(This devlog was originally posted on October 4th, 2024.)

Well... it's been a while.

To be honest, I completely lost motivation for about a month. I was doing below the bare minimum to keep some semblance of progress going. But I'm glad I did! I'm pretty sure that if I stopped working on this game altogether I would have given up on it and moved on to something new. And you know what? My motivation is back now!

Motivation is fleeting and cannot be something you rely on completely (not just when it comes to games). It WILL go away, and it will suck. When that happens, it's okay to drag your feet as long as you don't stop. It's also useful to include these periods of time at the planning stage. If you tell yourself that you'll be able to finish your project in 3 months, but assume that you'll be 100% motivated and full of energy the whole time... you won't finish it in 3 months. I know that now lol.

Motivation can come back on its own completely out of the blue, but in this case I gave it a little help. 

The first thing I did was draw these silly little guys.

I think I was unknowingly putting this game on some sort of pedestal. It's about a big, personal topic and I guess I wanted to take it seriously because of it. "Taking it seriously" included things like "no memes or references! Those will look dated by the time the game even comes out!" But I like memes and references... 

Dayshift at Freddy's is a game I revisit from time to time. I love it. It's RIDDLED with incredibly outdated memes and references, but it's part of its charm. It's also an incredibly stupid and unserious game, but it's what fans love about it. Even thinking about my own past experience with the one game I actually finished, Visual Novel Test 1. Right out the bat, the name is stupid. The game is stupid. The art is either free to use or purchased. All I did was write dumb jokes. And I'm proud of it! I also finished it in a single month.

So... it seems that, at least for me, making things silly on purpose makes them actually attainable. It makes the process more fun, and if I like the result, there's really no downsides, so... Being silly on purpose it is!

The other thing I did to make my motivation come back was taking a break from working on the main game and fousing on the UI instead.

I had no idea this would fire me up the way it did, but finishing the UI made the game look like an actual game. It was easier to imagine it being completely done. Even though I barely made any progress on the game itself, I felt so close to the finish line and that's what made me want to start working on it properly again!

For future reference, I think doing the UI might be good when the game is about 70% -80% done. If I do it too early, I'm gong to lose my secret weapon to make my motivation come back! It's good for the last push you need, not if you loose motivation early on (or at least, that's how I choose to use it).

And last but not least! 

I have an MVP! A fully functional version of this game exists! If for some reason I didn't make any more progress at all, I'd still be able to share something with the world, which feels pretty nice! Now I'm focusing on adding polish and a few things I'd be very sad not to include, since they were pretty big parts of my vision for The Pink Room. After that, it's off to testing and promotional material!

I'm hoping that next time I'll be able to write my last or second to last devlog.

I think I mentioned this, but even if no one reads these, I feel like they're useful for future reference, and possibly to put together a tutorial later on! So I'm glad I (sort of) kept up with them! 

- dicortesia