Protobound is dead, moving on.

In order to get these problems fixed I would have to rewrite a large part of the player and the party. Persisting data the way I expected would work just doesn't seem to want to work. I've spent a few days trying to get it to work and no dice. I am going to have to call it here.

Next month I don't know if I will do a month long prototype. I think I will instead just work on projects as I see fit. Maybe work on that little ORPG prototype with Intersect. While I do this I will be doing some art and music study. Practicing and shaking off the rust with a guitar if I can get an electric... this acoustic is too loud for this house and I really suck by now. Pick up a Bass ocarina to get a richer, deeper sound to go along with my soprano C collection.

Originally I was going to just bolt for 3D but you know... if I can't manage a 2D prototype in a month I'm not ready. Besides, my desktop is having space issues, unless I can get a 500gb SSD for the OS drive I am screwed there anyway. I tried to see if I would be able to and nah, just... nah. I am always cleaning that damn drive because of windows and all the bloat in software that automatically installs to the C drive. Not that any of it really matters, I should at least release one full 2D game before jumping to 3D. I should also be at least somewhat proficient at asset creation in 3D as well.

The plan was to do a blender course in the morning and work on the game project in the afternoons but I realized if I did it that way I would be cramming and not absorb it well. I can cram new programming languages but new concepts... not a good idea.

I figure I should at least have made some money off a 2D game before I go and start 3D. There's a much larger time investment there and it might end up being a huge waste of time.

So what I think I should do now is for the next month work on that little intersect project, work on my asset creation and music skills and think. Think long and hard about a project I will work on to release. A working, playable, interesting, fun game I can release by the end of summer even if it's just early access. If I can't come up with something I really feel like I will want to make that commitment to then I should probably focus on stuff I can more quickly get a normal job with for now and shelve game dev or relegate it to the hobby space.

I feel like I need to just make game. So over the next month while I exercise my creativity and work on various projects I will pitch my game ideas to myself. If at the end of the month there is one I really, really want to persue I will just start out with Unity(It's battle tested, I will be able to find answers easier) and make it. At least everything that needs to be in it and enough gameplay to show what it would be when finished. Nothing insane like a traditional RPG, I don't have the funds or time for a 3 year project. I've got 2 seasons.

Alternately I can enter game jams and use those to hone my skills until the start of summer and have one season. This way I can at least get my name out there beforehand. It'll be shorter dev cycles and maybe it'll be how I find the project I want to work on over the summer?

As for the artist part of me I might give into the demon and go full on surrealism... mix in acid art and the style from old bbs ascii art. Learn to draw my own landscapes and turn that into pixel art maybe, or just start using hand painted backgrounds with pixel art sprites. I will probably spend a good chunk of time working with Krita this coming month...

Then there's the musician bit. I will probably get some time with music theory and some practice with a guitar and ocarina in, maybe once I get confident in my skills again work the erhu I got sitting over there in the corner into the routine. I want to be able to record my own music for games or at least just play music when I feel the need like I used to.

Next month will be more laid back than the last few months. I wont be pushing myself as hard. Didn't really manage to do anything today but decide what I wont be doing, which is something I guess. Though failing did actually manage to depress me. I was being a bit crazy trying to do something that complicated in that short of a time with no real prep and an engine I have only really had a little real experience with outside of just messing around.

I guess that's a good reason to start doing the game jams, eh? Gain familiarity with the engine of choice and find my limits quicker... so I can push them. I did find that I can do a lot in a short time but I really need to plan the systems more. The data persistence should have been there from the beginning. I guess I learned that the hard way.

Anyway, it's late. I need to make something to eat and figure out what the hell I will be doing tomorrow and shake off this depressive state.

It looks like winter was the time of testing myself and finding my strengths and weaknesses, spring will be a time of game jams and creative thought and summer will be when I get the fuck to work on a release project if I can come up with one I really believe in. If not at least I can go to work writing servers and APIs knowing I fucking tried.

Cheers.