The past few weeks have been really stressful, game development wise. I need to re-approach myself. I need to take back my goal mentioned a few weeks back in regards stepping up my game development.

The stress is coming from trying to manage and develop all the aspects of game development: brainstorming, prototyping, game development, brainstorming/prototyping (again – or at least I do), graphics, sound, and then testing, debugging, and feedback. Well, this approach of game development depends on the studio or indie developer, this one works for me best. Doing all this as a one-man-show doesn’t cut it. Not for a more complex game. Not for me anyways. I feel too much is a burden and days turn into weeks of game development. Hell, with game development being only a hobby/side-job, it can take months.

So what’s the plan now?

Go back to square one, number uno. Developing little pick up and play games. I hated to think about it at first, but then I thought about it more and now I am starting to see some really good benefits in doing just that.

For starts, I will have more resources to work with. I will have more graphics at hand, background music, sound effects, and more snippets of code. On top of that, most of these resources will be smaller in size, making it easier to manage, OR to develop on top of as time goes from game to game (thus making more complex games will become easier without knowing it). Thats how games are developed, correct? Start off small, then work your way up. I was getting ahead of my self and thinking I can develop a complex game within a month or two on the side. Those great game engines weren’t development from scratch as the companies claim they are. They used snippets of code from ALL their previous works, optimized it a bit or altered to work with the new hardware, and throw it in the next game engine knowing they will come back to it again.

So the past few weeks of so-called “complex game development” for me was a good kick in the ass to make me realize where I am really at.

I can’t wait to start again!