Looking for inspiration

Darth Tagnan said:
I will try to put things on a more strict schedule, once I have more time available. I'm going to start by "forcing" myself to work x amount of hours every day - and a schedule will follow, once things are a little clearer, I suspect.

That said, I had a conversation with my boss yesterday - which is a new boss that I got ~3 months ago.

I never bullshit or put on a facade, so I was pretty open about wanting to do this project in some way - and he was surprisingly accomodating. Apparently, he likes me and my performance - and it seems he's willing to make a few compromises in terms of giving me a day or two a week where I work from home, and things like that.

I also explained to him that I would need a raise if he wanted (even) better performance, because I don't agree with the general perception around here that such things always go just one way.

He was open to that as well :)

So…. it's tough. But I really don't see myself making a full game if I have to concentrate on a job.
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Dipping your toes in this way might be better. This way you still have something to fall back on should you decide it's not your thing.

Let me know if you need play testing! Or even just bug testing.
 
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Caddy said:
Dipping your toes in this way might be better. This way you still have something to fall back on should you decide it's not your thing.

Let me know if you need play testing! Or even just bug testing.
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Thank you kindly! :)

I just might need that, but it's a long way off.....
 
Pladio said:
It's strange how a better salary can change your views :D
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Haha, well - I don't really care about the money. To me, it's more that they're willing to recognise that I'm contributing - which is a nice feeling.

For the past few years - in this municipality - there's been this line about how we all need to do more and more without any kind of compensation.

Which might make sense if we were living somewhere where money was scarce, but that's most definitely not the case in Denmark.

I don't work well when all the effort is one way - and I don't care who's to blame, I just temper my contribution accordingly.

But I'll wait until it actually happens ;)

That said, money won't make me happy. But if he's serious about giving me a little time - that might be a great way to try and make it happen.

It's just that I don't know if I can muster the discipline if I know I don't really need to accomplish anything :(
 
Phew... Got done coming up with 120 feats.

Now, I need to add more detail and figure out the particulars.... Many of them will doubtlessly change completely.
 
How about seeing if there's some development work you could do at the office? Getting some ongoing experience wrangling code would probably be a big help when you sit down to implement your systems.
 
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Caddy said:
I think you should start a development thread in the indie section and we can follow along. Then we will have 2 long-time watchers' games we can keep track of.
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Well, maybe if I feel I have something sufficiently interesting to show at some point :)
 
Ripper said:
How about seeing if there's some development work you could do at the office? Getting some ongoing experience wrangling code would probably be a big help when you sit down to implement your systems.
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My boss actually made that offer, but my (very small) department has sort of been cut to the bone. I don't think I will have the time to do much coding at the office - and it would mean getting back to even more work afterwards, as the case-load will have piled up. Also, being at the office means constant interruptions - which is the last thing I want to deal with, if I'm trying to focus on something like coding a game.

But if he's going to give me a day or two to work from home, I'll have an opportunity in that way - because I won't get interrupted, and I will save almost 3 hours on transportation, too.

That said, he offered me to find a course to take, if I wanted it. But I said they should be spending their money in better ways - on people who would get more use out of a course. No big deal, but it's not entirely fair of me to exploit such an opportunity for strictly personal gain - and it wouldn't matter much.

I don't really need a course to learn to code - as I've coded quite a bit here and there. I just need to focus on it, and it usually goes ok. Still a lot of work - but I'm reasonably well versed in the basics and the concepts - and it never takes me that long to reach a stage of decent progress.

Though, that's more to do with my Google skills than my coding skills ;)
 
Who is your employer? Seems a pretty great one. I want in!
 
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ilm said:
Who is your employer? Seems a pretty great one. I want in!
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Hehe, I'm working for the Copenhagen municipality - which is the biggest municipality here in Denmark. So, my "employer" is more or less the public sector of Copenhagen ;)

But, yeah, it seems I've been lucky with my latest boss. We seem to have reached some kind of mutually beneficial accord. We also seem to be on the same page about a lot of things, and we're of a similar age. We also had a little heart-to-heart about our mutual appreciation for Star Trek TNG - which I'm sure also plays a little part in this :)

That said, I'm usually ok with my bosses these days. Wasn't always the case, as I used to be rather unreasonable in terms of societal norms.

I've found a rhythm as a more mature adult where I'm much better at compromise than I used to be.

Also, I'm decent at reading people - and, for whatever reason, I find that my no-facade approach gets me a few advantages with minimal effort. Most males are a little strange in that way, as they tend to find me somewhat intimidating or worthy of respect - for no other reason than simply speaking my mind with no filter - and little concern for the consequences.

Never quite understood that - as I'm the last person you need to be intimidated by and I have a lot of flaws like everyone else, but that's the world I live in.

That said, talk is cheap. I have no reason to doubt his words, but my experience is that you shouldn't get too excited before things actually happen.
 
Haven't had much time to work on it - but I've started adding my Foci (passive specializations) - and I've decided to adapt an old PnP story I once came up with, which turned out to be a great fit for this game. In fact, it might be a better fit than the fantasy version I wrote.

So, now I have a decent idea of what the plot is going to be - and how to motivate the player a little through the narrative. I'm not sure how to implement story yet, but I'm probably going for a relatively concise presentation, done as "cinematically" as possible (small attractive windows with a highly legible font - making it easily digestible) - so as to not bog it down with verbosity.

I'm considered going the DM narration route, because it shouldn't be that hard to find a person with a decent voice that's willing to do it for free or close to it. I know a few people like that, I think.

Not ideal, but I find it to be an OK alternative to voice acting. DDO, for instance, is much greater for it, I think.
 
Hey people - hope you're all doing well :)

Just wanted to pop in and say hi!

I've been very busy lately. Doing quite a bit of work on my game - which I've had to adjust in terms of ambition. I'm now focusing on what I call a "prequel" to the game I was originally going to make, in an attempt to make it feasible to actually finish.

It's going to be "sort of" like a Privateer/Freelancer game with CRPG elements.

As for quitting my job - I've decided to wait until ~spring 2020. My boss gave me a raise - and I feel like I need more financial security before I give it up and focus 100% on my game.

It's a challenge to balance everything - but it's going relatively well so far. I've been doing a lot of studying - following development courses, primarily from Udemy - but also random YT videos.

Trying to get to a point where I can make something of value. I do have a little "space game" going with a few neat features - but nothing I would feel comfortable showing off at this point.

A lot of work yet to be done.

I didn't want to leave the site once again and delete my profile - as that would be a little embarrasing, but I feel like my time could be better spent on being productive, instead of getting into petty arguments over trivial matters.

As I've told you in the past, I have a tendency to obsess over closure - and it just isn't worthwhile to invest in that "online" - because there's so much getting in the way when you're not facing each other in real life.

I have a feeling that most of us would actually get along rather well IRL - as I think most of you are very pleasant and I don't take your "online personas" as the "real" you, and I definitely do sense a lot of intelligence and insight - even in some of the people I disagree with.

Anyway, felt it was appropriate to do a quick update.

All the best! :)
 
Privateer with more CRPG elements? - that sounds like a game I would like to play!
 
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Very nice update.
We'd prob get along just fine in real life, opinionated or not ��
Miss you.
 
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HiddenX said:
Privateer with more CRPG elements? - that sounds like a game I would like to play!
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Hehe, it's going to be a 2-axis game - sort of like Rebel Galaxy - because I'm not comfortable doing a true 3D game with my non-existant art talent.

But I had an epiphany a while back about how to make this game work - and so far it's going ok.

I've done some Blender artwork for ships and stations - but it's not good enough. So, I will all but certainly be using paid assets and that's apparently the norm for many indie Unity developers.

If I have any talent - it's in game design - so that will have to suffice.

If I ever make something worth showing - you will all be getting a free copy, obviously.

I need as many playtesters as I can get! ;)
 
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