Day Four -- It doesn't look good
Akake on 2009/04/29 20:23
of The Laser Samurai
I'm starting to hate my concept. I can't seem to find a way to make it work.
This is getting very frustrating for me. I know I shouldn't be whining about it here, but I need to get this off my chest.
I can't get down to working on it. I have all the free time in the world, but I can't bring myself, to do this. I keep wanting to do it, but I'll get interrupted, or I'll put it off, or something else will happen.
And when I do work on it, it doesn't cohere into something that I can even test. It just grows and grows until I have five pages of code that doesn't do anything at all. I can't make my code into a playable game.
I am fairly certain that I'll be DNFing again this time. :-(
I don't want to drop out just yet, but the thought has crossed my mind. I just don't seem capable of doing this. Or making a game at all.
*Sigh*
I'll wait until tomorrow to make my decisions about how I'm going to handle the last few days of the competition. Suffice it to say, though, that I'm feeling extremely pessimistic and demoralized, and don't really want to think about my project right now. ._.
(log in to comment)
Comments
Akake on
2009/04/29 21:35:
I appreciate the post. :-)
Sorry if this is getting kinda tiresome ^^;
Truth be told, I've made my decision, but I won't be posting anything about it until I can be sure that it's what I really want to do, and that it's not just a moment's passion.
Mind you, I'll still be twittering, and may update my Wordpress blog, but I won't be talking about my decision. I think I've made the right choice. Both for me and for all involved.
Now that I've calmed down, I actually have alot of hope for things. I know I've gotten myself straightened out this time. I just need something to get myself fully behind the idea.
And I am being deliberately ambiguous here. I feel that I've got some idea of where all of this is going. If I can just stick with my choice here in the next few days, I know it'll pay off in the end.
But, I won't be giving details, or even whether I've quit or not, until I'm absolutely certain.
I'm pretty sure I'm doing what I really need, though. ;-)
Tee on
2009/04/29 23:56:
Both in this and in the last Pyweek, a bunch of people gave you good advice, so my guess is you know what to do, and you do sound dedicated. The problem is that you seem to get too easily discouraged and frustrated (again, don't take this too seriously). It's important to have a good notion of what you can achieve in what time frame so you can be satisfied with it. I think you shouldn't give up; you should try to make a game even if it's very simple and submit it. At least, you get the reward of being able to judge others' games. :)
I think in your case, due to the fact you get easily discouraged, cyhawk's advice is good: it might be a better strategy to start very small and grow instead of starting big and cutting down. Since you tend to think too big (as in, a playable character for each letter of the alphabet :P), try the following. Think small. That probably is too big. So think smaller. Stick to small first and don't try anything new before you're done with small. When you're done with small, then expand, one step at a time, but don't even think about the expansion before you're done with small. There are lots of small games in Pyweeks. This should at least give you a good notion of what you can achieve in the next few days, and may help you estimate your game for your next Pyweek.
Don't forget you can stop by at IRC if you need help with anything. The people there are very friendly. Just try not to use it for procrastination like I do. :P
Akake on
2009/04/30 00:11:
I'm glad you (seem to have) got the hint that I'm not throwing in the towel. I have a new concept, something simple. I agree that my problems are being discouraged and thinking too big.
This time, I'm going to do what I did when I first began developing games, and coincidentally what cyhawk advised: Start by making a window, then make it display things, then make those things do stuff, then make a place where those things do stuff, then turn it into a game.
I think that's the error I've made alot along the way: I've tried to do things on too big of a scale, both in design and engineering. :P
Anyway, I'm going to be working hard in the next few days.
Aw, what the heck? I'll give a hint about my game concept:It's about a ninja. I'm not saying anything else, though. ;-)
And... Thanks for being patient with me. That goes for everyone here. I really appreciate it. ^o^
This time around I learned a lesson: Thinking small pays off. :-)
I'm gonna get some sleep, and then tomorrow I put that lesson to work!
Thanks, guys. It's been fun so far, and I think it'll get even more fun from here.
This has been very meaningful for me. I know this is mainly for fun, but I've learned alot, and hope to learn more. This has been a place for me to learn new tricks, make friends, and get to soak up some really good zaniness.
I'm happy to be competing, and promise to have something to submit by Sunday.
---Akake
Akake on
2009/04/30 00:20:
If anyone would like to help me out, I'd love to form a team.
I'm still forming the concept, but with ninjas, how can you go wrong?
So, if any artists are reading this, and would like a chance to draw some ninja awesomeness, let me know.
I'll also be on IRC off and on.
But, like I said, I'm going to bed. I'll be on IRC once I've woken up. :-)
So... Good night, everyone. It's 8:00PM here in Michigan, and I've got an early morning ahead of me.
Here's to hope, and here's to the virtue of elegance. ^_^
jotham on
2009/04/30 01:27:
I would recommend trying working from bottom up. Don't start with the grand idea that you will have have levels, weapons, characters, monsters and create the Python classes for all of these. Start with opening a window. When it works, go to displaying a single bitmap, then to checking for keyboard events, then moving the bitmap according to the events. And there you already have something that you can playtest!
Sorry if this is all evident. You've written so many design ideas that I would really like to see something playable from it all. I can help out with coding or sound if you wish! (Drawing is a time sink... I just spend 45 minutes drawing a portrait for a character... But at least it looks like me when I was 6 :).)