I love this project!

It's getting late and I still don't want to stop working on my game! That's some good momentum! I have gutted out the original and rebuilt. It's going very well. It's much less complicated. I had 10 scripts that I was able to  put into one script. I had 10 objects I was able to combine into one object. I changed the design on a couple of things. I'm pleased. I started doing more work on the graphics and I like the look. Still very amateurish, but I'm not going to worry about that. I love this project!

Still satisfied

I am pretty pleased with myself. I am working on this revision of the dog walking game (it has no clever title yet), and I just solved a major problem! Yay! I am now faced with a minor problem that just ground everything to a halt, but, well, that's how it goes. I work so slow that I am really able to savor the full emotional highs and lows of making my first game. This isn't the first I've worked on, I am just determined that it will be the first that I finish.
I know that I am talking only to myself, and that is fine. I don't feel like I have a lot to contribute at this stage.

Satisfaction

So I am back on track. Out of my rut! I just made a break through that has me very excited! I figured out how to make the levels work. I have stripped the game bare and have begun reworking it. This was the first main task and I've accomplished it! Feeling very satisfied.

procrastination

I feel bad that I haven't written lately. My work on my game has been spotty since I had that cold. When my momentum is up I need to hold on tight, because starting with none is rough. I have to rebuild the whole thing too which is causing me to procrastinate.

More soon.

Sick

I've had a cold for the past week and so I've done nothing. I am going to do some work this afternoon. I thought I should cement that idea with myself by stating that fact in here! Yes, this afternoon it begins again! I have to re-haul the whole game. I have variables being declared all willy nilly. It's causing me problems now and I am going to have to come up with a better system. It sounds fun, right?

New name for this blog

I love making progress! I got really giddy this afternoon thinking about how close I am to finishing the base of this game. I only need to sew up the leveling system and fix a few little bugs. Once that is done, I can put in the graphics and play around with bells and whistles! That's when I get to have some fun! I made an executable that only works up to level 3, and I watched my SO play it. Pretty boring as is!! It's going to need a lot of bells and whistles. I also will have to do a lot of trial and error with the levels, to make sure they gradually incline and aren't too hard or impossible at the end.
I've started a lot of games in the past year, but this is the first one that I've gotten to this point. So satisfying! Maybe I can have a complete game by this weekend. At least a first draft. I might want to keep reworking the graphics and levels. I have to find music and sound effects too.

bad graphics -yay!

I came up with this reasonable plan of working 2 hours a night during the week, and then 10 hours on the weekend. Instead I just binge work as usual. I put in 5 hours tonight. Spent most of the night squashing bugs I created yesterday. I also worked a little on the graphics. I decided to just make cartoonish graphics. Very simple for now. I have to stop for now as I am getting cranky.
I haven't decided what this blog is supposed to do. As of now it is more like a journal. Maybe I'll attach it to my google plus account and then it can turn into something else.
I'm done with working on anything tonight - it's very hot.

This is the game in progress. Just stand in graphics. And you only see a non moving, non game slice.

Optimistic!

So, I feel good! I didn't adhere to my schedule at all, but then I just worked 8.5 hours on my game today and I am feeling hopeful that there will be an outcome! I started working on the movement of the dogs, and then my SO stopped me, saying that if I wanted to finish this project quickly that I needed to just stay with my original movement. He was right. I got so much done today! Unfortunately I have been working in the levels all together, and it makes it hard to test. I just keep getting errors, because I have to hook all the"wires" up. I think it's going really well though.
I was hoping that I could get it working by Wednesday night for my game dev meeting, but I don't think it'll be anything worth showing then. I think that I need to finish it as is, and then once it's completely finished, with graphics, I can re-do it and make it worthy to show people. As it stands, this will be my first completed game! I am very excited. I know it's supposed to suck, but you really don't want it to! I am anxious to get it complete so that I can re-do it. I don't think that I'm going to work too hard on the graphics.

New schedule

Today I put myself on a new schedule. I am aiming to work on my game for 2 hours a day during the week, and 10 hours on the weekend. I hope to have it finished by the end of September.
Tonight I fell short at an hour and a half. I spent the time testing out a new system for the actual dog walking. I think that maybe gravity is the answer to make for more interesting dog walking movements. If not, the gravity will be fun for something else. I also made some decisions about game play. These various changes have re-energized me towards this project! Hopefully soon I will post some images - sad, sad images. I haven't really worked on the graphics at all. I'm kind of afraid of that part. I am going to have to allot two weeks for the graphics, and that still won't be enough time. I am leaning towards pixel art, but I think that it will take forever. I don't really have experience with vector based design. I do draw, but I don't draw animals well. This is a decision I need to make. Perhaps I could give myself one day to play around with several styles and then the decision will be easier to make.
One hard thing to do, is to keep things simple. I keep thinking of all kinds of fun things to add, but if I start adding them before the basic game is done, then it will never get done. Hopefully I can make up that half hour in the morning.

Almost fixed something!

I was able to almost fix one problem with my game. It only took my SO and the internet, to almost help me fix this problem I've been struggling with for a while. I still could have been more focused and worked a little harder. I think tomorrow, working at the half mast that I've been working at, I should solve this problem and begin to focus on the next item on my list. I can't believe I have spent so much time on this one tiny thing. Such is game making.

Hard to work when not motivated

I was working hard on my game , but then I had to take a couple of weeks off. Now I am finding it hard to get back into it. I am currently tackling one small problem that would have been solved in a night. It's been days. I just can't focus. I have been pushing myself to at least try. Then I have to push myself to try a little harder. Then I could keep pushing, but it just doesn't seem worth it. I am hoping that my motivation will come back soon. I think my creative & problem solving abilities are just being tapped right now by other projects.
Yay me! for trying

My first post!

Hello! I am planning to use this space to talk about my game development journey, meet like-minded people, and get feedback for games I create.
Currently I am working with Game Maker 8.1 lite. I am new to programming and so I am really sloshing about with gml. I have found both the yoyo forums and reddit very helpful for my many questions.
I am currently working on a little dog walking game. I was hoping to have it finished by September 1st, but I went on vacation and am behind. That was a soft date anyways. My new target is October 1st. Unfortunately my game is having to take a backseat to a couple of other things right now.

I don't know what other people do, but I keep a log using this:  writer.bighugelabs.com . I write various lists. One is the big list, where I break down my to-dos into weeks until the due date. It's very general. Then I take the first week and write out what I think I can accomplish that week. Each day I add a list under that, where I write what problems I have found, code that doesn't work right or design issues. So then when I sit down to work the next day, I can start from my list and start trying to solve the issues. I also continually do a sort of mental walk through of the game and jot down features that need to be added or things that need to be removed.
Since I'm not much of a programmer, I hit walls all the time. To keep myself from getting discouraged, I really try to celebrate all of my tiny successes!

Alright, that's my first post!