Meh. Back to basics.

Man, this character sucks.

I'm going to have to start over on him. He's a steampunk robot who's meant to be a the sidekick for the Steampunk ship's pilot. I "designed" him to be whimsical (check), goofy-looking (check), steampunk (check), and awesome (Nope). Part of his schtick was that he resented the form he was designed with. I started to give him a Penny Farthing (the old fashioned bicycle with one big wheel and one Small wheel) for locomotion, but I found myself hating him. My enthusiasm for working on the project started to fail, and it was all because I could think of a way to make this guy live up to the standards of the rest of the concept. In addition my monitor is dying- it gets fuzzy after long use and has to be turned off, and the combination of these has proven too much for me to push through.

So here's what I'm going to do. I think I'm being a bit too ambitious with the idea of having the demo be both Space and Land based. There's exponentially more work once I bring things planetside, so I'm going to focus on space combat for now. Once I have a working prototype under my belt I'm more likely to get my fire back. I firmly believe in this setting, and even though I haven't been doing as much graphical stuff, I think about it constantly. Fantasy Aliens, Strange vistas, magic... it's all very inspiring. I've been writing a lot of concepts down for later.

For now, though, I'm going back to my ships. I'm going to finish them up, then make sure I have an interesting arena for the combat. I can dip my foot into character animation and crude AI with the PC-controlled ships, the whaliens and one other spacefaring alien type I've planned on having. No need to try humans quite yet.

So yeah. I've reassessed the project, and I'm going to try to get back to basics, for now.

I Stand Alone...

Well, my friend won't be joining the project. He doesn't enjoy the programming. Ironically, I *do* enjoy what little programming I've done over the years, even though it's not easy for me. For this kind of project, it's probably best to make sure that everything is done by someone who's passionate about their area.

I've also learned a lesson. I've come close to learning this lesson in the past, but for the first time I've internalized it.

The lesson is: Don't try to rope friends into your projects. :) Spontaneous (opposed to professional) collaboration can work, certainly, but it's not easy to get right, and even if a friend is as interested in a subject as you are and believes in your idea, they have their own perspectives, priorities, and drives. They almost certainly won't have the same level of passion for your specific project as you do.

This lesson didn't come to me in a negative way at all. Our friendship is just as good as it was before. But it doesn't always work out that way. Luckily, my friend knew how important creative projects were to me, and was very fair from the beginning. There were no expectations- he'd check out the programming, and if he liked it, he'd be on board. If not, I'd continue on my own.

This turned out infinitely better than having him join out of guilt or obligation then ditch the project once we were deep into it.

Onward...

*Possible* Co-conspirator...

I've had some real life things to attend to, but I am still on the project. I should be back in full force tomorrow.

In other news, I've offered a place on the project to an old friend- one of only two people I personally know who I'd trust on a creative project this important to me (I'd absolutely work with professionals, but not necessarily a friend who just thought it would be cool but couldn't help much). If he's up to the challenge I think that our skills and perspectives would complement each other.

He'd be coming on as a programmer. I am confident that I can learn the required programming since the engine does a lot of heavy lifting, but I think that if he came on board he'd do it better and likely faster. His mind naturally works that way, while I have to get into the right mindset to pick up that kind of thing. Furthermore, after the demo, I'd like to go a lot further with the concept, I can't do it alone.

Here's the rub- He'd have to learn programming, just as I've been learning my ends. Technically, I know more programming that he does at the moment. I know what it entails, and I know that he can pick it up. He used to win chess competitions, and is one of the best math guys I know.

I know he can do it...if he wants to.

For anyone who's reading this because I've billed it as "One guy making a video game", I wasn't actively looking for a partner. If he says no I don't plan to seek another one. I just felt that he'd help to make this and any follow up projects better.

I guess I believe that ultimately it's great to do something alone, but if the project would truly benefit from willing teammates, it's foolish to not take advantage of that.

I still don't know if my friend is willing to take on the challenge and near obsessive level of commitment that this will take, but I'll know by Friday. I'll let everyone know then. If he says yes, I'll obviously have to change the blog's name again. :)

This post may be much ado about nothing. For now, it's still just me. I'll try to posts some new pictures in the next few days. I've got most of the second major character done, but I still have to decide on a hairstyle and design his clothing. I've actually been working on a secondary character, though, and might finish him first.