Skip to main content

The Power of A Goal

In my many months of messing around with Unity, I have started numerous projects, few of them to completion. I never seemed to understand why? I tried many approaches to the development of a game, some I "just winged it", others I planned everything down to how many hairs a character would have, but they all turned out the same, they all failed. Why? Lack of goals.

The only games I have officially released have all been game Jams, and they all had a deadline to meet. A quantifiable goal to work towards. This is key. For without a goal, we are a homing missile that has no target.

As a creative person, freedom is something that we require in order to be at our best, but without bite sized goals, it is easy to get overwhelmed by larger scale projects. How do we combat it? By using a tool that can enhance our productivity ten fold. A tool that can provide clarity through the mish mash of ideas being generated within our heads. A tool that can be used by everyone. A goal.

I'm sure you have all heard of S.M.A.R.T goals, well the key point to them is be specific. Don't just say, I want to finish my game. Give yourself a deadline. When do you want to finish your game? I want to release an early alpha to my game by 30th of May. That can provide you with so much more drive to actually finish it.

It doesn't just end there. Break everything down into bite sized chunks, things that can take less than 30 minutes to achieve. For example when you want to create a character for your game, don't just have "Create character" as your goal. Break it down into parts, draw 3 concept sketches of character, 3d model character, texture character. It can really help to make things seem more achievable. It keeps momentum going, which when working on big projects is really key!

 I like to use an App called ToDoIst which can really help me to break down my projects into smaller goals.

https://todoist.com

As a last bit of motivation, get out there and do something creative. Something that gives you a great sense of joy. Start it today, whether it is go down to the park and try your hands at some nature photography, or modelling something out of clay. Get your hands on something creative. You'll never regret it.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Birth of a character

Hello all, An update on what I am currently working on, which is inspired by a great tutorial on Udemy to make a glitch garden clone. I have taken it upon myself to adapt it and give it my own spin. The overall concept for the game was created in 2D, but in my adaptation I am working on transforming it into 3d. A medium I am much more comfortable in, which is odd, as 2D games can be considered easier to make. If you are looking to create your own assets in 3d I can't recommend enough the use of Blender. A free 3d modelling package, which when you get past the learning curve can be a very powerful tool. Saving you hundreds of pounds. https://www.blender.org/ My first character for the game is going to be the Archer. With a generic low health, high damage output makeup. First I build the 3D model working off many reference images, which when creating any form of visual art, is essential! Seriously from something as little as a background rock to a full 3d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Demon Rite: Creating A world at my Fingertips

Hey everyone, A small update on how development is going so far. Mostly it has been pen to paper and scribbling down lots of different ideas, focusing on getting some good design principles down first. I find experimenting a little can help fuel my ideas and I will hop backwards and forwards between unity and my pad. One of the first features I want to implement in this game is a procedural world for players to explore.  Thus making each world completely unique for your little demons to invade. There are many ways to tackle this, but I like to follow the principle of K.I.S.S... Keep it simple STUPID! Please note, everything art wise is all concept art. So I set to work creating a simple tile based grid system. - Each Tile is 4 x 4 units wide so it was just a matter of creating the world using a "God" tile - Each God Tile is a sum of all the different tile types I am going to have in the world - So far I have PLAINS, WOODLAND (well white cubeland atm), MOUNTAIN (Big...
Post a Comment
Read more