And then - a day after entering the Art Explosion contest ( theme: dark ) with my progress so far of 'Hypersensitivosaursus - Alone in the Darkosaur' - I saw two replies on my post telling me that people couldn't play the game due to a 404 Error.
Sorry @juliakponsford and @ryivhnn and others who tried to do so. I was away for the weekend, celebrating my birthday, and wasn't able to reply until a day or two later. That day, I discovered that I had been the only one able to play the game, as the settings weren't on 'Public'. Oops!
Suffice to say, that I was disqualified for the contest, haha. Better luck next time. It's okay, it was far from a finished product anyway. In as far as 'finished' is possible in today's digital age.
Back to Gamemaking
I haven't been doing a lot of game making, in the last handful of days. In fact, I had some doubts about my skills and whether I would ever manage to deal with the - in my eyes 'uncreative' - programming part, so I could work with the so called Bitsy 'hacks' and get more out of the program.
Then, today, I got some new ideas. I also discovered on the Bitsy discord chat, that there's other ways to work with these hacks than I imagined. It might be somewhat easier than I thought. I also learnt that you're supposed to focus on making a game first ( without hacks ), getting as far as you can and then, near the end, use a so called program called Borksy ( Can't help but liking those cute names: bitsy and borksy. They sound like two very different twins ), where you add the hacks and then, finally get back to Bitsy again to actually finish the game.
This focusing on the details at the end part reminds me a lot of film making ( especially editing ) but also of writing. I am the kind of person who gets stuck on details at the start though, although I can also kind of free write and just go with the flow ( doing that right now )
Today I actually managed to do a bunch of game making. It was fun! I did indeed find out that it actually helps to focus on the actual game making itself, the 'easy' stuff ( storytelling and pixel art and all ) first and foremost. The complicated stuff, involving scripts, hacks and all kind of other details can be worried ( or, preferably, thought about and resolved ) at a later time. No stress.
I'm talking too much. Here's some final thoughts for now:
I'm happy to not have a deadline this time. I tried to work with two deadlines, earlier on. Both of them this month. One for the dinosaur jam - that one went alright - and one for the Steemit Art Explosion contest. The latter Alone in the Darkosaur, wasn't much of a success ( being on a coffee break, with an almost constant head ache as a result, didn't help either ). I learnt, for the umptieth time, that it's probably better to take my time, for whatever game I'm working on. Nothing new. I don't perform well under time pressure.
So, today, I decided to do just that, take my time and try not to focus on details too much, let alone the complicated ones. This method will be the only way for me to make something good. I might set some weekly goals for myself but - this time - there will be no deadline.
I also decided that, instead of working on a bunch of separate games - all (un)finished ones can be found and played here on my gamemaking page - I will just combine them as much as I can. For now, my game is called 'How to Talk to Your Parents - but it will probably become a game about communication, mindfulness and possibly even dinosaurs. Reading, film making and ( I sense ) creativity will play an important part too, as will humor.
TO BE CONTINUED AND - SOME DAY - FINISHED