Solace Crafting

Solace Crafting
Redefining the Crafting RPG

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Part Time Dev

As I am new to the business I still have a day job. My real passion, game development, happens during my breaks and at night. This causes a lot of problems to be honest. For one, rarely do I get a stretch of more than an hour or two of solid focus, usually on the weekends. I have two ten minute breaks and about 45 minutes of my hour lunch break free, then usually a couple hours, more or less, at night. Time management becomes a paramount skill.

Lately I've been doing largely math and 3d modelling/texturing when free at work, then focusing on furthering/implementing game code and mechanics back on my computer at home. The laptop I bring to work is far too slow to handle a full scene of 3d graphics, but it works good for modelling things in Blender, and texturing through Photoshop and Unity. Today I modeled a new crude hatchet which is one of the first items a new player goes for.

Another problem is somewhat similar to humility. As a solo dev with no funding, yet, it's important to know where I am and what I'm capable of with the time given to me. I'd love to create a lot more than I do, but that's not being realistic. Many games nowadays are made with dozen of staff focusing each independently on specific tasks. For the aspiring developer, the ideas and passion can be real, but the time and budget restraints are as well.

It's important to take time for leisure, the youngest of my three cats is not happy I don't play with her 24/7, and of course rest, exercise and nutrition. I eat well, including a healthy breakfast, and no fast food. I also do around 50 chin ups throughout the day bringing my knees all the way up to the bar, as well as five or ten minutes of morning exercises as is a common practice here in Japan.

Last but not least, motivation!
When motivated everything falls into place.
So let's get to it!

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