Today is day-2 of the company "Hacksgiving" - basically a 3 day marathon event for several small teams to hack together some very simple game prototypes.
I'm working on a game called "Low - G". It's basically To-Fu meets Angry Birds Space. The point is to safely guide your poor little astronaut back to his ship by leaping off walls and using terrain and gravity wells to avoid the myriad obstacles that would end his meager existence on a premature note.
It's incredibly simple, and already fun to just watch the silly little astronaut bounce around the screen. Today is the serious work day - coding, putting together art, and getting it all working for the Wednesday presentations.
There are also several other teams working on some fun ideas: Dog Vs Zombies, Kitten Quest, a Welltris take with some neat twists.
But what I find most fascinating about this kind of activity, is the energy it produces. It's all pie in the sky, but in bite-size chewy bits that you can get your teeth around. There's no chance for that initial fire of potential and creativity to wane. No chance to lose motivation over a 3-6 month dev cycle. Or a two-year cycle, if you're working in the AAA/console arena.
I, quite literally, have today and only today to put together all of the necessary assets in a nice enough way to make it look presentable. I don't even have time to think about it!
Whew.
But this has me thinking about a little something called motivation. And in this case, I'm talking motivation over the longer term - while seeing a project come to fruition over months and years. I'm sure anyone who's spent any amount of time on a creative project has recognized the pattern -
Day/Week/Month 1 - On fire! Lovin' it. This is gonna be awesome!
Day/Week/Month 3 - Well, I guess we could drop this, let that go. This part isn't working - we'll have to start over...
Day/Week/Month 6 - Man, I'll be happy when this is over.
Many of us have our side projects - our passion projects - and they are no less susceptible to the creeping chilliness of fraying determination. There are numerous answers to this problem. Some artist friends of mine deliberately keep their projects very tiny - very fast - to enable a quick turn around before that fire in the belly peters out. They find that to be highly rewarding, and I can understand why.
But what if, like me, you crave the challenge of something bigger, more complex? More involved. More...interdisciplinary.
What do you do then? When you stare into the face of a burning idea so big and terrible and complex, that whenever you tell anyone about it, they look on in amazement and say "good luck with that..." Even your supportive artist friends and family, from their outside vantage point, look on your goal with a mixture of awe, respect... and more than a little pity and hopeful desperation.
The hopeful desperation comes from the ardent desire that you do take it to finish - because that would then mean it's possible for anyone to do.
The pity comes from the recognition that it's also highly unlikely you will make it all the way through to the end.
But what if there were a way to drastically improve the odds of making that vision happen?
I think there is a way, though I could be wrong. And I will be testing my hypothesis on this as I continue work on Skybound and the rest of the Fate-Shifter Saga. Why not?
I'm sure a lot of people have opinions on this issue. What are your thoughts?
I'll weigh in on my next post!
Congratulations on winning the competition! I knew you would. :)
ReplyDeleteAs to your post, I think the most awe-inspiring aspect for someone like me, who watches a lot of your projects take shape from beginning to end, is the way you make it look so simple. I always find myself thinking that so much magic happens from just that little gesture of pencil to paper - so much life and energy. It looks easy, it looks well, possible. But the real magic is the fact that it takes a lot of determination and quieting that inner critic to make your ideas really come to life, the real magic is that it is possible even though it's not easy at all.
Hehe. Thanks. I was very surprised when they announced we had won. All the teams were made up of talented people, and the competition was fierce!
DeleteYou are right - one constant is that it is never easy. It seems effortless, but that's only because you aren't privy to the thoughts and voices in my head. And there is always something just not satisfactory about everything. But there is also endless joy in it . That joy is what keeps us coming back, despite the pain, I suppose.
Lately I've been realizing more and more how powerful and important it is to not try to force things. Let the subconscious do it's work and inform your conscious hand. Everything comes together in a, sometimes, unforeseen way. The little gremlins in the dark corners of your mind had a plan after all!