My primary objective this year is to finish up Version 1 of the AIF Toolkit and to release at least one major game.Oh dear. 50% ain't bad... isn't it?
Well, to be fair, I had no idea I would be publishing a book this year. It was also a pretty difficult year personally, so there's that. Still, I really would have liked to release at least one game.
In addition to all of my personal resolutions, I have a few that are a little AIF related.
#1 Write and read more, play video games less.
I have to admit that I have a video game addiction. That became pretty clear when I saw how many hours I'd logged on Steam this week. It's that draw-dropping moment when you're like, "oh shit, I don't play that many video games, do I?" and it's like, "yeah, yeah you really do."And the funny thing is that I find writing far more emotionally satisfying. I'm not sure why I spend so much time playing when writing is what gives me that sense of accomplishment where I say to myself this was a full day's work. For the amount I play, I could have produced at least two AIF games and that would have felt a lot better.
Or better yet, maybe I could have had a social life.
#2 AIF Toolkit Recipe Book
I've talked a little about writing an manual for the AIF Toolkit. I've decided that a printed manual would be less useful than a recipe book, an addendum to the AIF Toolkit that contains advice, templates, ways to perform specific tasks, etc, just like the Inform 7 Recipe Book. I've already started work on it. Last week I wrote one project template and three sex scene templates that can be simply dropped into the source code to make a fully-interactive scene. I'll need to debug them but I think this will be very useful to people who are not programming inclined.I'll write a little more about the book later, as I'll be soliciting for specific topics that people are interested in.
#3 Stick to a project
My non-productivity this year was not because I didn't find the time to work on AIF, it's that I kept schizophrenically switching from one project to another. To illustrate, here's a list of AIF games I made significant headway into this year but never managed to follow through on finishing.Bad Neighbor -- A spiritual sequel to Bad Sister. Started and restarted several times this year.
Dextro: Professional Male Stripper -- A comedy game where you're a male stripper training to be a superspy.
Five Finger Discount -- A game where you play a female thief doing various robberies and fucking a lot of people.
Monster City -- A noir detective story with monster girls.
Odd Ones Out -- An erotic horror AIF. I got pretty far into this one.
Soccer Story -- A sports management game where you manage a girl's soccer story (restarted from last year)
I am interested to know which of those ideas people would most like to see. Ideally, I'd have people vote, that's setting up an expectation that I'll definitely do that particular idea and I don't exactly want to do that.
Whichever of these I end up with, it will probably start after I finish work on Pervert Action: Legacy.
#4 Expand my writing career
I'll be honest. All I really want to do is write. If I can, I'd just do it full time. I'll always be writing and working on projects for fun, but I'd also like to start making money on some of my projects, especially because I'm between jobs right now and hemorrhaging money. My novels are a start, but I'd like to start doing more... ghostwriting, short stories by commission, professional editing, that sort of thing.I'm very uncomfortable advertising, so the most it will probably be is a little thing on the sidebar for those who are interested. I have no plans on turning this blog into a gigantic commercial enterprise... like everyone else I like free stuff and I want to write free stuff for people.
Anyways, those are the four main things this year. Of course, I have my own resolutions (i.e. get in better shape so I don't die by 40) but these are the ones that will most effect the blog.
That's enough from me. What are your resolutions? Let us me know in the comments.
I still want to see Soccer Story, but Monster City sounds pretty cool, too.
ReplyDeleteDEXTRO: PROFESSIONAL MALE STRIPPER - FTW!
ReplyDelete(I know I said I'd help with that, and I'm still up for it if you want.)
Five Finger Discount sounds interesting. I've been on an rpg kick recently and reading the description I'm imagining a game where you can upgrade your thief skills in various ways. Then getting caught has consequences and successful robberies help you level up or whatever. Happy New Year
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, that was the exact concept for the game. You'd play as Sadie Bowden, a girl too lazy to get a job but smart enough to be a thief, and there would be skills you could level up, like lockpicking, fighting, sneaking, hacking etc. The main mechanic revolved around drinking alcohol, the drunker you were the better you would be at seducing people, but the worse you were at everything else. You could choose whether you were mostly into men, into women, or both, and different options would unlock different scenes.
DeleteI might still write it, so I don't want to give up too much, but that was the idea of the game.
SOLD.
DeleteI hadn't thought of adding drinking into the equation but that sounds fun. If only it were as easy to make games as it is coming up with good ideas.
Yeah, I also had ideas of doing randomly generated houses and such. I might still do it. We'll see.
DeleteStill interested in Soccer Story, but all of them could be good!
ReplyDelete