June 03rd, 2017

After a much needed break from work and just life in general, I am getting back into the groove of learning and developing new ideas. I also built up the courage to finally join a month long game jam and try to make some cool ideas with a teammate. I have never joined a game jam due to a busy schedule but now since I am done with college and working half the day, I figured this would be a good time to try and get some ideas flowing as well as try to participate in a community that I have come to love. 

This jam is hosted by a YouTuber I mentioned previously, Matthew Palaje, who has been hard at work trying to get a good steady crowd to learn and become better in game development. I love his mentality and the small extra clips he does for the community that has grown around his videos. I, as a developer, have achieved so much by just trying to watch each segment he puts out as well as come up with some of my own ideas to try at some point when I complete these games with teams I have started. 

While up in the mountains of Wyoming I did a lot of spiritual searching and brainstorming as to games I want to make and as well as played quite a few mobile games. Some of the top games I play on mobile are not about actually keeping the players attention, but keep them coming back time after time in order to complete small goals that will eventually lead to a bigger goal. By making these small goals easily achievable players are more tempted to play and leave and come back later to try their next task. I already understood World of Warcraft's armor treadmill system but this really takes it to the next level. I think if I can really come up with a design that really rewards player for 10 minutes of play and make them feel like they are progressing to a bigger goal with small accomplishments, I could have a potential top mobile game. The problem with games like that is they need a lot of extra content that can't be easily recycled which is pretty much any games developer's dream for production. Smallest amount of work for large amount of content. 

With this in mind I have a potential contract I can put forth my efforts on as a day job as well as two games that I want to try and complete within the next month or two. Hopefully the efforts of all these projects don't go to waste and I can present these as good portfolio pieces to future employers. ​