iQuest #11: Five things I will get done in two weeks

1. Program my game's basic gameplay mechanics! I had to start over on this because the Unreal Engine was updated so much since I last had a subscription.
2. Model 2nd development character model for testing
3. Develop a concept for a demo environment
4. Finish all paid programming requests!!! Gotta get this out of the way so I can develop my game full-time.
5. Eat pizza

I like pizza

iQuest #10: Personality Word Cloud

   

So this word cloud is a conglomeration of the results from the John Holland and Myers/Briggs personality tests. I think it's neat that the tests were consistent and accurate in describing my personality. The paragraphs given at the end of the tests describing how I think as a person were just about spot-on and really describe me well.

iQuest #9: Goals For Semester 2

Hello dear people of the world, I would like to inform you all that my goals have not changed! YES, I am still doing what I said I would in my last post: programming requested BrawlBox features for money. Go ahead and take a look at that post to learn more.

As soon as I can get all of my current tasks done, I will go back to developing my game. My (ideal) goal for that is March 1st. Unfortunately programming can be unpredictable, so I can only say I'll do my best to meet it.

Once I meet that goal, the next goal would be to get something visual made for my game. A lot of the beginning design work is programming the game's general backend so that it functions properly and roughing out concept art and beta models as filler for the final game models. Hopefully I can make something in time for finals, but if not I can always present my work with BrawlBox. Unfortunately my game's overall goals are pretty long-term, especially since I'm still learning how to use Unreal Engine 4.

The only actions I need to take are work as much as possible. Just about anything besides work will be an interruption.

The only thing I need to accomplish my goals is time. I NEED MORE TIME

iQuest #8: Reflection

This last semester, I started out working on my game's development as planned. I chose to work toward's developing multiplayer mechanics in UE4 and modeling some assets on the side. I spent time working on it just about every day, but it was mainly a learning experience because I was still getting accustomed to the engine and its interface and tools.

Initially, I was unable to find a mentor, let alone a whole internship. That was frustrating, but I was eventually able to find a mentor with some help. We talked back and forth about what my goals were and what I've been doing to achieve them. However, when talking on Skype we both concluded that I'm actually way ahead with my approach and don't really need much mentoring, if any. My current tactics to learn more and improve my skills are already so efficient that involving too many other people may actually slow me down at this point.

Sometime in the middle of the semester, I decided to go back to programming a tool I developed for the last 3 years: BrawlBox. I used to program it for free as a learning experience and as a cool hobby to assist myself and the community with modding Wii games, but I retired at the end of 2013 in order to pursue developing my game.

BrawlBox is on the right side of the screenshot, the left side is Visual Studio, what I use to program it.

This time, though, I wanted to make money. I figured maybe I could do that by going back to program what I knew best. Due to the nature of school, college apps, and time-consuming programming, I now could only focus my time on programming for money instead of working on my game. It's been frustrating that I haven't had time for actual game development, but the good news is I've actually been making a lot of money programming now. Not as much as an actual job would pay, but a pretty good amount in comparison to what I was making before. People contact me with features they want implemented in the program, and then I give them a quote. Then they or multiple people can choose to pay that for me to implement the feature for the next release. It's been a pretty efficient system and it allows me to make money without having to sell the program itself.

This past semester, I've learned that I can get sidetracked pretty easily (with good intention) and I need to balance my projects better. As a change for this semester, I am going to try and finish all current programming commissions and get back to developing my game. You could say my iQuest goals have changed because of the money-making side project, but they really haven't. I programmed in the past to learn. Now that I'm an experienced programmer, I'm pursuing this game's development, a much larger goal. The only reason I am programming anything else is now for money so I can save up funds for my own life and tools for game development. I think this endeavor will turn out pretty good, I'm sure I can get something done to show for the iQuest final at the end of the year.

iQuest #6: How's it going?

So here's what's up with me. I've been steadily working, but I don't have any kind of consumer previews right now. It's all code, notes and concept sketches at the moment. Progress has been especially slow lately because of school and college applications and things. My mentor and my small team of online friends are the only people involved with development. I haven't been in contact with my mentor much though because I don't really have any questions or concerns for him that I can't answer myself. As for my location, all programming and design takes place in the workplace of course! (AKA my super pro room.)

Recently I have been programming my tool I worked on previously called Brawlbox. I am charging people for features they want me to add to it. Because Brawlbox is used by a lot of people and I'm one of the only people who can quickly and effectively add things to it, I've actually made quite a bit of money on that so far. I only intend for this to be a way to make money on the side, though.

There are a few things I'm still frustrated about. I wish I had an internship working in an actual professional workplace so I could be exposed to that kind of environment. I have no idea of the demands and workflow in the game industry. I'm also frustrated with time. I never have enough of it. It honestly doesn't surprise me when I read about employees of small startup game companies working constantly day and night to get a project done.

If I said I learned anything new about myself or about game development so far thanks to iQuest, I think it would be a lie. I've been programming for five years and writing my game for one; it's nothing new.

I'm on vacation right now so I can't snap a pic of myself hard at work just yet, so here's a picture inside my monster of a computer I just recently built for gaming and development.

iQuest #5: Research Project

I have chosen to research Shigeru Miyamoto for my research project. He is the creator of major franchises like Mario and Zelda and is the head of a branch of Nintendo. I chose to research him because he had and still has such a large influence over the gaming industry even today. You could say he's one of the founding fathers of modern games, as many of his franchises and innovations are still around today as a part of Nintendo's history.

I want to learn what he drew inspiration from for his franchises, why his games are as interesting and fun to play as they've proven to be, and what his process is for innovation. His franchises/games are able to appeal to almost any age group and I think that's a much larger achievement than people understand. When you try to appeal to many demographics at once, you have to cater the content so each demographic can understand or relate. Doing that without negatively affecting another demographic and without making the content itself too generic and unoriginal is an overwhelming task that I hope I can achieve with my games. I don't want to create a franchise that has a very specific audience and doesn't change much at all through each game to appeal to fans of different gameplay styles, but I also don't want to create a game full of boring graphics and an unrelatable storyline just because I need it to be easily moldable to the audience I want to target. Miyamoto's work is something that I can study and learn from, and that's why I chose him to research.

iQuest #4: Ethics

RESPONSIBILITY!

     Responsibility is a key aspect to success in life. Without it, nothing would be accomplished. When people trust you with a task, you are responsible for its completion. By being responsible, you are proving to others that you are able to pull your own weight when executing a task even with other people and other people should trust you in the future.
     Responsibility means you are able to do what you are supposed to. When you are entrusted with a job, you will do it regardless of if you get a reward for it or not. You simply do it because you are responsible for getting it done. You plan ahead to do your best to get things done. When things don't work out, you persevere and keep trying. Self-discipline is a major part of responibility as well. You need to self-discipline to get yourself to do the task without being told to. You are aware of the consequences of your actions and do your best to avoid all negative outcomes. That is what responsibility is.
     I believe responsibility also means you are able to execute all of the six pillars of ethics. You're trustworthy when you're responsible because you're able to do things that are expected of you. You respect others and will carry out the tasks they have entrusted you with. You are fair and caring to those involved because of your trustworthiness to do your job right and on time. You demonstrate good citizenship skills by being responsible as well, and that is why I think responsibility is the most important of all 6.
     Without responsibility in the workplace, nothing would get done. That's it. Nobody would be responsible to complete their tasks and the business would fail. I don't think lacking any of the other traits would have as much of a dire consequence.