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A Very Long Year

Name:	Michael Welch
Date Posted:	Feb 16, 2008
Rating:	3.0 out of 5
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It seems, as I look back through my profie here, that a year has gone by and I have nothing to show for it. Very disappointing indeed. As I look back to when I first purchased a Torque license I remember all the aspirations I had, then looking forward throughout the first year of ownership, I have not accomplished one of them. I cannot say that I have done absolutely nothing. I have refined the idea brewing in my head, again and again, and yet I have nothing solid to work with in terms of assets, coding, or anything other than a design document.

Time seems to be the biggest hurdle that I have yet to overcome. I realize that many vets in this business would say that, time is a hurdle that you will never overcome, and they may be right. It is not actually time, itself, that I am battling but my own lack in management skills as they pertain to time. In the coming year I hope to crush the beast that is my poor time management skill and being putting some solid work into a "real" project.

It is with this triumph in mind that I began looking around for help, to get things rolling. It turns out that there is a gentleman where I work who is extremely talented in traditional art forms. I have at with him on occasion and discussed the possibility of using his skills to assemble some concept art. He seems as enthused as I am about this project. The benefit of this is that I will have someone to share some of the initial work with, I will be workig with someone who has the same enthusiasm as I do and thus will push me when I begin to drag my feet, and I will have someone close by, making communications easy, and I know his talent and limitations.

I plan to finalize the initial treatment for the design document within the next month. In this timeframe I hope, with the assistance of my artist, to have a solid start to my 3d asset library. I have purchased several, well recommended books, that I plan to read through, thoroughly.

All in all, I predict a great year to come. A lot of changes had happened in the past year. Perhaps God will see fit to ease up on this poor fella for at least a little while and allow me a few small, selfish triumphs.

Thanks to all the great people at GG, who have answered my pitiful questions on the forums and also a thanks to all those who have offered help and advice.

To a year full of achievements. Cheers.

Mike Welch

Recent Blog Posts

List:	02/16/08 - A Very Long Year 05/17/07 - Getting Started

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N R Bharathae (Feb 16, 2008 at 11:46 GMT)

You shouldn't beat yourself up about the time you've spent on your design doc. Planning is paramount when building a game project. Not only is it important that you know where you're going with the design its also extremely important that your teammates know this too. And that's the function of the design doc, to get everyone on the same page.

Second, don't make the mistake of setting unrealistic scheduling goals. Depending on the type of game you want to build your project development time might be counted in years, not months. These 2D games are easy to press out in a few months but if you're planning a FPS or anything in 3D you can count on at least a solid year of development and testing IF your crew knows what its doing.

Third, do not underestimate the value of experience in development. Just because you know a concept artist doesn't mean you should assume he knows everything about generating models, rigging them for export, can animate, can implement GUI/HUD graphics, etc. A big part of your project scheduling will be dictated by what your team can do and how well they do it.

Fourth, buy content packs where needed to fill a gap you may have, whether its artwork or code. GG has made it policy to support a steady stream of starter-kits and handy content packs that give you a leg up on development, these are very helpful.

So basically, if all you've done is spent the last year refining your design doc then its time NOT wasted. You're actually further ahead then most project leads (the chaos that follows a project with no established design is unreal). Keep your chin up. If game development is really what you want to do then you're off to a good start.

Jeremy Hein (Feb 21, 2008 at 17:52 GMT) Resource Rating: 3

I can also relate to the time thing. I purchased the Torque game engine in 2004, have attended a Torque boot camp taught by Stephen Zepp, purchased and read some of the books, tools, content packs, newer engines and read forums till my eyes bleed - but I also have very little to show for it at the moment. Time management is my arch-nemesis as well.

First it was World of Warcraft, now it is the fact that I work 9 hours a day at a computer screen - which makes it tough to go home and sit in front of another one. (Sometimes I'm just plain lazy.)

It definitely helps to have other team members to help keep you motivated, especially team members that are excited about it.

Just hang in there, set some goals and hopefully you will win the battle!

-Jeremy

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