hours write up, though I hope it is worth it. I am also going to try posting earlier in the day. Probably not this early, but I want to get more work done earlier in the day if I can. I am definitely a night person, though I am not sure working late into the night is the most productive time to be doing the work. Also working earlier helps me fight off the procrastination mindset.
Lastly, I am going to reconfirm what my goal is. I made the site because I want to be able to make games full time, not just one game but lots of games. I feel like I actually have made a lot of games, but it is in a sort of haphazard manner. I don’t consistently release new updates every week or anything and that limits me from reaching my full potential. At my full potential I would like to be able to produce a game like Into the dungeon(and have it 100% complete) within a few months. Imagine if I could release 3 100% complete, Into the dungeon sized games each year. I know I can do that level of work at my peak but sustaining peak performance everyday of the year over the long term is hard for me. That is why I am developing this new schedule to help me get there.
I am not sure if daily posts are really helping or not, and some time it is hard to make a post every day. Though I do think it is a good habit to do something everyday. Even if you don’t get results from it at first glance, long term it can be helpful.
I got most of it done, though some things came up so didn’t get it completely finished. I wonder how many other people are introverts? I wish my family understood what that is like. Even if I don’t mind hanging out with family and stuff, having them come over to hang out is very distracting and kind of drains your energy for the rest of the day. Especially if they don’t know when to leave. My nephew sleeps over like one day every week too. He is a kid and I feel like his parents don’t hang out with him enough either, so I don’t really want to tell him to get lost. I am definitely way too nice to ever say that, and honestly I don’t hate kids or anything. It is really draining though.
I am almost finished with day 4 on my recent game. I want to try to finish that tomorrow and get things going so I can get closer to the first release of the game. At the moment I have nothing planned for tomorrow, so hopefully I can get a lot of work done.
I been feeling tired a lot lately, so I am going to go to bed a bit early today. Maybe I can fix my sleep schedule a bit too, since I been staying up really late some times.