Defining Awesome

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”

I think I ate too much cake the day before and was really sleepy. Got some serious work done only after dinner. I’ll show later what I got.

Since I started bodybuilding dieting is very important to me. Mixing a lifestyle of a coder and bodybuilder isn’t that easy. Pumping iron itself is a very good excercise, the blood starts flowing to muscles and brain, you get satisfaction, testosterone makes you think and act like a man.
All good stuff. The problem is, that to gain mass you must eat an enormous amount of food everyday (real food, especially protein and fat). This really is hard to do.

First of all it takes time to prepare and eat.
Second digesting, which usually takes a couple hours a day, costs a lot of energy.

Most people usually suffer slight nausea after a high calory meal. It just makes you tired and unproductive. Programming requires a clear, focused, fresh mind. If not it is pointless work.
I started pumping iron more than 3 years ago I think and I’ve had a serious break only about 2 months ago. I see now that bodybuilding was affecting my work as a game maker. This sucks. Also being a game maker affected my bodybuilding cause I wouldn’t eat as much as I should because I wanted to be alert at work.

Fortunately out of nowhere I found about Intermittent Fasting. Sometimes referred to as (because it is a similar concept) The Warrior’s Diet.
The theory behind it goes back to the primal times of man, before agriculture, when we were mostly hunter / gatherers. It was usually the case that you would get up in the morning and have nothing to eat. Unless you found some berries or mushrooms you didn’t eat until you hunted an animal. Which would be in the evening. If you slaughtered a wild pig or something with your giant toothpick, it was time for a feast. The rest of the day was spent on just eating – getting that stomach full to face another day. After the meal you would be tired and go to sleep while your body would build muscle at night. This is probably how men lived for millions of years (it is only a small time period of thousands of years were we own land and animals for food). Obviously the body had to adapt to this lifestyle. So obviously our bodies today are made to not only survive a whole day or more without eating but they are built in a way to actually have MORE energy when you are not eating. This energy comes mostly from burning fat and specific hormones that give you more power, flexibility and mental capabilities. It is needed to find prey efficiently.

Fast forward to today. My prey is game designing and programming. I started intermittent fasting a couple days ago. I don’t eat for 16 hours and then I eat all the calories for the day in an 8 hours frame. I don’t eat at night and since I get up in the morning I don’t eat till its dinner. Only water/tea/coffee. So I work during the fasting time and after that is done I train, rest and eat until sleep.
I haven’t started working yet cause I had a break but today I’m ready.
Fasting makes me feel like on steroids and caffeine. I’m really excited to see how this will work. I’ll keep you updated.