This post is a cautionary tale of stretching yourself beyond acceptable capacity.
Starting out this blog, I set out to publish a game a month, post a blog every week, move to a new place, contribute to an open source project and study for and pass certifications in AWS.
It was a long list of goals and I’ve reached five months since starting them. Let’s see how juggling so much has panned out and where it has fallen short.
Publish A Game A Month
Status: Less Successful
This goal has changed in direction for me. It isn’t too ambitious if you scope your projects down to something simple, but I decided not to do that and instead scope mine to be too big.
This is an easy pitfall to stumble into. Every little addition adds weeks onto a project and it adds up quickly. I’ve been able to produce a game within a small time window, but it was for a game jam where the limits of the jam itself usually force you to scope to a micro level.
I’m not too upset about not making it through on this goal. I’m still developing Pixel Pub and I would rather get a deeper understanding of how to incorporate features like in game currency in order to give players incentives to return to the game and progress by unlocking items.
It is more important to understand how to keep players engaged and learn how to monetize over mass publishing of games. If I’m setting out to publish numerous games quickly, I’ll just add a goal to join game jams more often as that is a result of doing them… That and they’re fun.
Publish a Blog Every Week
Status: Successful… Until it Wasn’t
This one hurts. I was on a solid streak and I feel as though my writing was getting better every week.
Then I just fell off hard. Momentum works both ways and with the weekly blog post mine began to drift off.
I think this can be attributed to a few compounding issues. A weekly obligation demands constant content production. Every post needs to be fed by other goals such as the game a month or open source contributions. When I took on the AWS certification goal, this consumed all my time and wiped out the previous two goals. Without those two goals, my content and focus of this blog were left in a draught.
The nail in the coffin came with moving. I’ll talk more about that later, but it turns out moving disrupts your life.
Ultimately, I’m sad I fell off my consistent publications, but I’m happy to be writing again.
Contribute to Open Source
Status: Success and Ongoing!
Every week that passes, I get to learn more about UnityStation and how the game works and how the developers have put different systems in place. It has been a terrific learning experience and has exposed me to some really smart and passionate developers.
I’ll have a new post on this subject in the next few weeks involving a banana that teleports you randomly when slipped on.
Getting AWS Certified
Status: SUCCESSSSSSS
Nailed this one!
So setting out to get a few AWS certifications was a goal to challenge myself and understand cloud technology. AWS offers many different certifications and I felt that this would be a great place to start.
Since setting this goal I was able to get two certifications.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate
With these two certifications I have been able to build foundational knowledge when working with cloud technologies. Through studying this I’ve also discovered the idea of serverless applications, which I will try and implement into future game development projects. Essentially it eliminates the need of having a server running in the cloud and it can greatly reduce the cost you pay as a developer.
Move To A New Place
Status: Successful… Twice
I ended up not just moving once, but twice in a month! That stuff kills your productivity! I thought I would be able to brute force it, but it seriously takes a lot out of you. I lost a whole month to it.
If you’re moving and on a productive streak, just watch out for this one. Get back on that productivity train as quickly as possible once you’re settled in.
Onto Forging a New Path
Balancing multiple goals is a challenge. Sprinkle in a little bit of chaos from moving and you can find yourself dropping everything in the middle of your juggling act.
Now that I’ve reestablished my homestead, my goals need some reorganization.
A game published every month is excessive. I do need to get Pixel Pub out the door before I start adding crazy amounts of features. My goal is end of the year to publish Pixel Pub with features including in game currency and a shop to buy different items.
Getting a blog post a week may be difficult, so I will aim for a week, but also be satisfied with every other week.
My open source will continue to focus on Unity Station. I want to be able to contribute quicker and provide more value to the project as a whole.
As for AWS Certifications, I am very happy with my progress thus far and I would like to get the AWS Certified Developer – Associate.
Moving. I am not doing this anymore. Twice in one month is enough.
Well that’s it for now. I’m back to the grind. Cheers and Happy Halloween!