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Plan for Jeremy Alessi

Name:	Jeremy Alessi
Date Posted:	Oct 16, 2005
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Testing yourself ...

We all have goals that we think we can achieve. There have been many goals that I've set and achieved and I'm proud of them all. Most recently I lived up to my promise of being at IGC with Oust (formerly King of the Mountain) which is something I've been saying for about a year. Actually following through with what I said I was going to do is a wonderful feeling. Nevertheless ...

You've got to keep asking yourself what else you can do and also go out and do it. Right now I'm putting together the plans for my largest goal from a game development standpoint ever. When we're done a hit game will emerge ... the type of game that makes a studio.

Last night after working on the computer till about 5AM I had to go running still. So I set out to do my 1.25 miles. Earlier in the day some of my friends and I were talking about how far we could run. About a month ago I was running 2.5 miles every other day. I told them I thought I could easily do 5 miles ... but for longer than that I'd have to train up a bit more. Of course I hadn't actually run 5 miles ... I just thought I could do it.

So as I was running my 1.25 miles and I decided to multiply it by 4 ... and this is during the 5AM hour after I've been awake and active all day. What the heck though ... what's life about if not to push yourself.

I was able to accomplish the task with relative ease. I even sprited full blast the last 2 tenths of a mile like I always do at the end of my run. I was definitely more drained that ever before but chances are I could probably run 7.5 - 10 miles if I really needed to.

The coolest thing is that I set a goal and just acted on it. It was a challenging goal but nothing I hadn't been training for during the last 6 months. Still I used this little feat as a tiny benchmark for my other goals. When pushing myself with a short endeavor like running 5 miles and completing it I get confidence for some even more challenging endeavors like putting together a team of people to make a hit game.

I've always had this theory about competing on multiple fronts. The more fronts you compete on the more chance you have for success. So if you're working on that big project and things start to look cloudy ... go ahead and set a secondary goal for yourself. Completion of a secondary goal will give you a clearer vision of your primary objective. It works for me every time!

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Matt Sayre (Oct 16, 2005 at 23:14 GMT)

Man, I'm trying to get back in the swing of running. So easy to cross running off your daily "to do" list and work on something else. You know the best part about running? When it's over. Seriously, running's kind of ok, but I mainly run for that great feeling you get afterward. It's a physical and mental achievement each time. Basketball's fun while you're doing it, but half the time when I'm running I'm thinking, "uh, nothing's chasing me... why am I running??"

About Oust... when did you change the name? I saw the Oust icon at IGC but never started it up. If it had been "King of the Mountain" I would have since I'd been sort of following it here. Rats.

Adrian Tysoe (Oct 17, 2005 at 00:23 GMT)

Ek lol. We probably should have told everyone in advance. At one point Jeremy and I were discussing the game and thought that King of the mountain would be a pain to stick in small ads, banners and box art etc so maybe a short sweet name would fit. the next time we got together Jeremy mentioned the word oust. It fit pretty much perfectly in both length and meaning and even Rhyms with Joust.

We both agreed that it was a better more marketable name. But on reflection, we should probably have announced the name change in advance. Particularly when we knew that the game had gathered a small following of people on both the game itself and the art pipeline front.

BTW with the exercising I find that anything that stresses the muscles and gets the heart going gives you that incredible Buzz/high 20-30 minutes after. It's quite a strange thing how you can kill yourself and 20 minutes later feel like you could do it all again.

Jeremy Alessi (Oct 17, 2005 at 03:05 GMT)

Yeah, on the name thing I goofed by not announcing it. I thought that the IGC would allow me to make it a surprise and that it'd be more official so everyone would play the games and then it would hit people "OH!" and it'd all be good. Unfortunately, only about 10 people actually got to play some multiplayer Oust so the surprise idea backfired on me :(

As for the running thing ... it's so true. After I ran last night I did get a huge surge of energy. Ended up having to play some old Race Drivin' after my shower to cool down before going to sleep. Running definitely increases your focus and your energy levels. It's one of the most worthwhile 1/2 hours you can spend.

Simon Love (Oct 17, 2005 at 03:09 GMT)

Great example. And it does work. Setting a secondary goal for yourself just eventually levels up everything in your life. I can totally relate to your story, just replace running with karate.

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