Hello My Friends

Bad news, I won’t make my planned June 25^th release date.

I feel really bad because this was the first time I made a solid release date, and I am failing at achieving it.

I was forced to make some changes in my life, and expected a few problems, but I never expected to get slammed by life the way I did.

If you are only interested in the progress on the game, and aren’t interested in my talking about my personal life, skip to Progress below.

Overworked

I know for a fact that this is a problem I have. I hate to not be productive, and tend to get focused on things so intensely that I have experienced burnout way too many times in my life. I even came into this project knowing this, and have experienced it a few times already. But this was the worst since starting this.

But this was also the hardest for me to accept. Other events were going on in my life, so I wasn’t on the project barely as much as I had been, so I had a little more of a problem connecting being burned out when I was working way less on the project. But it was everything happening all at once that was the problem.

When I did open the project, I wasn’t getting anything done. I would open it before work, and right about the time I started to get productive, that was when I had to stop and go to work. That left me frustrated with the project, and I came to work a little annoyed, negatively affecting work.

The point is that I let stress get to me. I should have slowed down earlier, but I didn’t.

It was suggested that I take a full day off every week. Good idea, but all the times I opened up the project before work was a big issue. So, I believe I need to quit working on The Secret of the Island on the days I have to go to work. (My job splits my day, rather than being a morning or evening job.)

I did take a full day off, and spent a week keeping things light. I even quit working out for the week, and just tried to chill.

I found that I did absentmindedly open the project before work, and had to stop myself from trying to work on it.

Life is still coming at me though, and I still have to squish all the things I was doing in my personal life into my free days, or mornings and evenings on the days I work.

Stress Reduction

I am familiar with meditation, but I tend to not keep up with it. My problem is setting aside a block of time where I do nothing, and I really dislike not doing anything. (Which is why I am prone to burnout.)

I recently became aware of a different method of meditating. I read how a person takes ever chance he can to meditate, but only for a short time. Most often 30 seconds to a couple minutes.  

I am currently trying to create triggers that start a habit of meditating. Say every time I sit down.

I also stopped trying to work while eating. I take a break and maybe watch a YouTube video, and just relax.

Progress

My progress is slow, but improving. I unfortunately had to redo some images, and that slowed me down. I mean I am making progress, but way slower than I had hoped. I still have a scene I need to create, and there are a few challenges I need to overcome with creating those scenes.

Release Delayed

As I said above, I won’t make the planned June 25^th update.

I have to apologize about that, and I will work to get it out ASAP, while attempting to keep my stress in check. I hope people understand. Once that update is out, I will take a full break of a week, possibly two.

Final Thoughts

A lot of this is unfortunately not about the project, but a lot about me, and my current struggles. I am intentionally leaving a lot out, both for personal reasons, and to not bore everyone. I am trying not to put too much minutia into the update.

I recognize people want to know what’s going on with the update, not read a blog about my personal life. Although that is why I break these things up, so people can read just what they want.

As I said, I am slowly getting on track, and my progress is slowly coming back. The next update will be a small one, but the next one should be bigger.

Game update: ???? (Delayed)

Next post: July 2^nd.

As always, enjoy life.