I am ashamed to admit that I don’t play every game I own. Some of them haven’t even been fired up a single time on the machine for which they were destined to be played. Why is that?

Well, the easy answer is that I buy too many games for my current life style, and that is definitely true. I just don’t have as much free time as I had before I had kids. However, that answer doesn’t sit quite so well with me. It doesn’t feel like enough of a reason. I know that if I dedicated all of my free time towards the effort, I could play most, if not all, of those titles. It would take time, but I could slog through them. So then, why don’t I just do that?

The more complex answer is that I find many types of games I own to be mentally exhausting. I do tend to gravitate to the ones involving a lot of action and little else because of that. I just can’t bring myself to face the onslaught of constant decision making most of the time. I do play those other types of games, and I will enjoy them to varying degrees, but I find the exercise of unwinding a little harder than  when playing a game like Doom. The fact that I play these games at all is ironic, because I often partake in electronic games to unwind.

With games like Doom, it comes down to a constant cycle of challenge, failure, and success. I have a job and home life where I am challenged with all sorts of problems on a daily basis. That reality is stressful, and I often feel like I make very little progress in the day to day. When I play a game like Doom, it is challenging and I do fail often, but I also succeed multiple times as well. I don’t get that kind of tight cycle in a game like Divine Divinity, the cycle is much slower. With Doom or perhaps a good platformer, those short, micro wins are fulfilling. Sure the mental onslaught of fear, anger, and worry while playing these sorts of titles is tiring eventually, but at the end of it I have usually made significant progress and that progression is enjoyable and ultimately, worth the price of admission.

Categories: Games, Reflections
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For some people, the hardest part of any project is just getting started. There are many reasons why this can be the case, but for me, here are the two areas where I normally get stuck:

• Priorities – I have a family. I have many hobbies. Deciding what to focus on in the latter bucket and how to juggle that with the former is a challenge, and perhaps it is my biggest challenge when it comes to starting a new project. Deciding to focus on one thing and the expense of other things can be very difficult, especially when your project gets hard, or when a bright shiny object comes into view. Keeping your goals realistic is probably the single best rule worth following. Plan for a singular, specific goal, and then try to manage your time around that. For example, today I had the goal of getting my development environment setup and fixing a sample project to help get me started on my journey of building a small game in Love2D for my kids. As with any game, there are many steps, but I am not concerned about those at this point.
• Analysis Paralysis – It can be difficult to choose the right tools and technologies for a project. The reason behind the analysis is clear, but the cause of the paralysis is usually because I don’t know enough about the tools, technologies, or the project itself to make a decision. In this case, I suggest just jumping in and try to decide on one or two evaluation points, where you can take a step back and try to take what you have learned and apply it against what you have yet to build. Do you see any major problems with the tools and technologies you have chosen going forward? Do you need to make a pivot towards something else?

Categories: Game Development, Programming, Projects, Reflections
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I took a chance on this little Windows computer to solve a couple of problems:

• I needed a portable Windows game platform
• I needed something small with an appropriate number of USB ports (for joystick support)
• I wanted it to be quiet with very few zero fans whirring and humming

Right out of the gate, I was impressed with this machine. Forget about gaming for a second, this is an excellent machine for those wanting a Windows “desktop” computer without wanting or needing a large machine or laptop. This machine is so small you could easily attach it to the back of most monitors. It has friendly set-up process that everyone in your family should be able to follow with little difficulty (assuming they’ve touched a Windows computer in the last 5 years). The performance is excellent for those wanting to do a little e-mail, web browsing, etc. I have an interest in using it for games, but nothing 3D or with extremely heavy weight processing requirements.

Categories: Game Development, Hardware, PC, Projects, Windows
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