The Longest Day

Metroidvania Internet Search Result. Image Found Here

[7:30 am] Have you ever had an epiphany? A plan or goal so clear that you knew what you needed to move heaven and earth just to achieve it? Have you ever had this happen and then a day or so later, or even a few hours later, you come off your “high” and feel like giving up because you aren’t feeling as motivated as you were?

This hasn’t happened to me. I’m sure it will though.

Yesterday I talked about creating a company that makes Linux games exclusively. If Commodore hadn’t screwed up the Amiga back in the 90s and it was still a viable platform I’d make games exclusively for that.

I digress.

I’m not one much for “rah rah” speeches. I hate doing little cheers to help with motivation. I think it’s shallow and empty. I might see a motivational quote or watch a video that might fire me up but I’m a realist. I know that the motivational “high” only lasts a little while and if you want to achieve whatever goal you’ve set for yourself you simply need to roll up your sleeves and do it. Just take action. The kicker is that this is usually the time when you will not feel like doing so. You have to take this action exactly when this “downer” feelings happen or your goal will never get done.

So, what’s the point to all of this.

Honestly the point, for me, is that I’m sitting five hours away from home with a goal and a plan of action (sorta) waiting to get started and I can’t. So all I can do right now is type blog posts on it. This goal was on my mind when I first woke up this morning which is a good sign. It’s funny when you are struck with this desire to do something. It’s even funnier when you can do squat because there is an obstacle in your way. Well, for me this obstacle is distance and it’ll be something that I do need to fix. Namely in the acquisition of a Linux based laptop.

Another point. I want to use this blog to track my progress but I want to make these blog posts “easy to write” (right now I’m over writing because I can’t do anything else yet. hah!) I’m not 100% sure I know what I mean by that but right now it’s tracking what I get done and some quick blurbs as to what’s going on. What I want to try to avoid doing is avoid doing what I’m doing in this post and that is over writing. Maybe it’s okay to do that as maybe it’ll be fun to go back and read what I wrote five years from now. Who knows.

[1:25 pm] I’ve been thinking games today, why not, I’ve got plenty of time to kill. In particular what kind of games I want to make. After all, aside from making Linux the premiere gaming platform, I would like to make some games that I’d want to play. Of course the first game would play a lot like the original and maybe the SNES Legend of Zelda Game. Different story but a lot of the same game mechanics.

But, what to make after I finish that one?

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself but the next game after that I would like to make a Metroidvania style game. For those not in the know a Metroidvania style game is a side scroller that plays a lot like Castlevania or Metroid. Search around large worlds to find power ups that make you stronger so you can find and fight bigger and stronger bad guys. I have a story and setting in mind for a game like this. Almost more so than the Legend of Zelda style game I want to start with. Hmmm, maybe I should make this first?

After those two games I’d like to make a top down style cRPG in the style of some of the early Ultima games. I have a pretty good story laid out for this too.

[10:55 pm] It’s late and I should go to bed. Tomorrow at 9 am I need to check out of the Hotel so I can to drive to Watford City from Williston and have lunch with some family. Well more like a brunch. I’m hoping to be done with that by 11 am so I can get on the road and do my five hour trek back to Billings. Then, I will set up my Linux machine and get a project set up complete with SDL.

Sounds simple enough.

I am anxious to get started.