It's official, I've folded my blog, MrPhil Makes Games, into Mr. Phil Games. I'll be adding all new content there. For now, all my old posts here will remain here, but I'll eventually move them all over. Go check it out, it looks great!
I have a procrastination problem (as some of you may have noticed.) One of the ‘reason’ behind this is I tend to over engineer things and make mountains out of mole hills. Instead of just going to the grocery store when I run out of milk I devise a massive plan for going to ten different stores. It’s basically a form of pre/over optimizing. Instead of taking care of the problem at hand, I start thinking about efficiency and maximizing my car trip.
This has two problems. First, I end up procrastinating because the small but important and urgent task of getting milk turns into this massive, overwhelming and very unpleasant project. The second problem is instead of just taking care of the little thing that is important all these other tasks get treated as a priority when they probably shouldn’t. This means that more important things are not getting done all in the name of efficiency.
So I’ve been trying to keep this mantra in my mind, “Do the little things now.”
Hello, welcome to Mr.Phil's group therapy session.
Hi, my name is Mr.Phil. I have a problem. It's a complicated problem, a mix of "do-it-all-yourself-itous" and always "biting off more than I can chew."
I've probably started and scrapped more projects than most people have funny t-shirts in there wardrobe. So my struggle continues. Since March I've learned python, and played with PyTorque, I also put some more work into my C# game engine and then got depressed by my lack of progress and went to the beach and drank beer, for several weekends.
So, now I'm feeling better and I've decided in order to make myself stick to a project and finish it I need to write out in detail what I am doing, and why it makes the most sense to do.
What is the game?
I'm still 100% commitment to my space empire builder game. That hasn't changed, but now I've pared the concept down to a much simpler starting point. I'm envisioning simple game play like Diplomacy or Risk, with ever so slightly more unit types. Then down the road after it is done I can make new versions that expands things until over time the full vision is realized.
This is a good idea because it small, simply and not overly complex. It shouldn't take me a long time to get the general game play working, and then I can polish it up. It's also good because it is a visible step towards the total vision of the game and my motivation to make the game is very high and what has kept me at this over the years. I know trying to doing anything else would be fool hardy.
Why I'm going to use T2D?
It comes down to two important things: priorities and the scarcity of time. I would love to build everything from the ground up, the game, the engine, the blogging tools, and cms you name I want to make it from scratch.
Going that route is fine if I just wanted to program cool stuff. I know it would be fun, and I would learn a lot. But it is going to take a really long time, because I have a day job, friends and need to make time to mow the lawn and take a shower at least once a week.
Too long for me, I'm desperate to make this game, publish something and make my vision a reality. My number two priority is to make this game a reality and I just don't want to wait forever. (Number one is my health I need to get healthier.) So it is more important to me to publish the game than do it all myself. So I must find the best tools possible and accept there limitations, even if I would "do it so much better."
I'm sure I'm not the only person that has this problem I wish there was a vaccine!