Why…

I remember my stepmom telling me (before I was old enough to Scuba dive) that her favorite thing to do was to lie on the bottom of the pool and just watch the bubbles on their way to the surface. I still think of that every time I look up at my own bubbles underwater – and I do that all the time.

Sometimes, you need to do that… just look at the bubbles. Relax, stop working so hard, and enjoy the bubbles. Tonight is one of those times.

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The comment on one of my Perforce check-ins this weekend began, “Pulling all my hair out; will get back to the save system when I come back.”

I *know* it was the right decision. I *could* have just pushed ahead with what I had to try to get a Kickstarter this spring, but it would have been rushed. That isn’t what I want for Dive Buddies, it isn’t what I want for Mischief Games, and it isn’t what I want for our players. They deserve the best work we can do… even if it takes a little longer. (Even if I pull my hair out in the process… I don’t have much anyways.)

Every day, I am reminded again of the value of those that I have been lucky enough to work with on prior projects. I am constructing and refining systems like the multi-slot save/load system from scratch. I am finding myself researching, looking for ideas, and trying things out to find out what works best with the direction we are heading.

I don’t have the “this is how I did it last time” experience of many of my friends in the more technical roles – but I don’t want to just ask them for their answer anyways. I absolutely refuse to use AI to write code or speed me along the process after seeing its negative effect on the industry and our people. I don’t want to purchase some ready-made system and try to shoehorn it in… so, I am struggling with it.

On the flip side – as I mentioned to an engineer friend of mine – the struggles are what I need. I am getting to the point now where I can see a “this is how to do this!” example and immediately start tweaking it to make it more efficient, or to fit what we need better.

Using AI might get *a* product faster, but this project is not solely about Dive Buddies. Yeah, I want to make a game that brings together things I love in a way that players enjoy experiencing – but the real goal is to build myself as a developer and Mischief Games as a viable studio. That isn’t going to happen if I just take shortcuts.

So, that is why. That is why I might go a while between updates, or might not share many shots from the game itself, or might be sitting quietly on my bed tugging on follicles in exasperation. I am investing in this project, this studio, myself – and our future players. It will be worth it. It is worth it. Sometimes, it is just hard to remember that when I am hitting a wall…

Sometimes, I just need to take a step away for a few minutes to watch some bubbles.

Thanks 😉