My Silly Attempt to Make an RPG

[Joshua]

It's been over a week since this contest has started, and I still haven't made any significant progress towards creating my submission. This is terrible. So, I'm going to start a "daily journal" kind of thing, where I'll be posting my progress daily. These are the tools I will be using, to help assure my productivity:

1) A yearly calendar. You can see the one I'm using here. The reason for the calendar is a productivity secret used by Jerry Seinfeld for his writing (you can learn about that here). I can attest that this method does work very well, especially once you get a chain going.

2) A to-do list. This has been kind of hit or miss for me. Using a to-do list has allowed be to start some healthy habits (like exercising and writing in my journal), but it's kind of iffy when it comes to work-related tasks. I still haven't figured out how to make it work well for me, but I'm still experimenting with it. You can get a to-do list to print out here. 

3) This thread! I'll be posting daily for the sake of accountability, and also to share my daily routine with you guys so you can see what's working for me and what's not. 

My Goals

Besides actually finishing my stupid game, I'd like to try to improve my health over the course of this challenge. One of the reasons I've been having a hard time making progress on my game is because I'm tired all the time, and the reason for that is because my diet sucks. So in addition to sharing what I'm doing in terms of working on my game, I'm also going to share a "food schedule" of sorts, which you can apply to your own daily routine, if you wish.

I'm probably going to experiment a lot with various productivity methods to find which ones work best for me, and I'll be sharing them with you guys.

Here's a breakdown of all the things that need to happen (in order):

1. Figure out characters/storyline (this one is mostly done, but there are still some details that need to be worked out)
2. Write the script (dialogue, character actions, scene descriptions, etc.)
3. Create placeholder maps (maps with minimal details that are functional)
4. Create scenes (add dialogue and character actions from script)
5. Flesh out maps (make them look pretty)
6. Get beta testers/polish game
7. Publish!

Now, I've never made a game before, so this is probably oversimplified. We'll see. 

My Goals for Day 1

Today marks the first day of this challenge/journal for me. My goals for today are:

• Create a character sheet for each major character (including a short scene)
• Organize my scene list and figure out which scenes are needed and which aren't
• Write a full scene

I think that's pretty conservative for starters, but that's probably the best way to go. I'll be posting my progress real-time on my profile feed, if you want to see the action. 

There is roughly 10 hours left before today is over (for me). I'll get started soon. When today is "over", I will post again in this thread. But in the meantime, I must mow the lawn.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Diego2112]

I know what you mean about health getting in the way.  My health is very, VERY not good.  I've several mild medical conditions, compounded with one very SERIOUS condition (recurrent malaria) that keeps me pretty much in a ran-down state most of the time.  Couple that with my physical condition (mostly broken body), and it's just not good.

Diet DOES help-I'd suggest cutting out as much heavily processed/junk food as you can, and cook your meals at home rather'n grab a bite while you're out.  If you DO have to get fast-food, places like Subway and Chick-Fil-A have healthier food than other places.

Also, water.  Drink lots of water.

And stuff with antioxidants, like teas and stuff.

Outside that, good luck with it!

 

[Joshua]

@Xenos: Thanks for the advice, and sorry about your health troubles. I hope you can find a cure soon. 

Day 1

Today was a fail, but I should have known better than to do "same day planning". For some reason it's very difficult to do the things on your to-do list if you try to do them the same day you write them. That's why you make your to-do list the night before. Speaking of which...

Here is my to-do list for tomorrow:

• Plan meals for the week
• Visualize and outline scenes
• Visualize and write descriptions for maps
• Visualize and describe character actions
• Visualize and write character dialogue
• Write in Journal

A few notes on this. First, I'm planning my meals for the week, so that I will know ahead of time what I will eat and when. This is greatly increase my chances of eating healthy this week. Also, I'll be sure to prepare by finding the ingredients I need and having them in an easy to access place, so when the time comes, I won't get lazy by going for "easy food".

Second, you'll notice I use the word "visualize" a lot. This is a writing technique where you watch your scenes in your head, as if it were a movie. You need to engage all five of your senses for this to have the best effect. Then, you simply write down what you're seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting, etc. Pretty simple. 

Basically, what I'm trying to do tomorrow is write the entire script for my game, from start to finish. That might be a little ambitious, but I think that I really need to push myself if I want to get better/get this done. I tried breaking the script into its individual components to make it easier to approach. Also, I'm trying to take the mindset that this is a "throwaway" script, and that literally anything that comes into my mind goes. I'm doing this to combat writer's block, as it's far easier to edit a story than come up with one. 

Hopefully tomorrow will go better. Actually, I'm sure it will. I'll be a bit more prepared.

See you then.  

 

[Diego2112]

Thanks mate, no cure, but hey!  That's life, right?    Gives me an excuse to drink a goodly bit of booze every once in a while-keeps those pesky parasites at bay.

Seems like you've got a decent plan worked out-I say shoot for it!  The mealplan is a GREAT idea-it's what my wife and I do.  We've a 10 day menu, not only do we eat better, we also know what we need as far as going to the store and whatnot.  Really helps with a budget, too!

Ah, visualization, my old enemy...  Great mind, I have, just not for seeing things like that.  Usually, I think on things-don't see 'em, per se, just seem to FEEL them, as it were.

Still, that's a darn good plan, and DAMMIT!  I'LL MAKE SURE YOU STICK TO IT BY TYPING IN ALL CAPS IN THIS THREAD TO ENCOURAGE YOU!

 

[Joshua]

Thanks a lot, Xenos. That means a lot to me.

Day 2

Today I succeeded in almost all of my tasks, except for writing dialogue. First, I started by trying to plan my meals for the week. This turned out to be way harder than I thought it would be. Coming up with ideas/finding ideas that I like and turning those ideas into a schedule is hard. So I had my mom help me out, and we decided to focus on just healthy snacks for this week.

As usual, I procrastinated all day before I started to do any writing. I literally waited until 11:20 PM before I got started, so I was able to create a scene list, write descriptions for the maps, and describe the character actions in around 40 minutes. Not bad.

However, after creating all of this, I realized that my game will end up being very short. I can't be sure, but it'll most likely end up at around 5 minute of game time, if even that. Way too short. Not only that, but I feel my game's story lacks a serious emotional punch. 

So, my focus on tomorrow will be on studying other games that have emotionally powerful stories (like To The Moon), and figuring out what gives them that "oomph". This could be very fun to do.

With that said, here's my to-do list for tomorrow:

• Exercise
• Find games like "To The Moon"
• Study those games and take notes
• Expand story line
• Write dialogue
• Write in journal

See you tomorrow! 

 

[Joshua]

Day 3

Today was good for progress, even though I didn't get much done (procrastination, again). After doing a bit of research on "To the Moon", I quickly realized that I may be trying to tell the wrong story, or at least I'm telling my story in the wrong order (the game I'm working on is supposed to be part of a trilogy). Someone also mentioned that the movie "Up" was the inspiration behind "To the Moon", so it's worth looking into non-video game sources for inspiration (duh). I was also reminded of that touching scene in "Up", which is often described as a very touching love story. It proves that you can tell a great story even in only a few minutes, so having a very short game might not be such a big issue after all. 

My biggest problem right now is procrastination. I need to figure out a system that makes it easy for me to get started on my scheduled tasks. One thing I've tried in the past that has worked well was a system called "Tiny Habits". The way tiny habits work is you take an existing habit to anchor a new habit, and when you do the existing habit, you do something very small (like flossing one tooth after you brush your teeth). This makes the new habit small enough so that it becomes very easy to get started. I'll have to try to do something similar for this challenge.

Here is my to-do list for tomorrow:

• Exercise
• Outline story for new game
• Write descriptions for places
• Describe character actions
• Write dialogue
• Write in journal

I'm going to write a script for a new game (that's part of the trilogy), to see if it feels "right" to me. I want to make sure I choose the right starting point for this series. 

See you tomorrow!

 

[Joshua]

Day 4

I am pleased to announce that I was able to make progress on my game throughout the day, rather than putting it off until the last minute, like I usually do. I was able to do this by telling myself to "just write one sentence", before I went off on the Internet to do something, or before I got out of my chair. Sometimes I just wrote a sentence or two. Other times I was able to write a few paragraphs. Slowly but surely, I made more progress on my game in a single day than I have since I started this challenge. Mind you, I still spend most of the day being unproductive, but it will take me a while before I can reach a point where I'm productive for long stretches of time. 

So what did I do today? I was able to write a one page synopsis for a different game in the trilogy I'm planning, and so far I'm feeling really good about this new direction. I feel like that the story is in the order in needs to be, and there's no more confusion about the overall story. I even wrote some basic character sheets for the main characters in my game, which need some improvement still.

This challenge is an on-going experiment, so it'll take a while before I can find a "groove" that works well for me. 

Here is my to-do list for tomorrow:

• Exercise
• Expand synopsis to 5 pages
• Draw outline of game maps
• Sketch out map drafts
• Prototype maps in RPG Maker
• Write in Journal

A note about my to-do lists thus far; I don't think I've ever had a day when I've completed every item on my to-do list. I think that's mostly because I have too many items on it. I usually have a tough time thinking of enough tasks to do that will fill my quota, which isn't a good thing. I'd probably would have been better off starting out with having just three items on my daily to-do list. I may try to shorten my to-do list if I continue to struggle to get everything on it done. 

 

[Diego2112]

Sounds like things are coming right along for ya!

As to getting things done on the to-do list, don't worry if you don't tick off every checkmark.  Just work on getting things done one at a time, and take it as it comes.  *Nods*

Keep at it!  And if ever you feel let down/discouraged, remember:

DO NOT BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!  BELIEVE IN ME, WHO BELIEVES IN YOU!

 

[Joshua]

Thanks, Xenos.

Day 5

Today, I pretty much got nothing done. Woke up later than I usually like to, and had work in the morning. Felt completely exhausted afterwords, so I decided to give myself permission to fail today. An important part of success is to plan days where you give yourself permission to fail. It can help keep you motivated on the tough days before, and if you do fail to get anything done, it won't upset you, because it was planned in advance. I haven't really planned any "permission to fail" days yet, but I may do that on the days when I have work, or at least make it so that I only have to achieve something very small.

I'm going to shorten my to-do list to just 3 items for a few days, to see if that works better. Here it is:

• Exercise
• Expand synopsis to 5 pages
• Write in Journal

 

[Diego2112]

Don't worry, bro.  I -YOINKED!- up bad on my stuff today and failed most epic myself!  See, I had to go in an hour later'n normal, but ended up working nearly five hours later'n normal.  So it was after 7PM when I finally got home today.  I told my wife, "Babe, don't let me sleep too late-I just need a quick lie-down to catch my breath."

Yeah, I woke up quite literally ten minutes ago.

So I've not done THING ONE on my game today!

You're in good company!

 

[Joshua]

Ouch. Sorry man. That's rough. Speaking of which...

Day 6

I cam verrrrry close to not getting anything done today. I only started working literally 20 minutes before midnight, which is my "deadline". I started out trying to expand my synopsis, like I had originally planned, but I got stuck, and felt unmotivated. I figured that I wasn't really making any real progress on the game, so I decided to try to make some maps, but I got stuck again. After that I came to the conclusion that I would probably have better luck writing a scene for the script. And then I procrastinated all day.

I was successful in writing the very first scene for my script, which is good, since dialogue is a pretty important part of my game. I think it will also help a bit with my mapping, since I'll have a clearer idea of what things should look like. And, it'll help me figure out the specific details of my story, which I'm having a hard time with (or was, until I started writing the script). I guess my synopsis is done, since it's only purpose is to outline the story, and at this point all I really need to figure out are the specifics. 

I'm going to try to aim a bit lower with my to-do list for tomorrow, so I don't get overwhelmed so easily. Here it is:

• Exercise
• Write one scene
• Write in Journal 

See you tomorrow!

 

[Joshua]

Day 7

Wow. Has it already been a week since I started this challenge? Time sure does fly. 

Today, I did something a little different. I decided to check my email and write just one sentence before I exercised, which I usually do right after breakfast. I ended up writing a whole scene, and I was able to carry that momentum throughout the day and write a couple of more scenes. I may be on to something here.

I also realized that at my current pace, I probably won't get done with the game before the contest is over. I need to pick up my pace, and figure out a way to work for 6+ hours in a row.

Here is tomorrow's to-do list:

• Exercise
• Write beginning and ending of all scenes
• Write in Journal

See ya tomorrow.

 

[Joshua]

Day 8

My hope with writing the beginning and end of every scene was that it would make it easier to write everything in one go, but that didn't happen. I found myself getting "blocked". Also realized it was kind of redundant, since I already have an outline of the story. I just need to focus on writing the script. I did manage to finish a scene, but outside of that made no significant progress.

 

[Diego2112]

YOU CAN DO IT!  STICK WITH IT!  Now, strap it, take a deep breath, squeeze those legs!  READY, HIT IT! (the Blue Angels are heroes of mine)

Seriously, writers block sucks bad.  Easy way I've found to overcome it (and it may not work for you) is have a movie or some music or something that inspires you playing in the background.  For instance, tomorrow, I'll be working on mapping (which has it's own form of blocking!), and to inspire me, since this game is kind of a space western, I'll be playing the Tom Selleck movie "Monte Walsh (one of my very favorite movies EVER)" in the background.  Won't be WATCHING it per-se, but it'll be going on, and it'll do the trick nice I think.

(See, I told you I'd be typing in all caps to inspire you, and SO I AM!  YOU CAN DO IT!  DO NOT BELIEVE IN YOURSELF, BELIEVE IN ME, WHO BELIEVES IN YOU!)

 

[Joshua]

LOL! Thanks for the kind words, Xenos. I really appreciate it.

Day 9

Today was a disaster. I wrote one little scene, and figured out a scene list so I could get a proper idea of how many scenes are in my game. I'm hoping it will make the whole project less overwhelming to me. 

My biggest struggle is still procrastinating all day long. I've got to figure out a consistent method of getting stuff done, when I want to do it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

 

[Diego2112]

LOL! Thanks for the kind words, Xenos. I really appreciate it.

Day 9

Today was a disaster. I wrote one little scene, and figured out a scene list so I could get a proper idea of how many scenes are in my game. I'm hoping it will make the whole project less overwhelming to me. 

My biggest struggle is still procrastinating all day long. I've got to figure out a consistent method of getting stuff done, when I want to do it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

GET BACK TO WORK!  NO PROCRASTINATING!

Are you on Steam?  If you're on Steam, get with some friends who are also on Steam while they do whatever.  Just being able to say to someone "Hey, I just finished THIS!" REALLY helps a lot.  It's what my buddy Fluffy and I do most days.  Tomorrow, he'll actually be coming over, so it won't be as much an issue.  

Another option:  Unplug your internet for the time you want to work on your game.  That's what George Arg Arg Martin does.  Well, ACTUALLY, he uses a super-old computer with a super-old word processor.  Makes sense to me, really.

Yet a THIRD option:  ASSUMING you're of the proper age, have a couple fingers of Who Hit John.  I find it soothes the nerves and relaxes me just enough to not worry about the constant pain I'm in (from various injuries over the years).

Or, ya know, I could just SHOUT AT YOU LIKE SARGE!!!  YOU CALL THAT WORKING???  I CALL IT *LAAAAAAAAZY*!!  I'VE SEEN PRIVATE GRIF WORK HARDER THAN THAT!!!  SIMMONS!  TAKE A NOTE!  THIS FELLA NEEDS TO STOP HANGING AROUND GRIF!  HE'S A BAD INFLUENCE.  Grif, that is, Grif is bad at EVERYTHING.

Execute Operation SHOOT GRIF IN THE FACE!    (it really helps if you read it in Sarge from RvB's voice)

 

[Joshua]

Xenos, you are awesome. Thanks so much for the encouragement. The Steam chat is a good idea. I do have Steam, but don't really use it. Skype would be better for me.

Day 10

Today was a huge success. I added almost 1,500 words to my script, and I started out with just over 1,000, meaning I more than doubled my script in a single day. This is huge. I was able to do this by making one small change to my to-do list; instead of trying to add specific writing goals, such as writing a scene, I made it a goal to write 10 times today, and used little "I" markers to track my progress. This did multiple things.

First, it took my focus away from how much I was writing, and put towards how many times I wrote in the day. If I do a specific writing goal, I tend to want to get it done all in one go. But with this, my goal switched to writing any amount multiple times throughout the day, which made it much easier to actually write more than once in a day.

Second, it made me actually want to write. By setting a goal for 10 writing sessions, it almost became a game for me, and I found myself wanting to sit down to write, throughout the day. 

Finally, it drastically increased my productivity, as I have pointed out before. By focusing on having multiple writing sessions throughout the day, I was able to write much more than I usually do, even though I was only writing one or two paragraphs at a time. 

Now, it's too early to tell if this method is a "winner" or not, but I will be able to find out conclusively over the next few days. I also though of a way to make it more powerful; every time I have a writing session, I reward myself with something. Like watching a YouTube video (I love let's play videos, and watch a ton of them). I think this will work best if I plan out the rewards in advance of my writing goals, so everything is all laid out. 

I'm really excited for tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I may even finish the first draft of the script. If I'm REALLY lucky, I'll finish this game before the end of June.

I should also start tracking my time. It'd be nice to see that I'm working multiple hours a day on this, so that I can see that I'm actually working hard. 

Time to move forward.

Thanks for reading!

EDIT: Forgot to mention this, but I also listened to music while I worked, which helped. I listened to the SimCity 3000 soundtrack (video game music is good for working, since it's meant to act as background noise), which I downloaded for the sole purpose of helping me focus, but kept forgetting to use until today. And I still kept forgetting to turn it on sometimes, lol. But it does help, a lot. 

ANOTHER EDIT: Also thought I'd mention this: Rules to Success. Just a nice little inspirational video to give you a motivation boost.

P.S. The smilies on this forum suck. Sorry to say it, but they really do. 

 

[Diego2112]

/bows I do what I can to help out those which need it!  Plus, let's face it, Sarge is the best damn motivational speaker ever.

OF ALL TIME!

Glad to see you got quite a bit done!  That makes me happy, considering I'm in a total rut right now and stumped.  I need two more levels, but nothing-NOTHING is speaking to me.

This is a problem for me, as my creativity depends a lot on a handful of factors:  

Stress

Depression

Anger

without those three things-ALL THREE, my creativity is stifled to hell.  I've not wrote a new song in probably a YEAR because of that.  Used to be, when I worked at (Big Box Hardware Store I am Legally Obligated to NOT Name) and (Quick-Service Food Joint), my stress levels were THROUGH THE ROOF, and I was borderline suicidal.  I wrote more music in that time than EVER in my life, with the exception of High School.  Right now, though, my anniversary is tomorrow (seven years married to the most beautiful woman on earth), my daughter lost her first tooth and is learning to read, and last night, I got 22 kills in a single multiplayer match on Halo: Reach, including TWO killing sprees, FOUR double kills, two triple kills, AND FIRST STRIKE.  There is LITERALLY nothing going wrong right now, apart from the level-block.

And that's not enough to get me worked up TO creative.

Not sure what's going on.  I need to get mad or something. lawl

Anyway, glad to see you're making progress!  

I AM BEHIND YOU!!!  YOU CAN DO IT! *Goes to read political articles to get p*ssed off*

 

[Joshua]

Sorry that you're having a hard time with your creativity. I can't say those things motivate me to get things done, but I can totally understand where you're coming from. 

Day 11

Today was an off day for me. Not sure why, but wasn't able to make a ton of progress. The "write 10 times" method helped (I only wrote 5 times today), and I ended up writing around 740 words for my script, which isn't too bad. Still, not making the progress I'd like to. My goal is to have the script completely finished by the end of this week. I still have a ways to go before finishing my first draft, and I can already tell it's going to need plenty of editing when it's finished. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. 

 

[Joshua]

Day 12

Today I wrote about 1,500 words for my script. Today was better than yesterday, in more ways than one. For instance, I picked up an old hobby that I had dropped a long time ago, a hobby that is responsible for getting me into writing: Role-Playing. To be specific, play-by-post role playing. I started a thread on a forum I used to frequent, and so far I've written over 1,000 words for that RP. I've noticed a couple of interesting things: First, it became easier for me to "get creative" when writing my script and to give my characters a more unique voice. Second, by inventing a character on the spot and starting a story, I was able to learn a lot about my character, and it came more naturally to me than if I had tried just creating a character sheet. 

I also just about kicked myself in the head. After reading a different thread on this board, I realized something important; setting limitations is vital to succeed with these kinds of challenges. One of the posters mentioned limiting yourself to just 3 maps if mapping overwhelmed you, and I immediately thought, "how could I create a one hour story with just three maps?". I started getting ideas right away.

The reason I'm kicking myself is because I did not set any limitations on myself when I started this challenge, which should have been the very first thing I had done. It's not too late though.

Finally, the most important improvement I noticed is that I found myself really wanting to work on my script, even when I was doing more entertaining things like watching livestreams and YouTube videos. That's not to say I was totally successful in shutting everything down and working for several hours on my script, but I came close to doing that. I think in time, I'll find it easier to focus on just doing the work and shutting out pointless distractions. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Also, this blog post helped a lot: http://writetodone.com/fictional-improvisation/ 

So I guess there's three major takeaways for today:

1. Limitations are a powerful way to increase your creativity.
2. Don't be afraid to improvise on the spot and make it up as you go.
3. Trust yourself, and trust the process.

See you tomorrow.