Accomplished
- * Finished the territorial movement so they go back and forth between territories and loser’s circle
- * Made it so the player can participate in territory battles
- * Tested the script to figure out who controls a territory; found an error but I know where it’s coming from, I just have to think about how to fix it
- * Arranged a meeting with my sound designer tomorrow
- * Made territorial critters heal after battles
Next Steps
- * Fix the error in territory control script (it is finding all the pieces of each critter that enter, instead of just the creature one time
- * Figure out the jitter issues
- * Figure out a third goal for the ribbonfish
- * Meet with sound designer
- * Start on character 3
Since this is already the fifth blog post, I want to give some early impressions on what the process is and isn’t doing for me, so I have something to compare it to in the end and see if my opinions change at all. Overall, I’ve found it to be somewhat helpful so far. It has the expected benefit of giving me an easy-access list of what to do next; when I feel uncertain about where I’m going, I can just check in on the “next steps” list and pick a new task.
It’s also fairly effective as a feel-good “Okay, I’m done working for the day” task. It lets me cap off the work I’ve done today, and feel like I’m officially allowed to relax and take a break from working, which is nice. I wasn’t strictly expecting that benefit, so it’s a pleasant surprise.
One other thing that I really wasn’t expecting and which is very welcome is the value of the “accomplished” section. Originally I just put that in as a way of making sure that things I removed from earlier checklists were really removed (rather than just changed or forgotten about). What it has done for me is given me a way to quantify my progress. Some days I do a lot of little tasks that feel like they don’t add up to much. This tends to make me feel like I didn’t get much done, which in turn makes me feel guilty and stressed for not doing more. By listing what I’ve finished or fixed or otherwise accomplished each day, I can see my work laid out in front of me, which makes me feel like, “Yes, actually, I did get a lot done today.” And that makes me relax more and feel better about myself, which is probably in turn better for my productivity overall anyway.
At the moment my only negative remark is that I feel like blogging may be making me arbitrarily cut short my work day. When I have enough to put in the blog I feel like I’m done for the day, and so I stop working to blog about it. This may be bad for the overall amount of work that gets done. On the other hand, it may be better for my stress levels to have an arbitrary stopping point so I don’t overwork. We’ll see how this goes as I progress.
This part here, where I talk about stuff below my lists, so far hasn’t seemed to do much for me. I like to rant, but coming up with a subject seems like it will get harder and harder. I may start leaving them out altogether if I continue to not get much out of them. At least, when I can’t think of anything particular to say.