Down Time

I took the last several days off from my GameDev endeavors to give my brain a rest and recharge my batteries. I used the down time to get inspired again by playing games instead of designing them. Of course, whenever I play a game now I am always analyzing and trying to “peek under the hood” to see if there are any concepts I can discern and implement for myself. I think this is the basis of inspiration.

Friday night I gamed online with an old friend and we jammed for a few hours to the tune of Payday 2. It has become a semi-regular Friday night thing and I look forward to the socializing and shared experience. I used to roll with a regular crew of about six guys every Friday night, but I grateful there is still three of us still connecting on the regular. Payday 2 has been a great way for us to hook up relieve the stresses of the week. I mean, come on. Nothing says let’s chill like getting together and blasting people in the face.

Saturday I spent my morning working on Assassin’s Creed 3 some more. I am getting near the end of the game and the completionist in me is wrapping up all my side missions and collection quests, so that is a lot a fun. I took a huge break from the series after the AC2 trilogy and have been dying to get back into it, especially with all the games that have come out since then in the series.

Saturday afternoon I devoted to Factory Town, which was scratching that whole town-builder itch I was having. It’s a great game that has seen a lot of work done to it and I’m blown away that it’s all the work of a solo developer. Guys like this are my true inspiration and their success fills me with hope for my own someday.

Sunday morning was more AC3 and I just kept plugging away at some of the various challenges I still had sitting uncompleted. I was some good chill time. I had some things to do outside since the afternoon was so nice, but later on split some time between While True: Learn() and Moonlighter. Both are great games.

While True: Learn() is fun because I feel like I am still working on a form of coding while having fun playing around. The concepts of machine learning are thought-provoking and the game actually includes references and materials for further study. It’s one of those “edu-tainment” games, which is really appealing.

Moonlighter is fun to just throw on and make some dungeon runs. It’s a solid game that has a fun core and helps me scratch my inventory management itches. It’s one of those games you can play for a few minutes or a few hours, whatever you’re in the mood for.

Now that the weekend is over, and I’ve squandered enough production time, it’s time to get back to work. Panic Room isn’t going to make itself, but I was glad for the break and needed the time to have fun and get back in touch with my gaming roots. It’s important to do that once in a while and remember why I want to make games so badly – because I enjoy playing them so much!