I've really lost focus as of late. I started submitting my game to publishers, started posting it into forums hoping someone would give it a try. And I start to become obsessed with the notion of others playing the game, wondering if they enjoyed it, wondering if some game breaking bug preventing them from enjoying it. Wonder if they even tried it out.

This obsession is good when you're developing systems and trying to go the distance of making a fun game. It's not good when you have work to do and all you're thinking about are things out of your control. So we're gonna get back to what we have control over...

BITCHEN TECHNOLOGY!

Back to getting work done! The world may be crazy, and it may be a REAL PAIN just trying to get a small handful of people to try the game, but now is not the time to do that. Now is the time to continue polishing and making it the game it needs to be.

In a month or two when the levels are fully online, when the dialogue is polished, when spawn systems and level design are working in tandem and the game is coming together. THEN it will be time to try to get people to play it and get feedback, until then, it's just noise.

Last thought for today, gonna try to focus on actually getting work done! I've said this before, but it's really time I start actually changing course and engaging in spaces such as this in a way that actually attracts potential players. Start releasing bite sized clips that captivate players, start creating promo material that reads like something from a fun game. Maybe revise the logo a little and "Brand" the game a bit better.

I will still do blathers here and there, but I will hide them away. We're entering the transition phase, this is no longer the crazy venture that I can just blather about and share my thoughts completely and be wacky random crazy person on the internet. I really gotta start being more "professional", start trying to go viral, start being "fun" and to be straight up, kinda vapid and shallow. That's just how the game is played if you want to actually make a game that reaches players and starts building a following. 

But we're not worrying about that just yet! For now we're worried about BITCHEN TECHNOLOGY!

https://www.facebook.com/100064035043542/videos/celebrity-jeopardy-calista-flock...

(45 second mark)

Where did "bitchen" go? That was such a good word. WTF SPELLCHECK THAT'S HOW THE WORD IS SPELLED! EVERYONE IS SO FRIGGIN' EASILY OFFENDED THESE DAYS.

EDIT: So after totally getting in my head about how hard it is to get a single solitary soul to try this damned game, I went ahead and got some work done! Not the best day ever, but not the worse! 6 VERY solid hours of work, and I totally revamped the load/ unload system which I thought was going to be a massive headache full of bugs and speedbumps, but it just went super smooth! Kinda can't believe it, very good day of dev today. I needed this...

I have this thing I keep thinking about. Do I want to introduce bonus systems that are all the rage akin to vampire survivors and death must die? Or do I keep it more itemized akin to Diablo? I'm not sure I like how the UI currently works in the game, but then again, I haven't really started introducing items yet.

I'm thinking about bonuses that enhance your items, and when you get a new one, you start back at 0. I dunno... I also think of those old school shooters where if you get the same item multiple times, you improve it.

NOT SURE WHAT TO DO! But in the meantime there's much to fix, and from there I haven't really gotten an idea of how items feel in the game yet. but my gut tells me this game will be more fun if Items are more rare, and there are more permanent bonuses that drop to spice things up. I think this is the best way to go!

Maybe in the future I introduce more elemnts from Vampire survivor, with being able to "banish" certain upgrades and bonuses so that the player has more control over their "build" and drops become more exciting. But i'm spread so damned thin I don't have the time to clean up all my systems to make them more dynamic. A lot of stuff is super clunky and held together by duct tape and those ARE NOT systems you want to mess with too much, unfortunately. We'll save this for the future! In the meantimem core things to get online. Scaling difficulty, new chunks, new enemies, more items, more bonuses. LOTS TO DO! Lot's of low hanging fruit! Exciting times!