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Retrospective and Scheduling Out the next Quarter

Welp, it’s the end of the next week! And my teeth are gone, and the ruins of my mouth mostly healed.  Don’t go to Lincoln Park Dental Specialists! That’s enough personal content.  Onto the game design personal content.

I’ve been looking back over my posts during this pandemic, from when my world abruptly changed in March, to when things normalized enough that I laid out a Bare Minimum+Ambitious+Realistic plan in May.  Interestingly, I’ve long since hit the “3 months of a game design post every week” milestone, though progress has been much slower than I’d hoped on FFGMGM Beta or an Alpha for another game.  Qualifying that: BURN is my most ambitious design and extraordinarily difficult both to build and to test; I’m very pleased with my fuck-it-all playtest of Amberlodge and all the theoretical work I’ve done but it’s been difficult to synthesize those two things into a full build; FGM-squared has been a great ride in terms of the meetings I’ve had with collaborators, but that’s also kind of forestalled the actual practical iterating work, in favour of fun ideating work.  The RPG goal has had its hiccups but has gone okay all things considered, especially seeing as how it turns out my actual deadline for that is next month, and I have just about everything I need now to start writing a first draft.

I may be well served by starting there, with my most tangible deadline, and then building out a calendar for the next three months.  Something missing from my BAR plan was due dates, which I think contributed to a lack of urgency and a restless moving around from project to project.  Of course, I have to factor my playwriting into this, because to pretend my games writing isn’t affected by the demands of playwriting is absurd and sets me up for failure.  So.  Let’s take my most Ambitious plan, break out the milestones, and see when I need to focus on each one.

Games Writing Ambitious Plan:

  • Complete a working Alpha prototype for BURN
  • Complete a working Alpha prototype for Amberlodge
  • Build a Beta of FFGMGM
  • Complete a draft of the DOLLIE scenario (September 30)
  • Write at least one game design post every week for three months
  • And now to get real crazy: Build a 5-week game design class curriculum
  • Also nutso: Identify sections of blog that would make a good book

And let’s add in the playwriting milestones I need to hit:

  • Pre-Rehearsal Draft of Other Rockpools (September 20 [17])
  • Performance Draft of Other Rockpools (September 26 [23])
  • First Draft of Act I of Project Hercules
  • First full Draft of Lossless Compression
  • Edit/Curation/Draft of TNC Audio Play

Man, most of the time I forget that I surrogate-wrote a whole-ass play called Long Canoe that I essentially handed over and never looked back on.  I worked on that thing all through my 2017 London/Scotland trip.  Wild stuff.  Anyhow, let’s order these.

  • Write at least one game design post every week for three (more) months
    • This is a given and a background activity so let’s start here
  • Pre-Rehearsal Draft of Other Rockpools (September 20 [17])
    • My top priority right now, especially as I’ll need to turn around a week after and do it again
  • Performance Draft of Other Rockpools (September 26 [23])
    • Same as above
  • Complete a draft of the DOLLIE scenario (September 30)
    • I can start sooner but I need a first draft of this pretty much once I’m done editing Rockpools
  • First Draft of Act I of Project Hercules
    • Should only take two or three writing sessions to fill in the gaps on what’s unwritten and order/edit it into a coherent first half.  Let’s add this in as another September goal
  • Build a Beta of FFGMGM
    • This can and should happen some time in September
  • Edit/Curation/Draft of TNC Audio Play
    • Sooner? Rather? Than later? October? Early to mid?
  • Complete a working Alpha prototype for Amberlodge
    • Can be physical or digital, but it’s got to have at least most of the systems, let’s say this is due by Halloween
  • First full Draft of Lossless Compression
    • No one is asking for this, and it may be best to just truly put a lock on that shelf while I try and get through a busy season
  • Complete a working Alpha prototype for BURN
    • The scope of this deserves its own dedicated lengthy period of time.  Perhaps I work on this in the deep of winter or come Spring, or once I’ve learned how to digitally build either FGM^2 or Amberlodge (or another of my designs)
  • And now to get real crazy: Build a 5-week game design class curriculum
    • Before or after BURN.  Timing TBD but probably something that I’d want to work on when I get ready to teach my other class again.
  • Also nutso: Identify sections of blog that would make a good book
    • Last priority, even after BURN

Alright, there’s a couple things in there that overlap, some that might move around a bit, but that’s helpful.  It’s good to see it all laid out in front of me, and to have as a reminder that even should I feel inspired to work on, say, Lossless Compression, because my Choward’s mint samplers came in, I shouldn’t do so if it’s at the expense of my more urgent priorities.

Mmmm, Choward’s mints.  Dare to be old.



I think that’s plenty for now.  I’ve got my marching orders - Other Rockpools is first up, and I’ll probably do one last TTRPG Tuesday about the DOLLIE Extraction before I dive into trying to make a first draft.  Til next week.

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