Week 6 - Lighting and style

Hello! This is sixth weekly update for Fish RPG.

I didn't finish the game's vertical slice this week. Partway through the week (after tackling a handful of important technical challenges), I started to struggle with motivation. That feeling stemmed primarily from two places. First, the game's current state is pretty far from what I'd consider a playable product. Second, the game's visuals were unsatisfying to me, even with improved lighting. I decided to tackle the second problem first by aiming for a more pixelated style (shown in the cover image of this post).

All things considered, it's unlikely that Fish RPG will be ready for release by the end of January (my original goal) without substantial effort on my part. What I realized this week is that the prospect of that effort feels very (often overwhelmingly) stressful, and I can't imagine that's a healthy way to develop a project. What I think (and hope) the "solution" to this stress is is to take a step back, relax my deadlines, and focus on ensuring that the game's aesthetics (visuals and audio) are solid. This process could be viewed as lowering the scope of my vertical slice significantly, maybe down to a single room.

Importantly, this week cemented in my mind that I'm not currently willing to prioritize game development (within reason) over other aspects of my life that I enjoy. For example, AGDQ happened this week, and I spent many hours watching speedruns. I've also been greatly enjoying other games, including both multiplayer with friends and tackling my singleplayer backlog. I'm sure I'd pause those activities during crunch time, but during the course of normal development, it's important to me that I balance game development with these other activities.

For the time being, I plan to continue with Fish RPG even if I miss my January 31st deadline.