Hey everyone.
Man, getting ready for an update is always stressful. It used to be stressful because I would have to do all sorts of programming that I’m not good at and don’t have some of the amazing knowledge that allows our programmer to do in a few minutes what would take me hours.
The stress is still there. Now it comes from managing teams and polishing the game. I'm glad I spent that time forced to do the tasks I wasn't good at. They gave me a much better understanding of how the game operates and makes tweaking the little things much simpler. It’s almost there.
Next release tomorrow… we hope
I’ve been leaving writing this for as long as I can to hopefully say with certainty that we are releasing tomorrow. I just can’t say either way, even now. The game is ready but we have had some issues with our animation workflow and we (I mean other, more capable people than me) are working to get the animation issues fixed and the rendering done for tomorrow.
If things go smoothly, we will release on time. If not… give us a day or two and we should be able to get it out over the weekend. We can do all the testing with temporary files and add in the proper animations at the last minute.
Me personally
From my point of view, I have the next Theo route script completed. Once this release is out of the way it will be straight on to the next script, probably number 11 of the main route but the second bully script needs work too.
I also did a little season 1 work this week too but I’ll not spoil anything on that front just yet.
Stress as a positive
My friend-group chat, which is a little artsy, was getting into a lively debate about a recent study that showed the benefits of creativity to a long life. Many of us work in creative fields and it raised the question: Is it still beneficial if it’s stressful?
I don’t feel like I’m extending my life by being creative when there is a deadline looming. Maybe it doesn’t matter and it’s more about the mental aspect of it. I’m no expert so I can't really say. The debate did coin the phrase, “near immortal creatives”, referring to ourselves in our creative jobs. I just liked the mental image.
One of my friends, a frankly disgustingly talented, hard working and thoroughly decent fellow, brought up an interesting point. If we weren't stressed about what we create, then do we really care? Stress is what tells us we want to do a good job.
Now, I know that isn’t totally true and isn’t true at all for almost anyone in a busy job they hate, but I think it held true for me. I sometimes get angry or annoyed by things and it’s because I want them to be better. Sometimes, we can make that happen, sometimes we can’t, but it feels it’s good to frame it from a position of: I care about doing a good job.
Anyway, lots to do still.
Feel free to groan at me in the comments about any delay we do or don’t have.
I hope you enjoy this one.
I wonder if Sue will still be there in the morning…
(just trying to trigger some of you)
There is some stuff Randall needs to sort out though but no spoilers.
Okay, back to testing.
Sinburn