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Q1 2021 Report: State of the 'Mancer

Well, there’s less than two hours left in the week (less than fifteen now that I'm actually pressing Publish), so let’s try and get a post together, since I need to feel in control of my life.  There’s a lot that’s up in the air right now, and I’ve just been utterly unable to do much game design stuff outside of this blog.  So today’s going to be a roundup / quarterly report, and I’ll also see about pre-writing tomorrow’s Out of Mana.  I think my goal was to write ten of those? And I’ve already done 6, which is genuinely shocking, to me, but I have been pretty single-minded in my commitment to updating this blog (Perhaps! To the detriment! Of my other projects!) so maybe I shouldn’t be surprised.  But put aside tomorrow’s post for a moment, and let’s focus on this week; it’s not quite three full months of 2021 down, but we’ve got some definite data, so let’s just dive in.

Now, I took the last week of 2020 off, so I didn’t actually do a quarterly report, just various deranged end of year roundup-y type things of a different flavour, so I need to go back to September for the last plan I made.  Now that was six full months ago, surely all of those plans have long since been realized, right? HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA

  • 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
    • ^ Did this one actually
  • 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
    • ^ Did it, but not games related
  • Performance Draft of Other Rockpools (September 26 [23])
    • Same as above
    • ^ Again, did it but not games related
  • 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
    • ^ Managed this, have written enough about it
  • 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
    • ^ Did it, not games related, did not get together a reading of said Act 1
  • Build a Beta of FFGMGM
    • This can and should happen some time in September
    • ^ Boo.  Failed.
  • Edit/Curation/Draft of TNC Audio Play
    • Sooner? Rather? Than later? October? Early to mid?
    • ^ Neither games related, nor ever released, despite being finished.
  • 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
    • ^ HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA not a damn finger lifted on this one
  • 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
    • ^ Oh well good attitude to have there Past Fin as you’ve done fuck all on this
  • 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)
    • ^ HAHAHAHAHA nope
  • 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.
    • ^ Nooooooooope.
  • Also nutso: Identify sections of blog that would make a good book
    • Last priority, even after BURN
    • ^ Good because haven’t even thought about this

Well, that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but mostly because I had some external deadlines, and half of it was non-games-related, which doesn’t excuse my games-related failures but does sort of account for what I was doing with at least some of that time.  I think… that I have, or am approaching, the limits of what this routine/habit are doing for me.  The blog, I mean.  I’m getting all sorts of dopamine for talking and thinking, and it’s de-prioritizing the actual doing and making.  Maybe - maybe I finish out ten entries of Out of Mana, and then any writing I do goes into a buffer, as I take an entire quarter, after I’ve moved, after I’ve finished with grant-writing season, and take the time each week that I’ve been writing, and spend it on prototyping.  Because while these blog posts ARE worth something, and some of them are a pretty long way toward being a complete small/short design, I’ve done enough small games.  I need to finish something bigger - I need to develop an idea farther.  And I need to commit time to executing a plan, one piece at a time.

Wowzers, this is farther than I thought I’d take this.  And I think that’s all still a ways off; the rest of this quarter and the next will be spent finishing up Out of Mana, some planned TTRPG Tuesdays, and making an action plan for each game - not to mention I do still have tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of funding to still write grant proposals for.  But come July - look out, physical world!

That’s all for this week.  Tune in next week! Most likely tomorrow.  Bye!

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