Category: Production

I love deadlines.

Posted on by Nicole

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”
― Douglas Adams

IGF deadline was yesterday! Did I make it in time? No. Obviously. Come on people, context clues!

So this is the second deadline I missed this year. (The first one was for Indiecade, whose submission window had been moved up.) I don’t feel that bad about it though because I got really far in the submission process. My app is up in the google play store awaiting approval. A few days before the deadline I realized that the chance I’d finish in time was very very low, so I chilled out a bit. I don’t want to stress out for no reason. Additionally I’m going on a trip this week and I’ve done next to zero preparation for it, so I knew I needed to carve out a large chunk of my weekend to devote to that.

Where I went wrong:

  • I didn’t code freeze early enough. I was still making tweaks and bug fixes up until about a week ago.
  • I underestimated how long it would take me to figure out the Play Store’s upload process and decipher error messages.
  • I didn’t think I needed a privacy policy because I don’t track anything. This was wrong. So I had to figure all that out and add one at the last minute.
  • I didn’t think I’d need app approval for an internal release (but I suppose it makes sense).
  • I didn’t plan ahead far enough for my vacation which mean running out at the last minute trying to buy the right clothes and items which if I had done earlier wouldn’t have impacted my pre-release weekend.
  • The IGF deadline wasn’t on my radar until submissions were already open. It was pretty low stakes target. I basically used it to push myself because someone else’s deadline seems so much realer than your own.

Where I went right:

  • I didn’t kill myself trying to do it. This is my hobby and something I’m doing for fun. I’m usually working on it after a full day of work so I’m already 70% exhausted when I come to the table. I kept thinking to myself, am I trying hard enough? I could stay up til the wee hours of the morning and bang this thing out. I’ve done it plenty back in school, and even at work to hit deadlines. But over the years I’ve learned that it takes so much longer to complete any task, even a simple one, when you’re super tired, and the work isn’t your best, AND you’re gonna be super cranky tomorrow at work. So will I ever push myself that hard for Fair Weather? Sure, probably. But it’s not necessary right now. So I’m going to choose the healthy and sane route as long as I can.

Dev Update #2

Posted on by Nicole

#GameGoals

A lot of time has passed since my last update. The IndieCade submission deadline has come and gone. I decided about a month before that happened that I wasn’t in a great position to show the game and while I still used that date as a personal milestone, I just didn’t want to kill myself getting a demo done that wasn’t going to stand up to the competition and that I wouldn’t even get any feedback on (as indicated by the IndieCade documentation). I still had a lot of temporary art that needed to be replaced, barely any sound integrated and I haven’t had a chance to throughly playtest. So my current goal is to get playtest ready. I’ve done a few quick tests with friends from work, but I’ve got a ways to go.

So where does that leave me?

Feature wise the game is in a good position. I’m tweaking things now for playability, but trying not to give in to the feature creep demons. There are currently two minigames in the game which correspond to the mining signals and the ambush signals. I have plans for a third minigame for the rescue signal but I’m thinking it would be integrated as a later update so that I can stay on track. I may start slowly building it in my free time (my what?) in isolation of the rest of the game, but my main goal is polishing and playtesting what I already have now and getting it in the Google Play store.

Process Updates

I’ve started using Trello for task management! Wunderlist was working alright, but it wasn’t good for tracking tasks that were in progress. Tasks were either done or not done, and since I sometimes dabble in one task then dabble in another, that wasn’t working out for me. I still use lists for things like keeping track of what actions I need sounds for, or high level goals but I’m really liking Trello.

I promise I’ll update more often. But, you know, don’t hold me to that.

Staying Organized

Posted on by Nicole

I’m a list-oriented person. I carry around a small notebook for jotting down ideas, and laying out my tasks for the day. I also have a digital version of this list, the master list, that I keep on Wunderlist. It’s easy for me to spend more time sorting my todos into lists and sketching out designs, than actually coding on the tasks. This is partly procrastination but mostly because I can plan from anywhere (at lunch, on the train, in line at the store), whereas I can only realistically work on the game for a couple of hours each day if at all.

Image of a Wunderlist list
Wunderlist

My schedule goes like this: I get home from work around 6:30 pm. I decompress for an hour or so. Then I go for a run or work out, which I don’t do everyday, but I’m trying to do more often. That lasts until 8:30 or 9. Then I have to make dinner and eat. (Yes, I know I shouldn’t eat so late, but I can’t do it before working out). That gives me approximately 2 hours to work on the game before going to bed around midnight. That’s all assuming I didn’t stay late at work, or go on date night with my beau, or have to do my taxes or whatever. I try to catch up on the weekend, working for long stretches at Starbucks, but there’s plenty distractions and chores to do on the weekends as well. Life, am I right?

As I near the end of what I’m going to call phase 1 of the project—that’s something like an alpha build I suppose—it’s easy to get off track and start adding features to make the game more fun or alive. The feature creep is real, and the lists keep me centered. When I come up with a cool idea I let it live on the ‘Eventually’ list so that it’s not forgotten and I can think on it for a while before jumping in head first.

I try to keep the lists sorted with most important tasks on the top and using Wunderlist’s starred items to indicate which tasks that I should do tonight or before the week’s end. As every programmer knows, every task takes longer than you think it’s going to. Very recently I’ve decided to put time estimates on tasks. This is with the hope that over time I’ll get better at estimating and maybe gain some insight into why things take as long as they do. Also sometimes it’s nice to pick a short task so I can actually see some finished progress.

There are a lot of programs and methods I’ve tried to improve my work process. I’ve considered using a Kanban board but it doesn’t seem useful for a team of one. I used Evernote for a brief period but their newish business model has driven me away. At least once a year I think a day planner is a good idea and then after a month or so the pages go empty.

Side Note: I’m a total office supply freak. I love notebooks and the feel of pages and I have too many. I find bliss walking through the pen aisle of Office Depot, letting my fingers linger too long on highlighters and smooth-writing pens. It’s a problem because it’s so easy to get carried away. This is why the small pocket sized notebook works best. You get immense satisfaction from filling one completely. I try to keep one solely for Fair Weather notes but sometimes life stuff sneaks in and that’s alright too.

So here’s what’s working: I like Wunderlist because it is polished, cross-platform, and free.99. I keep my documents/spreadsheets in Google drive; I use dropbox and a flash drive to keep my files. It’s pretty simple. I might have to adapt when/if someone joins the team, but that’s a bridge I’ll cross later.

image of ftue spreadsheet
ftue spreadsheet

The process is working for now. It’s nice to see my ‘Must Have’ list getting shorter despite a few large tasks still to do like find an artist, incorporate art, find audio. The code itself has a lot of TODOs scattered around it, but for now the focus is on getting something that works, while acknowledging systems that will need optimization or redesign when there’s time.

Ok. That’s it for now. I’ve got shit to do.