This morning I went to the library with my mind set on completing the stage editor, I sat down, and noticed that in order to get it done, I would need to commit to certain data structures and behaviors beforehand, otherwise I’d double my work, because any change that takes place in the game needs to be reflected on the game editor. So I set myself to this task.
I lost myself in flowing work all the morning, and since it is Saturday the library closes early, so I went shopping for groceries to replenish for the week. Came back home, had lunch, a nap, and then begun working again, this time in the small details: hovers, shadow, color tweaking and such. I throughly enjoyed the polishing activity, though at this stage it’s probably not the best use of my time.
I picked up drawing some years ago, and I noticed I dislike sketching the big picture and getting to detail progressively, I want to get into detailing too early, and this reflects in the way I work too. This leads to loss of work. As in sketching, you often miss the proportions or the perspective and need to start over.
The upside is that, when the visuals come together, there is an unmistakable sense of pleasure which motivates to march on. I had been eyeing dribbble to get a sense of what visual designers are up to these days: soft shadows, saturated colors against stark white and such. I had implemented a design of this kind and I was OK with it, but in my coding mishaps I accidentally removed all shadows, and the stark white became a creamy color. The accident caused sensory pleasure and at the same time reduced complexity, it was aesthetic both to mind and eye. After some polishing I’m actually excited about the visual direction.
But it’s not time to celebrate yet, the frosting does not make the cake.