June & July 2024 Monthly Update
It’s been a long two months. I meant to write these two blogs separately but life got away from me. I’ll get to that in a bit.
June
Carry On
June was great! June was the first month where I finally got started on Carry On. I’ve been talking about it for a while, cooking up ideas in my head and getting them down on paper. June is when I finally started that and I made a schedule. Mind blowing idea. I don’t know why I didn’t make a schedule sooner, but as someone who has always relied on a schedule or agenda and is generally very organized with my many to-do lists, I’m very disappointed in myself I didn’t make one sooner.
This is the schedule I’ve made. You’ll see that the green is what I’ve already done (and it’s almost August as I write this, so that gives you a good idea of how far behind I am already, but I’ll get to that point again shortly). I’ve given myself many many months to create this game, with the release date being on March 13th 2025. I’ve spread out the tasks as appropriately as I could, giving ample time for some of the harder tasks and not trying to overwhelm myself too badly.
Carry On Game Development Schedule
I’ve written out the entire plan, which was essentially all of June. That includes the GDD, some market research, milestones and deliverables, etc. I won’t go into more detail in the blog, but if you’re interested in reading more about Carry On and looking at the tasks I’ve completed, I’ll be updating the Carry On page here on the DIDS website shortly. Reading these Carry On documents and such will be spoilers, so if you care about that consider this my warning to you. If you don’t, then go ahead and read it to your hearts content although it’s pretty dry and boring to read. You can read the plans and other info about Carry On here!
Video Releases
7 videos were released on YouTube in June. They’re all Sea of Stars videos, and again I’m a bit disappointed in myself in not producing different types of videos for the channel. I’ve been using SoS as backup videos for way too long and it’s getting old at this point. I want to wrap up the series and move on from it. I didn’t think the game would take me this long to finish, but it did and while I’m glad I finished them, my 15 subscribers are probably very sick and tired of the same content. I’d really like to release more game focused videos, so after this whole series is uploaded I’ll be moving on for sure.
Sea Of Stars Ep. 12 | Docarri Village
Sea Of Stars Ep. 13 | Antsudlo
Sea of Stars Ep. 14 | Glacial Peak
Sea of Stars Ep. 15 | Torment Peak
Sea of Stars Ep. 16 | Autumn Hills
Sea of Stars Ep. 18 | Clockwork Castle
July
Now, July was truly something else. Oh boy. Or should I say, oh girl, because we got a female german shepherd puppy. She’s a super adorable and she is way more of a handful than I ever thought, even with all my research and prep. She is very much the reason that next to nothing got done in July. I’ve been trying my hardest to catch up, but it’s too much for me to do in the last couple of days. We got her on July 5th at 8 1/2 weeks old, and this last Tuesday she’s officially 3 months. This picture is her in the car the other day!
Carry On
A lot of the goals for Carry On in July were starting the prototype and getting my hands dirty in it. The only thing I managed to complete was the visual style guide, developing key levels and finding placeholder sounds. It’s better than nothing, but it’s definitely not sticking to my plan. I’m really struggling to find time now to work on it. Every moment the pup is awake it’s spending time with her and playing with her, training her, etc. Between a full time job and puppy, my free time is almost needed to spend relaxing and not doing anything else. She’s worth it though and we won’t need to watch her forever.
100 Day Drawing Challenge
I started a 100 day drawing challenge at the beginning of July. I wrote down a different animal for each day and I’ve been sketching them out. The goal of this was to practice shapes and circles, as well as not being perfect. I’ve had a hard time previously with trying to perfect my artwork, but the imperfections are part of the appeal of art. And also, nothing is perfect. I spend no more than 20 minutes on a page of sketches and then I line them with a black brush tip. I’ll make a video once I’m done and do a little sketchbook tour.
Videos
Video uploads were essentially a repeat of June but with a way worse schedule. I’m sorry. I will do better on both my Monday/Friday schedule and varying content. You 15 subscribers deserve better than what I’ve been able to give you.
Sea of Stars Ep. 19 | Cloud Kingdom
Sea of Stars Ep. 20 | Swan Song of the Warrior Cook
Sea of Stars Ep. 21 | Trek to the Center of the World
Sea of Stars Ep. 22 | Cerulean Expanse
Sea of Stars Ep. 23 | Sacrosanct Spires
Sea of Stars Ep. 24 | Sky Base
Final Thoughts
Wow what a blog. I know it was a big one, but if you read all the way through, thank you, I appreciate you and your time! It means a lot to me that someone else is interested in what’s happening at DIDS. Despite having the pup, I very unfortunately got laid off, so I’ll have a lot more time on my hands that I can put into DIDS. YouTube video content and also being able to focus on Carry On. Until I get a new job at least. Not to end on a bad note, but I’ll see you in the next blog for August!
