So I said I'd enter Ludum Dare, which I'm already regretting for several reasons. Firstly, I'm slow. I'm really slow at pretty much everything because I daydream alot, get bored and have to do something different to what I was previously doing every five minutes. I can't do anything productive at all unless I'm also listening to music or watching tv simultaneously. I'm also a perfectionist. Having no attention span or motivation with things and also being a perfectionist means you essentially get absolutely nothing done at all. At all.
The second reason I regret entering Ludum Dare is because by hosting all of these competitions, I'm feeling as if I'm almost starting to "hype" myself, something which will end up being extremely, extremely underwhelming for pretty much everyone involved. Combined with the intimidation of Mega entering Ludum Dare too and working with Rez - who happens to also be one of my favourite game artists - on an RPG4D entry, I think I have reason to feel this way. The reason my game competition output is so comparatively high to my game output is because I enjoy organizing things, I enjoy putting ideas into motion, I enjoy games, I enjoy observing games being made and I enjoy this community. If I were to ever start a career in video games, I would definitely be involved in the more managerial roles… or at least, the supporting roles. Directing, designing, marketing, that sort of thing. I think I know what works in a game and how to get people to play it, better than I can actually personally make a game that people want to play. But I guess that's the same with everyone. Everyone's a critic.Thirdly is that I'm seriously behind on alot of university stuff and this is another setback. I do feasibly have time to do all the stuff I want to do over the next month - game making, university and playing gigs - but I won't have time to do anything else, and also I'll be stressing the entire time. When I stress, there is a significantly increasing chance that I'll just go into "fuck it" mode and do absolutely nothing at all but play Playstation and drink beer. I'm pretty sure everyone can relate to that, too. But this time around I'm pretty determined to avoid that. Although incidentally the reason I'm writing this blog is probably as a justification for not writing the 1000-word essay on Ken Thompson that I'm actually supposed to be writing.I mean, what some of you might not know is that I'm actually doing Computer Science (I'm in my first year). So that means that at least I'm supposed to be good at programming. I'm currently learning Java as part of my course, but I'm pretty behind on that. We're also doing electronics and shit, which I really do not care about at all, so I'm behind in that too. The only thing I'm caught up on is the mathematics side of it, but only because it comes kind of naturally. I was originally going to do four years, but now I'm definitely only doing three. I'm not going to drop out - I'm from one of those middle-income, working families, so I was brought up to be terrified at the idea of wasting thousands of pounds like that. But I can't say I'm enjoying it right now and really just want to get it over with and pass.All of that said, I will enter Ludum Dare, and I will finish this game that I've been doing since Saturday as a practice.Anyway here's a screen of what I've been doing over the last couple of days for 3 hours a day, the time I spend on Ludum Dare will be more concentrated. It's a schmup/minecraft hybrid of sorts. Mainly minecraft, because I hate schmups (I suck at them) and barely ever play them; maybe space invaders counts. You customize your ship with parts that you craft. You get resources by playing levels of a side-scroller. There is no health or lives, if a part of the ship is hit, it is destroyed. You could say I'm just ripping off 0x10c… but to be honest, that game is such an obvious continuation of minecraft that if Notch's next game had been anything other than minecraft-in-space, the fanboys would have hung themselves.
Overworld with 3d effect that consists entirely of one sine function (star distance from center) and one cosine function (size of star) because of time constraints. It makes a 2d map look like a sphere you're travelling across. This looks better in motion for obvious reasons. It's just a bunch of circles when you look at a picture.
In regards to the "warm-up" bit, I've considered doing one, or prototyping or something. This next three months is going to be long and tough. But I feel like the more work I do, the faster I'll burn myself out. And that's no good. Most of my time is going to be spent doing graphics and music. Maybe the story too. I'm going to abstain from LudumDare, and figure out what to do for the next two weeks so I don't lose motivation.
The only reason I regret this being announced early is because it was a long time for the motivation to die down.And Jesus, guys, all this talk of duck is making me hungry. Where is Duckman when you need him?Sigh, I didn't want to come back here and respond… but I talked it over with a friend, and maybe this has all been a misunderstanding.
Look, I was correct in saying that my first post was misinterpreted. It's true. I was actually sympathetic towards Toast, even though it might not appear that way. He said he daydreamed a lot, and for me that's a very real problem, and I just thought I'd try to help him understand some things… like, you know, he shouldn't get stressed out over competitions and whether or not people are underwhelmed.And that's what he was doing. Being stressed out. You can call it anything else you want, but that is how his blog post was worded. And I don't want him to be that way. It's not good when someone is being upset over such trivial things. I want everyone to be okay. It really won't help him to be stressed out for such a long period of time, especially not when he's trying to do a bunch of other stuff at once.So yeah. I can understand how you think I'm at fault. I get that. But I wasn't trying to hurt anyone's feelings. I really thought it was fine because Toast's response to me was okay. He didn't seem offended. It didn't seem like I needed to reword anything. So the people coming in saying I was a "troll" did seem unnecessary to me, and it felt like they were just speaking for Toast. I dunno. I also thought there was enough silliness in my post (like saying "hype" wasn't a real word) to ensure no one would take it wrongly. I do proofread everything I say in order to be as inoffensive as possible. Guess it didn't work out."He uses the same tone in other blogs."Hey, JuurianChi, this isn't true. And it's like what I was talking about to Flashback, when he said there were multiple cases of me being insulting.http://www.64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=TehHoosier&cmd=comments&id=273036The banner here flashes with the words "YOU ARE A FAGGOT". I felt more than a little annoyed about it, okay? When stuff like this jumps up on my computer screen, I have to respond in a similar manner. So maybe I was "pointing out flaws"… but I'm a member here, regardless of how new I am, and I still am under the impression that this is a social site. I should be able to comment on specific things like this. That's my opinion. But am I wrong?http://www.64digits.com/users/index.php?userid=thernz&cmd=comments&id=273026So this too, right? You said "other blogs", as in plural. So I really think you meant multiple ones, you know? And I wouldn't insult Thernody, he's awesome. I look up to and respect him. I was just giving feedback on his game…http://www.64digits.com/games/index.php?cmd=view_game&id=5588This is the only other comment I've made, barring the simple one-sentence I gave to say I was competing in the competition, and yeah, this isn't really in a rude tone either, as I happen to respect Duckman as well.So I know you guys are trying to get back on topic… yeah, sorry about this. I should have replied sooner and got this straightened out. I won't bother you about it anymore.But I have to be honest, OK? The replies to me weren't nice. Quickly labeling me a troll, saying I'm a "complete moron", an "idiot", talking about "mother's sex slaves", and even implying there could be consequences (i.e. warnings/bans) for my posts… none of that was appropriate, in my opinion. I know I made mistakes, but I think that was going too far — and I don't believe I was overreacting. Sorry.Now THIS….
I think you'll find that none of us really hold grudges here. If you choose to stay, then welcome back. I agree I was being a little rash too but in my defense, I don't believe I directly called you a troll. I just pointed out something I thought was a strange reaction to a playful message:"Hey look everyone, I made a long blog. I'm one of the adults now."…Which was by no means meant to be serious. Other than that it seriously looked like a series of misunderstandings. We're a tight community. We don't like it when some new guy comes in and starts "expressing his thoughts" in the most insulting way possible. There are much better and more civil ways to go about that. You're new. But once you get how we operate, I think you'll find us more than hospitable.The last thing I will leave you with is:We are not YoyoGames. We are an entirely separate community and anything you may know from there doesn't apply here.We got off on the wrong foot. Welcome to 64Digits. I'm eager to see what you produce for the competition.Welcome to 64D. Don't take us seriously. Except for when we're serious.
Yeah, we don't hold grudges here. Just, please, try to examine your words. :)
Also, Toast, I want to see it in motion.that sounds a tad condescending lol
Tch. All your problem was, was trying to be a "rational" person amidst an irrational userbase.
This is 64Digits. When in Rome, FamousJellyfish.:(