My birthday was on Wednesday. New Years and birthdays serve as important checkpoint markers for me. I’ll generally take stock of my life around early December and think about what changes I’d like to make. By January first, I’ll have an idea of what I would like to accomplish that year. In 2012 I got a masters in branding. Aside from learning about branding, the program taught me how to plan, how to view things realistically and how to hold myself accountable. If only I had these skills in my twenties…

After graduating I developed an outline of what I want to accomplish in my life. The outline made clear what I really want. I won’t bore you with details, (albeit, you’re reading this blog so you must already have a tolerance for doing things most people find boring) but the outline gave me an idea of what my checkpoints were. I think of checkpoints as main moments in my life, past and future. Up until now, I had been traveling through life with abstract goals which made me feel good about myself. As though the goals themselves had some sort of value. Frankly, I see now that I romanticized goals. Checkpoints are real.

Today I move past a checkpoint: make a mobile game. For the next two years I will embark on a game making process. The image featured on this post is my game’s outline. I colorized it to make it a little more interesting to look at.

I have been teaching myself programming basics for the past two years. Now I will do something with my limited knowledge and I must emphasize that my knowledge is limited. I will have to learn more as I go. I will use Unity for the engine and program in C#.

The game will feature quite a bit of traditional animation. I will hand draw and animate everything. Last but not least, a major part of my game dev journey will be project management. I will have to make deadlines and ensure I don’t let them slip by. Without question, this project will test everything I’ve learned to this point. I will document my journey on here at least once a month or as I pass major checkpoints. Whichever come first.