Iteration and Smashing Zombies

Again, its been an awful long time. So lets not get into apologies - lets just get to it.

Gunstringer wrapped production in July and was definitely a incredible learning experience. TPG is a small company and therefore everyone needs to be more responsible - we don't have a vast QA team that will notice all the possible problems. I've been a bit spoiled working at companies with dedicated teams where you just get used to the habit of the 'various combinations' falling on their plate. When you get something or set of features done - you need to run them through the ringer, especially at the end of the project.

We have started work on our next game and its been very exciting. Since its so early we don't have to tiptoe with changes but we are also faced with figuring out everything from scratch. This part is both awesome and frustrating. I'm learning that iteration comes in many forms. The first kind is setting off with a decent idea - you know what you are aiming for and you have formed a foundation to start. This can be challenging when failure comes up but since you have a base, you know you simply need to adjust your aim. Having no initial idea is where iteration starts to get frustrating quickly. You hit a wall and essentially have to erase everything and start over. After about 30 tries - you start to lose faith that you will ever be able to get it. Its at these times you need to take a deep breath and realize you will cause you didn't stop at the first try. I have to remind myself about this a lot.

As for personal things, I've been playing the hell out of Dead Island. The game starts good then quickly gets weak but then comes roaring back stronger then ever. This game suffers from a lot of problems that Borderlands did. It has a great core mechanic but fails to capitalize on it at a constant rate. I'm at a point now in the game where I'm hard pressed to put it down. My friend Adam and myself have been doing a whole mess of co-op and it works very well.

I have worked out a loose 'game budget' with Laura where I try to stick to 50-60 bucks a month. There are some awesome budget titles coming out this month (Payday, Dungeon Defenders) along with big titles like Rage. So now the decision this month is blow it all on Rage which will be the first title for my buddy Grant Shonkwiler.

So much to do, so much to play.

2 comments:

Laura "Sko" said...

I heart you. Congrats on the Gunstringer release baby. So proud of you. XO

skrodda said...

Congrats on your release man.