Lately, I’ve been thinking about things and I realized that I haven’t accomplished anything yet. I have many plans – projects, works, etc. – but I have yet to make decent progress on any of them. Case in point: Project Midnight. Despite having the design docs 75% finished and some concept art done, I still haven’t done a single game asset or written a single piece of code even though I’ve worked on it for… what, four months? I know it’s my first project and all, but I know people who’ve done more on their first projects in a shorter amount of time than this. So why am I taking so long?
Simple answer: I am a procrastinator. Always have been, and despite all my efforts to quit being one I keep making all the same mistakes as before. Sad, really.
So I looked back at my life to see the things that I used to distract myself. Art’s one of them, but since Project Midnight requires a lot of art and creativity I’ve been using that one in my favor. Video games? …Nah, despite my love for them I’ve actually been playing them less and less lately (I actually haven’t finished the latest Kingdom Hearts game, which is unushal since it’s one of the two RPG series I always make time to finish, the other being “any game by Nippon Ichi Software“). Music? …Okay, I think I might’ve hit something here – I’m addicted to music. I can’t spend more than half an hour without hearing good music or else I get jittery and can’t think well. However, if I start hearing something, I completely blank out for at least four or five hours before realizing I need to do stuff, then forgetting to do it anyway as I listen for a couple more hours until my stomach starts getting aggressive. First step is clear: get rid of the music for a long while…
…well, except for Champagne Supernova and Buckethead’s Population Override CD – those two help me calm down and concentrate more. Same with Gustavo Dal Farra’s Minimalista CD. *sigh* I’ll miss you, Anamanaguchi.
Okay, next step, next step… Well, I need to make some kind of scheduling system (things have gone to hell ever since I forgot to buy a new calendar to plan out stuff). Well, those sticky notes should help a bit – just post ‘em everywhere so I don’t forget again…
…Great. Now my house looks like a Room Full of Crazy – Oh! That reminds me: No more TV Tropes for a long, long time.
…
Okay, now that I have a plan to stop the procrastination, I just have to find a way to learn how to animate. I do that, and most of my problems are solved (the art-related ones, that is). I actually had a lot of game projects in mind before starting with Midnight, but I chose to focus on it alone because I thought it would be the easiest way for me to learn how to animate (small sprites should be easy, right?). Unfortunately, I’ve never been any good at an overhead perspective, which meant all my artwork ended up looking like crap (which is why I haven’t updated on it in a while). So that plan backfired.
If I’m going to be learning how to do animations, I might as well do it on a perspective I’m familiar with, right? Well, that leaves two options: a 2D platformer, or a 2D fighting game. Right away, I discard the platformer idea – not too good at designing them, even if I’m decent at doing graphics for them. So a fighting game it is. Might as well revive the old project I had before switching to the current one, while I’m at it.
So now I begin with Project Chaos (formerly known as Project Midnight before I gave that name to the other one).
For the curious: It’ll be a 2D fighting game developed for the 2D Fighter Maker 2nd engine. If it ends up being good enough, I’ll make an XNA version with added characters and online play. I have a couple characters in mind for it, and I’m already learning how to sprite better (been studying the techniques of some Japanese artists – can’t understand a word of what they’ve written, but the images are self-explanatory enough for me to get by), so hopefully I’ll finally have something to show by December.
Hopefully…
