Were have I been

This can go without saying but the last year has been a rocky one, 2020 brought some challenges with a gloabl pandemic and Ireland on lockdown I tried to use this time to better myself get healthly, exercise and build a dayily routine. It worked for a while and the plan was to integrate game dev back into my life once everyhing settled down but everything fell through then as I was moved around internal projects in work and we relocated back to Dublin to be closer to family. Though I miss Cork I think it was the right move.

New years resolution

So with 2021 rolling around quicker than I would have ever thought, I began to think about some new year resolutions; you know those pesky things people torture themselves over for the first 3-12 weeks of the year before giving up. Well rather than trying something that I know is only going to bring down my already dwindling mental health. I seen this as an opertunity to challenge myself in a different way, a way I can both enjoy and benifit from, that being coding for fun again.

Specifically game development, it is a really important thing in my life and if I ever want it to graduate from a hobby to a career I need to keep working, continue to adapt and learn. So my new years resolution for 2021 is going to be:

  • Release 1 game
  • Work on a new game a month.

I feel like as long as I have been a developer I have always wanted to “release something” this can be as simple as getting something complete on itch.io or the Google Play Store but I want to do it and have something with my name on it. As for a game a month that might seem like a stretch goal/impossible but its meant to counteract my biggest problem as a solo developer which is scope. Scoping something I will actually finish and be able to show off. I have a tendancy to design something “the best way” rather than the working way and just revisiting it later if need be. Which is good and more than most developers can say because I can say with certanty that it is not determination or motivation holding me back. So I’d like to think by putting it down here I can hold myself accountable and hopefully continue to improve.

Roadmap 2021

Aswell as game dev I am getting back into some previous habits I’ve had success with but have fallen out of, as of late such as bullet journaling and personal finance. As such there is no better way to plan for success than to plan, so the following is what I hope to achieve in the first quarter of the year I hope to have an update about once a month and we can see how I am getting on. Also its worth noting Unity is very new to me and for years I have always avoided it so I am going to ease in slowly as not to turn myself off by recreating some of my faviourite mobile games and game mechanics. Once I am comfortable enough thats why the creativity can flow

Targets (Work in progress)

  • January: 2048
  • February: Redungeoner
  • March: Hoppenhelm

Lets see how we get on with these and with any hope the next couple months will be filled with fun and adventure.