Keeping the Lights on, and my Ability to Walk is Gone

You know it’s that time, you know what’s coming. But with a very busy couple of weeks, and not a lot of time for Horde, is there anything to talk about? I think we’ll have to find out together, as right now I’m still trying to remember!

So first up, why have I been so busy? Well, the contract work has been keeping me pretty occupied for a start, the pressure is mounting up as new deadlines approach, as well as the additional work from the secondary contract that I’ve been working on in the gaps between the primary. This has left very little time for Horde. Not something that was helped by the fact that last week was admin week so I had to spend a lot of time working on tax stuff, paying people and getting paid. Dull work, but I’m told it’s pretty key to running a business successfully and… err, legally.

All this means I have some catching up to do! My plan for today is to get tidying some of the messier bits of Horde. Particularly some of the obstacles, which were thrown together with an almost prototyping level of haphazardness. Which makes sense, I was prototyping them! I noticed some funkiness with the funnels and want to add some effects to the projectile traps, and maybe make them destructible… Beyond that, I think I need to bash out more than just a test level or two. Start actually building the game from the blocks I’ve added. Then, of course, I need to make the “world map” or level select screens, then maybe a cutscene system… There’s more to this game dev lark than it seems isn’t there? Wish someone had told me!

So is there anything I have already done that I can talk about? Well… err. Not really. Both contracts are still undisclosed, and I can’t even brag about climbing, as last week I went for a walk in the peak district, and while playing around with a new parkour move, managed to damage my ankle so badly I spent Sunday morning in A&E. There was little to no swelling, which is apparently more indicative of bone damage, and the last two times I sprained my ankle I looked like I had a hobbit foot. This made me worry I had actually fractured it this time, but thankfully, a mercifully short 2 hours after arriving, the X-ray results showed no break. Great success! And a couple of days later, I’m happy to report it hurts a bit on downhills, but is otherwise pretty much ok again! I frequently feel very lucky that I appear to heal very quickly!

I guess the last thing to touch on, in a post that is fast becoming more personal than work, is another hobby I’m playing around with. I’ve started streaming in my free time! I didn’t want to associate it with #EgoProblems as right now it’s just something I’m doing for fun, but if you fancy watching me play some games, give the channel a look-in here! I played the old, then the new Pokémon Snap last night, which was tonnes of fun. The latter I’ve been waiting for since I completed Snap on the N64 about 20 years ago!

This one hasn’t been super informative has it? Well, with any luck I’ll have lots to report next time! Hopefully with more images and whatnot! Till then,

Matt out.