Judi-n-Lyle Devlog - 003

JUDI-N-LYLE - THE HACKATHON

With the holidays around the corner and work wrapped up for the season, nothing is sweeter than the motivation and drive that comes from a hackathon. Especially when it gets to be a hackathon for a larger project. That at least is my intention for the next week and a half, spending some dedicated time on Judi-n-Lyle and make some strong progress towards a playable demo. While often I have been leaning towards watching TV or playing games to relieve stress after a long day, I am excited to usher in a new feeling of working on my game everyday in some capacity. It honestly feels refreshing and a reignited flame of curiosity burns bright in my heart.

With that, I have spent sometime today and in the past couple of weeks reflecting on what makes a good story. Strong storywriting is a skillset I admire deeply and profoundly respect. However, this is not a skillset that I have practiced nor is it a creative medium that I have received criticism for. So I am venturing out and expanding my creative wheelhouse here with my hopes to add in some intentional storywriting into my first major game development project.

Core themes, provoking emotion, intentional hardship, and satisfying resolutions - these are the things my mind gravitate towards rationalizing. Understanding why I am trying to guide the player down a linear story helps to drive how I guide them there. I need to understand what emotion I want to evoke from the player and why. These things need not be overly complex and twisted, however I must identify those critical core themes.

Among them I have brainstormed some idea possibilities to help drive atmosphere and storytelling.

• Grappling with loneliness
• Internal conflict with fear
• Overcoming yourself to be brave for those you love
• False confidence leading towards further hardship

I see these within my dogs every day and it shines a mirror to myself as I find ways to be bothered by their core personality. Why does it bother me so much that my dogs are fearful of the world around them? Why can’t they just be brave and understand that a trashcan is not a trap placed out to hunt them? When I really think about it, I am most bothered by it because those are things that bother me about myself. Why can’t I just stop being nervous in unknown social situations? Why can’t I get over my own mental hurdles sometimes to stand up for the ones I love? I then see these are common themes throughout each of our daily lives - overcoming ourselves to better live in the world around us.

I enjoy thinking about these things especially when it comes to my dogs. It makes me feel more connected to them and understanding of their situation. Particularly when I go from their perspective and think about just how scary that wood chipper must have been if I had never seen something like that before, AND my if my ears were overly sensitive to sound, there’s no way - count me out. Also in this cadence of regular blog posts, I force myself to reflect and rationalize my thoughts to overcome myself and the need to keep my mind occupied with at times, frivolous content just to escape the feeling of loneliness and existential dread. So thank you for being on this journey with me as I guide my dogs and myself through self discovery and improvement.

I hope you rekindle those flames and stoke your fire, especially as we trudge into those cold months ahead.

Hejdå mina vänner och vi ses snart.