Where I've been (Patreon)

Hey all! Just wanted to check in as it's been a while.

So September has been quite a travel-y month. Because of delays and rescheduling, I ended up out of the country for about two weeks in a row. 

First up, to Sweden for a pair of talks. One in Boden and the second in Skellefteå. Rather chilly, though the locals told me that, yo, this is summer. Come back in a few months for minus 30. I politely declined.

But it was fun! I met lots of students, did lectures and workshops, and had a great time meeting the staff. As my last GMTK travel of the year it was a blast.

Then I came home, unpacked, repacked, and went off to Kos in Greece for a holiday with my wife. A lovely break by the sea. 

And then I was all ready to come back and get my teeth into a bunch of GMTK videos... only to come down with an awful, awful cold. Flu, perhaps. Maybe coronavirus, though tests are coming back negative. This is a horrible bug, and I though I'd have beaten it by now. But, nope, I'm still laid up for the time being.

Which is so annoying as I've got big plans for these final few months of 2022. Here's what I'm working on.

Next up is a big video about solving problems in game design. It's full of stories from developers about how they've overcome issues in their design, leading to a bunch of take-home tips for fixing problems yourself. 

After that, I'm looking at Rollerdrome. This is an awesome indie game that mixes up Tony Hawks and DOOM and, surprisingly, started life as a GMTK Game Jam game! I want to tell that story - partly because it's awesome to have a success story for the jam, and also because it's a great look at how a design changes when you go from jam curio to full release.

Beyond that (at this point the exact order might get a little iffy), I'm looking to create a video from the lecture I gave in Sweden. It's all about analysing games, and understanding how we can borrow ideas from the games we're playing.

I also want to return to Boss Keys with a big breakdown of Elden Ring. I started work on this before releasing my ancient 2017 computer can't render the Lands Between in 60 fps so waiting on a new machine to arrive before I continue with that.

And I want to do that Unity tutorial I promised at the start of developing. A sort of "here's the absolute basics of Unity, now you figure out the rest" type thing.

Ambitious, I know, but I'm feeling really motivated to finish 2022 with a bang. Well, I was before I started coughing my lungs up. 

So, I might need a little more time for September - I hope you won't mind me pushing the problem solving vid (and its adjacent bonus video) into the first week of October if it comes to that. The script is done and the footage is recorded, but I literally can't record my voice right now because it sounds like I smoke 100 packs a day. If that's not cool, please use the refund system on Patreon and I'll gladly give you your money back.

So anyway. I'm going back to bed. This illness is sponsored by Return to Monkey Island and Succession. 

Thanks for the support, as always,

Mark