I'm back! Recap of 2020 & next steps

It's a been a while. I've been busy building my engine/game, throwing it out and starting again, again!

Last year I struggled. I got stuck on understanding some physics concepts but more than that I got hung up on some things which I could have just put to one side and carried on with. When you're working on your own it's easy to get stuck down a hole like this with no one to pull you out. Doubly so if there is no payment attached to it. It's all down to you. I expect the pandemic also played a part. It's effected everyone of us in different ways and although we were what I consider one of the lucky ones there were probably hidden costs to our mental state and creativity.

At the end of last year I scrapped the engine idea and started using Unigine as they now have a community edition. I was instantly more productive, I made some models, toyed with control systems, physics just worked (more or less with a lot of tweaking).

But then I realized something. I didn't really have a plan. Yes, I had lots of ideas written down, designs, sketches, todo lists but no real coherent plan of how it would all hang together.

I've also prioritized technology over results. It's something a lot of developers do. We love the tech. While I do want to ensure a technically sound solution and explore the world of Functional Programming and the things that brings such as testability and parallel computing I also want to deliver something.

So I'm taking a step back to look at what it is I'm trying to build. It needs to be simple, like, really, simple. But it's also gotta be in line with the end game I'm trying to make. If I'm building an RTS I'm not going to start by building an FPS, for example.

That's my focus for this month. I'll report back on my progress. Oh, that's the other thing. I have a full time job again. I'll probably post a few things related to that work as well.