Defining Awesome

From now on I won’t be posting LD news to my Facebook profile but only on the Link-Dead page. Be sure to sign now and BECOME A FAN. All news, photos (all concept graphics and dev pics) and infos are gathered there check it out.

My life-long dream is to code perfect platform game AI bots. I had a good attempt with Zorth’s in my game R but I want to push it to the limit in Link-Dead. I’m thinking whether to add bots for the test release or not,

Has anyone played Sony’s 1997 game Infantry?

Got some network bugs to fix. The way I work now is code in a limited time until I encounter a block. Then I stop and do something else and think about the block in spare time. I usually forced to overcome situations like these which resulted in not so clean code, tiredness and frustration. Now I stop and let it live its own life. My brain takes care of overcoming it. Most of the time it just takes one night of rest and the solution appears. This is very good, why didn’t I do this before? Because it takes massive self-discipline to stop doing something. I want to finish this game as soon as possible that’s why I used to force myself. So you gotta trust yourself, trust your power for overcoming obstacles and that will let you relax and go through challenges effortlessly.

Adding Another World sounds for the test release.

Still some bugs in netcode disconnecting. Also gotta polish out climbing and animations.

Today I made ladders climbing in LD and I think that accomplishes the gameplay elements I wanted to have for the test release. Stay tuned.

Yet another productivity improvement. The Warrior’s Diet seems to be doing its job for me. I have energy and my concentration seems very good, although I think it still needs a couple weeks of testing. Nevertheless I want to go one step further with productivity again – I put a constraint on my daily work time. I’m working now only 4 hours a day max.

Seems like too little? Well as I posted here once – less is more.

This is the Pareto Principle (80-20) I want to use. Which means, 80% of your work is done in 20% of your time.

To accomplish this I need to change my programming habits. I am used to sitting in front of the code not really thinking just doing stuff randomly until it works. But since I think 2 months ago something really clicked inside my head and I have a brand new compiler in my head. I can actually hold now vast amounts of code, as Michael Abrash (Quake 1) would put it: “between my ears”. So actual coding will take place in a 4-hour time frame, not more. But there will be also thinking, coding and compiling inside the head. This is how I want to accomplish this.

Job is going really good. The sleepy crisis is over and I’ve done a ton of work. Maps are now made in a Paint program:

Abrash: the best compiler is “between your ears”