It was terribly humid today, the first of the year. I woke up with a wretched headache, like a hangover. Not a great sign of the days to come…
Stepped out of engine today, spent the day planning out work for the next section of the game. I have to start working on it at some point or I’m never gonna build enough momentum to start wrapping things up. I’m taking this weekend off to work on a contract for a friend of mine, but once I return I plan on splitting my days between working on entirely new content, and revisiting old stuff (including finishing up the sensors, as well as other interfaces around the outpost). I really need to organise my priorities, start shifting towards an end…
Got a bit of work done today, finished the animation for replacing the batteries in such a way that I feel can be applied universally moving forward, which saves me a lot of work down the line. I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how I want to handle the internal system functions for it – namely, navigating the menus and whatnot – and I’ve come to the conclusion that maybe it’s best if I didn’t. Looking over the actual functionality of the product upon which it’s based, there’s very little actual troubleshooting involved (the mechanism of the device is pretty singular and uninvolved) and what can be troubleshooted in reality would simply be either unfeasible or inconvenient for me to implement properly. I think I’ll just leave it to the batteries for this one, and focus on more involved solutions elsewhere.
Another dead day, hardly touched the project. I had a good session though with the doctor that left me feeling a lot better afterwards. Had I not seen her I would’ve undoubtedly felt a lot worse about my lack of progress today in terms of my work; but instead, while I do feel a bit of frustration at myself, I feel more motivated to get things done properly tomorrow. I know I always say that, but these times, I really do mean it.
Felt awful today for no particular reason, barely got any work done. I managed to make the sounds for flipping the switches on and off, and that’s about it. So much for starting the week off on a good note…
Finally got around to doing a bit of work. Recorded and mixed some audio for opening and closing the sensor panel, and the battery cover. The sounds are a bit… flat, I guess, I’m not sure how else to put it, but they’ll do for now. I’d like to get the rest of the sounds recorded by tomorrow as well as the animation for removing and replacing each battery. After that, the only thing left to do with the motion camera is implementing the reset test function, which shouldn’t take more than a day: it’s some very minor graphics work in the form of lettering, and then just a bunch of fairly straightforward code.
At the end of this week I’d like to get the camera done, and start working on the microphone. I’d also like to sit down some time this week and figure out properly how to begin taking the next concrete steps towards beginning work on the second half of the game. I’ve deliberated way too long, and much of that is because of how insubstantial my plans have been heretofore. I need to figure out something solid and just commit to it.
Took the day off again. Felt vaguely sick all throughout the day for some reason, a kind of mild nausea almost indistinguishable from anxiety, although my thoughts were still. A bit like motion sickness actually now that I’m focusing in on it… I should try to get something done tomorrow. At the very least, some audio for the batteries, maybe even the animation if I’m feeling better. Progress is too slow these days…
Took the day off. Woke up remarkably early around 0700 after a vaguely unpleasant dream and realised almost immediately that I would not be able to accomplish anything today. I honestly don’t remember what I did after that but at 1500 I met with Haolun and we drove around for a while, went to the lake, looked at the sky. It was nice seeing him again. The sky today was remarkably clear, completely devoid of clouds and expression. Just a flat, hard blue from end to end.
Implemented a functional multimeter to the battery display, and changed the way battery capacities are measured as well. Instead of just having a strict binary capacity – charged or not charged – each battery now has an individual voltage capped at 1.5V, that’s displayed on the multimeter UI. Any batteries under 0.5V should be replaced; Avery will not replace batteries with a charge higher than that. It’s a much more elegant solution than the one that I was planning previously. All I need now is to make an animation for switching out the batteries and it should be good to go.
Another day of minor work. I finally managed to finish the UI text display for the auto-ping feature, which properly adapts to different levels and responses of sweeps now: when there is no sensor present in the cell, the detector will launch three attempted sweeps before returning avoid, and when there is one present, the detector will ping first instead of immediately displaying the sensor metadata. I also added sound effects for opening and closing the detector. I feel pretty satisfied with it now and can safely say that I’m finished working on it for the time being. On to other things then…
Didn’t get much work done today, but I did finally end up getting the active ping that I mentioned in yesterday’s entry working just now. The device now begins sending out an active sweep automatically as soon as it’s brought up, and as long as a sensor is in the room, it’ll continue pinging until the device is closed, using a frequency-based sweep to measure proximity. The interface itself could be improved a bit in terms of appearance, which I hope I’ll be able to get done tomorrow (or, well, later today). I also fixed an issue today with the standing animation that for whatever reason had broken during the initial conversion to 2.3.
Had a weird session with the doctor today. It wasn’t at all bad per se, she just brought up a few subjects I wasn’t quite expecting, which caught me off-guard and resulted in me giving a few responses that I found (both at the time, and in retrospect) to be unsatisfactory. I’m not too worried about it, but it is something to consider for next time.
Felt like shit today for some reason, but I was able to get some work done tonight regardless. I started off by improving the interface for the detector a bit, changing the font and adding in an additional screen for cells with no sensors active. I then implemented the sweep that allows the player to detect sensors by sending out a ping. When the sweep encounters the sensor in that room, it beeps, and terminates the wave, allowing the player to approximate its location by the amount of time in between the initial XMIT and the RECV.
Tomorrow, I’d like to tweak the functionality a bit so that players must first send out an initial ping per cell to determine if there are any sensors in it, starting with a blank screen (or, if I can get the persistence working, the screen from the previous ping). Currently it immediately displays whether the room has any active sensors in it, which I feel is a bit too easy.
Took today and yesterday off in an attempt to recover some stamina before this work week. I hope to get the handheld detector done by the end of tomorrow, so that I can get back to working on the camera. Hopefully by Thursday I’ll be able to implement full functionality for the camera. If I can get those two things finished by the weekend, I’ll meet baseline expectations. The next step after that will be to link the camera with the outpost sensor and the global timeline, and get a functioning trigger system set up. After that… well, I’ll discuss that once I get there, best to just collect myself and get this shit done in the immediate first.
Easing back into a regular schedule. Minor adjustments today: created a new block state that allows the player to move but blocks interaction (previously blocking the latter could not be done without also blocking the former), specifically designed to work with the handheld detector. I also changed the appearance of the detector screen a bit, and drafted out the interface and functionality for it, which I hope to get implemented tomorrow.
Another late night (or, well, I suppose it’s dawn now by the time I’m writing this). I ended up effectively just taking the day off since I burned myself out a bit the previous night. I still feel like the momentum is strong though, and I think I’ll be able to get back into it again tomorrow.
First productive work day in a while, although I ended up staying up way too late because I lost track of time (it’s now 0540). Significantly expanded the motion camera UI, including a much-improved label-based navigation experience consistent with other systems, and developed a general framework for all the repairs moving forward. I’m starting work on a sensor radar device now which will help the player locate sensors in the immediate vicinity. It’ll vibrate when Avery enters a world cell with a sensor within it, and pinging it will return both its type and current status.
Saw the doctor again today. It was nice seeing her. I wasn’t feel so good when I woke up but talking to her made me feel a lot better. The weather outside was also really pleasant today. I decided to just stay outside for as long as I could. I didn’t end up working today either but I don’t feel so bad about it. I’ll have to spend some time tomorrow writing this month’s update. It should also help me orient myself back towards my tasks moving forward.
Guess what? I got nothing done today, either. I’m seeing the doctor tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back on track done again after I see her.
Last day on break. Felt a little better, or maybe just not so bad. Back to work tomorrow.
Took another day off. I feel… unwell, in a way can’t quite articulate. Like I’ve been suddenly robbed of all hope in, and concept of a future. It’s not even a question now of motivation, but sheer purpose. It’s like I’m drifting through an abstraction of the world, and who I was even just a week ago. My work holds almost no weight to me anymore… everything just feels completely insubstantial. I don’t necessarily even feel bad on a foundational level and truthfully, I only start feeling bad when I start becoming frustrated with the realisation that I don’t even really feel bad. I just feel utterly adrift, is what it is…
Ended up just taking the day off. I felt oddly a bit… off today. Not necessarily in a wholly negative way, but something just felt disturbed within me. I feel like I’m growing bored of living…
Started implementing the technical framework with the sensors, beginning with the motion camera. So far, I’ve implemented basic controls for removing the battery cover and batteries, and laid out the foundation for the draw stack. Before I progress much further, I should probably spend some time developing a draft for what elements go where, and more importantly, what elements I even need to begin with…
First day of in-engine work (technically) in almost a week, although technically it was still entirely spritework. I think I’ve settled upon a pretty satisfactory UI solution for navigating the sensors, that’s mechanically applicable on a universal level to all of the sensor types, while allowing a good degree of flexibility in terms of specific details and approaches. I also finished the sprites for the toolkit, and the four different kinds of batteries. I think I’ll definitely be able to have at least one fully functioning sensor by the weekend.
Decently productive day, got the spritework done for the motion sensor, the camera trap, and the EMF reader. I also finished the spritework for the toolkit, which I have to remember to add into the global inventory at some point. (Along with this, I also have to build in an extension to the inventory framework to accommodate for the new module system… that’ll probably take a day of work, I don’t imagine it’ll be too hard but the thought still fills me a sense of vague dread). Didn’t end up implementing anything in-engine though today: I still have to figure out the specific mechanics before I start designing any UI, and that’ll take some time for me to think through in general.
I woke up really late today – around 1400 – and felt awful at first, but then I started feeling a bit better. The weather’s gotten very pleasant lately. This evening, there was a strange scent in the air: something sweet and vaguely reminiscent of fresh hay, or maybe even Christmas trees. It made me a bit sad, although I don’t know why.
Spent the day researching designs for the motion sensor. I’m pretty confident that I’ve settled on one and I’ll spend tomorrow implementing it proper. I also am close to settling on a design for the trail camera, I might be able to get the spritework done for it tomorrow as well. I hope I’ll have the energy to be able to work effectively.
Felt awful today, but persisted through it and spent some time organising my immediate priorities for the next week (or two, but hopefully not that long). I think for the rest of this month, or at least the part of it I can/am willing to look ahead to anyways, I’m gonna be focusing exclusively on overhauling the game’s existing interfaces, including building new ones to accommodate a few more mechanical nuances.
Next week (tomorrow), I’m going to start with the sensor interfaces, getting one done every two days max. That includes initial design, and spritework for each of the three repair procedures. I hope to have at least four interfaces completely done in terms of design, graphics, and audio by next weekend.
Another dead day. Thought this morning that maybe I’d actually get something done today but, well, it was just another day. I’m gonna spend tomorrow laying out a list of hard priorities and tasks to accomplish. I should’ve done that a lot sooner honestly… there’s just too much that needs to get done and I don’t have the strength to even just sit down and think through it. I feel constantly distracted, but I’m not sure by what. I’ve become trapped on an obstacle of my own creation. An utter absence of either push or pull.
Just need to get through these next couple of months intact…
Accomplished nothing today. Didn’t even try honestly… I just suddenly started feeling like shit some time around yesterday and I hoped it would subside but, it didn’t. I’ve been sleeping worse and my appetite has been pretty poor as well, and every night I have these incredibly unpleasant dreams, a bunch of them about some girl I’ve never even met stupidly enough…
The doctor’s away next week on personal business, so I won’t be able to see her about it until the week after. I’ll probably make it through fine, but… I wish I could talk to her. I don’t want to capitulate to my weakness and waste away yet another week. The amount of work left to do right now seems impossibly insurmountable, even though I know logically that that’s just a matter of perspective, and logistical positioning. Even still though… it just makes me want to give up.
I want to say I got stuff done today but the truth is that even though I “worked” the entire day, I accomplished basically nothing of worth. The medical menu is now “finished” in the most nominal sense, in that I can no longer suffer thinking about it anymore. I don’t even know what I’m gonna work on next. I don’t want to think about it right now. What an awful way to start off a new month…
Spent basically the entire day procrastinating on writing item descriptions… but fortunately they’re now all finally finished. I also integrated the global inventory into the medical menu. Now all I gotta do is add in support for consuming items upon use and checking usage against the global stored quantity… shouldn’t be too difficult, just another day of boring work. Well, I suppose I’ll have to get to it…
The end of the month’s now here. It fills me with anxiety, and a sense of restless despondency at the realisation of just how little I’ve managed to accomplish with my time. Granted, this month was pretty disruptive with everything that happened with… well, you know. Hopefully things are more settled next month…
