Bi-Weekly update 6

A question

I have a question for the frequent reader of this blog or the email campaign: in what type of update are you most interested? I started with these game project updates with pictures and a few personal reflections, but ended up talking more talking about business stuff.

Escaperoom project

I’m 2 weeks into the project for Escaperoom071 now, and I’m getting the hang of it. I have helped the team setup a project with GIT repo in Azure DevOps, I have setup a Unity3D CI/CD pipeline in Azure DevOps that builds our game and my local computer is configured as an Azure Build Agent to save on build costs.

All within the free 5-user limit of Azure DevOps of course!

But that is just one of the ‘side things’ I got to do. As another side thing I also had to make some architectural decisions on how to structure the game internally, what networking stuff to use and how this all comes together when someone pays somewhere and magically gets into the game.

I got hired for fixing the networking part. Like: getting players to see each other in the game, and see what they are doing and interacting with. So with all the tooling setup and the raw outlining of the product in place, Monday I was finally be able to start on the networking part. I finished syncing player movement today, Yay! It was actually more easy than I initially thought. I am using Photon BOLT, it has good support with great tutorials, and it does exactly what is should do.

Business stuff

As always, there was business stuff to think about.

For instance, I have to get a new project when this project ends on the 30th of June. I really like the gamedev for hire thing, working remote, talking English with other team members. The real deal!
But can I get another game project by then? Or do I signup for another business software development contract that will last at least 3 to 6 months?

Or another thing that kept me thinking: how to setup a contract?
I got written confirmation that the escaperoom project will pay me at the end of the 2 months for a given amount… but I want to have more certainty like weekly payouts or milestone payouts, short payment terms, and more certainty of what I am supposed to do so I can more easily show that I indeed finished work.
On one hand I want to start fast and show them that I am a likable person, but on the other hand I cant live of the smiles of my business partners…

Personal motivation

This week I tried a trick to get more productive. I read this trick somewhere a long time ago and finally gave it a try.

I work in blocks of half an hour, on a predetermined part of work, and have to stop at the end of the block. During that time, if I find myself distracted, I add a mark to the ‘distracted count’ on a paper next to me and carry on with the original planned work.

It turns out this helps 2 ways: get more focus on the task at hand, but at the same time it limits the energy burn when getting to deep into a certain task. At the end I manage to do more work in a single day, and can handle a workload with more diverse tasks in it.
I allow a minimal of 5 minutes between blocks to just do whatever I want. Walk, game, browse the interwebs, things like that. But I determine on forehand at what time the next block happens and what task to pickup.
That moment of relaxation is surprisingly rewarding and fun.

Sooo… with that said that’s it for this update.
What parts of this update did you like, where do you want to hear/see more from? Leave a comment below, give me a call or mail me.

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Thanks for reading, see you in 2 weeks!