Project Shock Progress Report: A Week In Limbo

ID:89159
 
Jan 3 2010, 1:28 pm (Edited on Jan 4 2010, 8:31 am)
Keywords: motivation
Some weeks, I look back and ask myself, "what the hell is the matter with me?" I fully intended to work on my BYOND game all week and, instead, was distracted every single day - I got barely 2 hours in.

I don't have a screenshot for you today because I accomplished so little that you wouldn't notice any difference. Instead, I'm just trying to reconstruct the shattered pieces of this week to try to make sense of it all.
  • Monday-Tuesday I was largely distracted by some Christmas gift games. I extensively "researched" Left4Dead 2 by doing a full play through with my brother and I also got in quite a lot of King's Bounty 2: Armored Princess.
  • Tuesday night, there was a bit of a freak snow storm that sent ripples of disruption throughout the week.
  • Most of Wednesday the 30th and up until Friday the 1st, I see a considerable posting paper trail across The Escapist, a board belonging to a beta I'm in, Lum The Mad's blog, and MMORPG.com, so you can assume quite a bit of time was taken out of each day for that.
  • Thursday I spent a large part of the day going down to the local mall with my brother, who wanted to lend Talisman to a friend. We had gift certificates from Christmas to burn, so I ended up getting some clothes, Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story, and Warioware Touched. It's a good assumption that most of the later half of the day went to Warioware Touched, because I finished it.
  • Friday, New Years Day, was largely consumed by accompanying my mom on shopping trips where being the dutiful son was rewarded with a very portable hard drive and eating out twice (which was a real mistake from a dietary standpoint). I also played quite a bit of Swat 4 that day.
  • Saturday had about 5 hours spent beta testing, then I got a Subway meal, and entire later half the day went out the window when I discovered The Path, and apparently found that quite moving. I spent most of the day just wrapping my head around it, viewing various interpretations, and so on. Despite avoiding taking any caffeine in the evening, I was really overstimulated and stayed up until 3am - very weird - I wonder if Craisons (which I had along with some carrots and celery around midnight) are caffeinated?
So here I am, Sunday, about 3:30pm PST. I've slept in, had a meal, I've talked a bit on the comment thread of my blog, I wrote my weekly progress report partly because I have a sense of remorse over having spent last week doing barely any development at all, and I'll probably do a bit of editing this post for clarity.

Then what? I've a bit of a New Year's resolution of trying to record how I use my time every day (it's recommended by this procrastination beating book I've read) and a week like this makes it seem like a pretty good idea.

I can't help but wonder if maybe the reason why I didn't put much work into my game is because I really don't like what I'm making. It wouldn't be hard to finish - add a hacking command, add an invading NPC, that'd pretty much be it - but I don't want to. I'm far too critical, there's some vital things missing. An epic scope. A distinct flavor. I want these, it may involve going back to the drawing board.
Jan 3 2010, 1:50 pm
How is Kings Bounty 2?
Are you liking Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story? We just got it recently as well, I'm liking it but I don't think it's as good as Super Mario RPG.
Jan 3 2010, 2:05 pm (Edited on Jan 3 2010, 2:17 pm)
Vermolius wrote:
How is Kings Bounty 2?

I like King's Bounty 2 a lot. It's pretty much Heroes of Might and Magic with better artwork, played entirely from a single hero perspective, and without building up cities. The result is an improved sense of flow and a heavier RPG focus.

It can be a bit grindish monotonous though, considering the whole game is basically:

1. Replenish lost troops with gold.
2. Find bad guys who aren't too tough to fight to earn gold and level up.
3. Go to 1, with perhaps a bit of more plot uncovered, maybe needing to choose other troops because you used up a troop source.

Are you liking Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story? We just got it recently as well, I'm liking it but I don't think it's as good as Super Mario RPG.

I'm a big Mario and Luigi series fan. I've played the original Superstar Saga and Partners in Time, and finished them (it's rare for me to finish any game) so it was a no brainer for me to pick up Bowser's Inside Story.

Mario & Luigi, despite being an action RPG as well, is really very distinct from Paper Mario (e.g. Thousand Year Door) and Paper Mario is very distinct from Super Mario RPG since that was the only one done by Square (and probably the only one Square (now SquareEnix) ever will do). That kind of abstract artsy weirdness in Super Mario RPG is very uniquely Square. Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi have artistic styles all of their own, but are quite deliberately not nearly as epic because they wanted to be more accessible.

As far as the Mario and Luigi series goes, I think Superstar Saga was the best in terms of all around depth - the combos you could learn to pull on that were really challenging and cool. Relative to that, Partners in Time had very simple combos. I think Bowsers Inside Story is slightly more complex than Partners In Time and that's a step in the right direction.