Originally published on December 31, 2024
Earlier this month, I found myself with hours of idle time in Terminal B of Boston’s Logan airport. My flight to Canada was delayed several times, giving me hours of downtime to pick away at a new project, setting Sad Land aside for the month.
This new project is a template that will allow me to create some smaller, bite-sized games within the next few years. When creating a new game in GameMaker, the program I use to develop my games, you start with a blank slate, which means you have to create menus, controller functionality, and even the pause screen from scratch every time you want to start something new. One way to make things easier for yourself is to create assets that can be reused across different games.
So far I’ve set up a functional title screen, graphical constraints, and mouse/controller functionality within this project. Instead of using the limitations of the Game Boy, like with Sad Land, this template is set up with the aspect-ratio/pixel density of SNES and the first PlayStation. Beyond creating this template, I’ve also taken some time to explore GameMaker’s video playback functionality (simple and intuitive to set up) and its potential for 3D games (far more complicated).
Exploring the potential for future projects may seem like it could distract me from ever completing Sad Land, however, I see it as a way to allow me to explore new avenues and keep my interest in game creation fresh. With a new calendar year just around the corner, December is a good time to reflect on progress made within the last twelve months and where we might be headed in the next twelve. My vision and to-do list for Sad Land has never been sharper, but I can also see how much work is left to complete for a project like this. Assets and story construction take time and are often not reusable. That said, as I inch closer to finish a demo, I have been considering how I can keep the work reasonable for the rest of the project based on all I’ve learned so far.
Exploring the potential for future projects may seem like it could distract me from ever completing Sad Land, however, I see it as a way to allow me to explore new avenues and keep my interest in game creation fresh. With a new calendar year just around the corner, December is a good time to reflect on progress made within the last twelve months and where we might be headed in the next twelve. My vision and to-do list for Sad Land has never been sharper, but I can also see how much work is left to complete for a project like this. Assets and story construction take time and are often not reusable. That said, as I inch closer to finish a demo, I have been considering how I can keep the work reasonable for the rest of the project based on all I’ve learned so far.
Once Upon A ___ (by Raeda Baird and Flynn Duniho) showcased at BostonFIG 2024.
After getting back from my trip to Vancouver, I had the chance to attend BostonFIG, a local showcase of indie games. Many of the developers I talked to were in their 20s, either students just finishing up university or relatively recent graduates. It was exciting to see such a variety of projects, some complete and some still works in progress. Playing several smaller-scale games, some of which were only a few months into development, gave me perspective and the glimpse of a thriving community, something I don’t see as I pursue game-development as a solo venture. Finishing games is hard but even getting a polished demo in front of real players is a big deal in and of itself. Hell, getting any piece of art out the door is a triumph.
Writer and Youtuber John Green recently released a video where he expressed his feelings about putting the final finishing touches on his upcoming book:
Writer and Youtuber John Green recently released a video where he expressed his feelings about putting the final finishing touches on his upcoming book:
This is first pass. It’s the first time I get to read my book Everything is Tuberculosis laid out as a book. It’s very exciting but I also feel a little bit of grief because in some ways it’s last pass. It’s last pass in a sense that I don’t get to change it after this pass. It’s just a strange thing. I have to stop reading the book so other people can start reading it, you know? I just turned in first pass last night, which means the book no longer really belongs to me. It belongs to its readers who will make whatever use they can of it for however long the book is read.
This experience of sharing your completed projects and letting them out into the world is something I try to keep present in my life beyond Sad Land: this newsletter gives me a prompt and hard deadline to keep myself accountable, last year I released a comic about game development, and every December I design a holiday card to send out to friends and family.
This year’s card highlights several locations I visited this year (Vancouver, Southern Ontario, New York City, Rome, and Disneyland). It was a packed year and much more traveling than I'm used to, so it felt right to capture that in my design.
A work-in-progress screenshot of the card. I used the color palette of UFO 50, the game I played the most this year.
Once I landed on the concept, I drew out each section of the card and completed it little by little. I often find about half-way through inking the card that breaking it out into sub-sections helps me just focus on one little part at a time. Without striving to complete these sub-sections, I find that my natural inclination is to only work on easier portions and never actually get to the parts that are undercooked or less defined. Splitting a larger project into smaller pieces of the whole reminds me of the most popular passage from Anne Lamott’s terrific book on writing, Bird by Bird:
Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table, close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, 'Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.'
Throughout my entire educational career, I would leave projects to the last minute much like Lamott’s brother. I remember crying on the night before a due date with a half-finished paper and faking sick to buy an extra day to get it done. I remember pulling all-nighters in college, watching the sun rise while setting my alarm so I could get a few hours of sleep before class. Since then, I’ve gotten better about managing my time and my focus to get things done but deadlines are always a great motivator.
My 2023 holiday card depicting my wonderful cat Franklin.
If you’re reading this, I hope you were able to take some time to relax this holiday season. I’m ready to dive back into Sad Land refreshed and refocused in 2025 and planning to take on the year one bird at a time.
Sincerely,
Neil
Sincerely,
Neil