Damnatio Memoriae

Greetings!

The bug fixing continues, slowly but surely. One of the bugs was that I forgot to finish a few maps, so I have been creating those over the last couple of days. One of them includes a library that I have spent entirely too much time on, but it should be a welcome addition to those who enjoy examining all the little extras in RPGs.

Speaking of enjoyment, I wanted to share an approach of mine that may prove helpful to fellow RPG makers. As this is a one-man project, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the numerous tasks required to produce an RPG. My solution to combat feelings of impossibility is to let my amusement and interest direct my creation. For instance, minor bug fixing is a bore and monotonous to me so I often get discouraged when faced with pages of slight alterations to make. This obviously inhibits my motivation to create and it follows that production decreases.

In retaliation, I step back and consider all the tasks to accomplish and ask myself what would be most pleasant to work on. Today the answer was map building and charset creation, so I devoted my time and energy toward these avenues. Because I was interested in these aspects of development, I thoroughly enjoyed my "work" and feel the results were better because of it. Sure the irritating minor bug fixes remain to be done, but progress has been made in a pleasing way elsewhere (consisting of things that must be done eventually as well) rather than begrudgingly grinding through a source of uncomfortableness. Oftentimes I find that working in a pleasant environment toward an interesting goal inspires one to confront the tasks that are less desirable.

Progress does not have to signal spirit-crushing; whenever work can be transformed into play, wonderful things happen.

Thanks for reading,

~Dylan