Master Reboot

So, for the record, I'm still alive.

I'm still here.
Not everyone would be happy to hear that, but to hell with them.

Opening this blog once again, I notice that the last post was on 7 May. It is now September. Where the HELL did the time go? I seem to vaguely remember July... and there was that one day in August... But honestly, I feel as though I got in to the passenger seat of a Delorian and took a nap.

Of course, none of what I just said(wrote) is true; I'm just being facetious in my trademark, lovable way. I recently was hired / volunteered to a position on a game news website as a journalist. Which reminded me that hey, I used to write a blog; hey, I should look at my blog; hey, I should talk about what I've been up to on my blog. So, what I've actually been doing recently is two things: thinking about my game, and thinking about Game Design in general.

1. The Game

By 'the game' I refer to that project I was working on, 'Haunted Within' a.k.a 'Project Zoe-trope'. At the moment, it is technically a finished product and is therefore a closed project. But the product I'm left with, unfortunately, is far from what I had imagined in my head and I really do want to keep working on it. Which is why I spend most days thinking up improvements, changes, little design additions that would flesh out the overall feel to it, etc.

There are, however, a couple of problems. One is that working on a customised c++ engine was really tiresome, let alone building a whole game based on that customised engine. So I thought to myself, "Let's port everything to Unity!" and installed Unity 5. the problem here is that porting to Unity means discarding everything I've worked on and, essentially, starting again from scratch. May I just say, as a solo developer relying on self-discipline for morale and time-management, doing such a thing is mighty disheartening.

So all my time is spent thinking about doing it and never actually doing it. This is one my major flaws, in that I find it difficult to start anything. Once I get going I'm prepared to march on, but taking that first step is, for some reason, very challenging. I'm sure I'll eventually get around to it; I usually reach a point where I become fed up with deliberating and just jump-start myself into action. I just worry that when I do get started, I won't be celebrating my retirement as well.

2. Game Design

This is more of a nebulous, back-of-my-head thought more than anything, but it is something that has been weighing heavily on my mind for a while now. See, I know a lot about making games. Or more specifically, how to develop games. The problem is, I'm not too sure on how to design them. I have the hammer, saw, nails, and I know how to use them; but designing a house so it looks nice and stays upright? No clue.

Which is why I've been trying to learn more about Game Design in general; the philosphies, the princinples, the techniques and tricks often used, that kind of thing. This is another reason I've held off on working on a project; instead of making another game that functions well but is shoddy in design, I'd rather learn about the pontential pitfalls first so I can avoid them.

Because let's be honest, Haunted Within as it is right now is... well, it's not the prettiest to look at. I figure it's better to take a step back, re-examine all its facets and point out all the bits and pieces that may not be so great.