Monday Arthy: Small Things add up to be Big Things!

MONDAY ARTHY

To be honest, i wasn't interested to update this blog >:D
I wanted to sleep early.
But I remembered how small actions accumulate into bigger things.
Working on a game every day, no matter how small it is, is better than doing nothing.

I have many moments in my life where I could have finished a comic, or other project, if I had devoted to work on it, even for 15 minutes a day.

I normally work on CD at least 30 minutes a day, but today was an exception. My work today drained my mental energy... A LOT.

8:00 pm. I had one more hour before bedtime. I could read my favorite books, Minimalism: Essential Essays/The misleading mind, or i could work on CD. I chose the latter.

I set my iPhone to ring after 15 minutes, and these are the results:

As you can see, it's not much. But at least I drew something, than nothing, right?
If you're familiar with Parkinson's Law, "Work expands to fill the available time for its completion", this is a sample of it.

So this is a simple and short entry.

What I learned for today in developing CD are:

1. Small Things add up to be Big Things!
2. Work expands to fill the available time for its completion

Tuesday Arthy

Tuesday Arthy since I wasn't able to update yesterday. I had another migraine attack, and I chose the comfort of my warm and comfty bed.

I've been slacking since Friday. Haven't done any CD related work since that day too.

But here's my output for today....

and I want to share the story behind these two pages.

Truth is, Adrian and I haven't been talking since Feb 13, 2014. He expressed disinterest in CD for personal reasons. I told him I'd continue working, but honestly, I was wondering whether I'd pursue it since I dropped a webcomic project I was working for this game.

Plus, I also had issues regarding my health, namely: fatigue and migraine attacks. Working on CD every night, sleeping around 11pm, and waking 5am the next day was taking its toll on me. The mere fact that I'm using a computer before i sleep has weird side effects on me the next day. It makes me groggy. and boy was I groggy at my office! The last time I had a migraine was in 2012, during my last college days. That was also the last time I took paracetamol to ease the pain. I've been ingesting that drug to ease the attacks, and I'm wondering why.....

So i took a break from CD and did other productive things (lol). I 'm teaching myself how to play guitar, how to control a volleyball and I'm reading Buddhist Books. I was supposed to resume work yesternight, but my migraine... oh....

Today, I went to Island Garden City of Samal located in Davao del Norte, which is 2 hours away from my house.  It was an exciting trip since it was my first time to travel alone to another  province (and I crossed the sea alone too! yay!) I was sent their to assist for the scheduled pay-out  in our country's Conditional Cash Transfer Program. I made new friends. I had fun. I crossed the sea once more to return home. I also brought some guitar strings  along the way :)

So you must be wondering what the heck I'm babbling about and it's connection to these images. here's what:

I almost died today.

On the way home, I was reading an ebook when I heard a fellow passenger scream "Oh my God!" many times. The jeepney we rode abruptly stopped and when I glanced at the driver, my eyes widened. If the driver stepped on the brakes a second late, our jeep would have crashed into the truck. Our jeepney was 1cm away from the tail of the truck. I know it's an exaggeration. But the distance was so close.
And I sat behind the driver (i'm the second person from the back of the driver. If you live in the Philippines, you'll get my drift) Apparently, it was the truck's fault since it stopped without warning. I stopped reading my ebook, left the jeep and walked home.

So why am I telling you this story?

I could have met an accident. I could have been injured. I could have died.  Or I could not.
reflecting on what happened to me, I realized that life is short.
It's really short, when you look at it. In the blink of an eye, I could be here, or I could be not.

"Every passing second, passing minute, passing hour of our life is a blessing. So make it useful, make every passing moment meaningful, live a life that you're proud of."

The other day, I watched Todd Henry's  Creative Under Pressure Tedtalk. In the last segment of the video, he mentioned that the Graveyard is the most important/valuable place in the world. Why? Because all the unpublished novels, all the uninvented inventions etc are buried there. Therefore, he made an effort to "Die Empty" (just check the vid)

Suddenly, it all made sense. I didn't want my contribution for CD to die along with me. I wanted to give life to it, even if the game had the possibility of entering development hell, even if Adrian and I will never talk again.

So I sat down and drew. (and I played around with the guitar and they volleyball too!)

and that's the story behind these images (even though it looks ugly)

To end this blog entry.....i would like to share a quote i read at zenpencils....

“Every single day I get emails from aspiring writers asking how to become a writer and here’s the only advice I can give:

 Don’t make stuff because you want to make money, it will never make you enough money.

Don’t make stuff because you want to get famous because you will never feel famous enough. 

Make gifts for people and work hard on making those gifts in the hope that those people will notice and like the gifts. 

Maybe they will notice how hard you worked and maybe they won’t, and if they don’t notice, I know it’s frustrating, but ultimately, that doesn’t change anything because your responsibility is not to the people you’re making the gift for but to the gift itself."

4th Week in Development

Week 4

Our accomplishments for the week:

1. Character Designs--------------done (Too many dates. hehe)
         a. Adrian
         b. Faye
         c. Normal Lohne
         d. Joe
         e. Kai
         f. Wenzon
         g. Alcarde

2. Cutscene Dialogue Script-----------66% done

our 4th week has been productive!

I'm not yet done with the character designs. There are some characters who wear elaborate armor, and some are realllly furr, so I need to do research. lol

Adrian's done a good job with the dialogue too! I haven't read it yet, but he's finished 10 out of 15 paragraphs.

Monday Arthy Begins!

Welcome to Monday Arthy! 

This is where I post my progress for Crescent Dreams. I have no idea what Adrian will call his segment for the Friday, but I chose mine because it's easier to remember.

I will continue to post every Monday of the week until Crescent Dreams is released to the world. lol!

I'm currently working on the character designs. I have finally designed 5 characters. I have 7 more to go!

It's a joy to draw and design characters. I'm not the best out artist out there and I do cram a lot. But I'm learning from my past mistakes. I make an effort to draw everyday, even if my mind is telling me to sit down and surf around the internet (haha!)

I learned that mindless practice will not improve a person's ability. Intentional Practice does.
I'm weak when it comes to anatomy, clothing, armor,  and cloth folds. I could have remedied this in the past, but I chose not to. I chose to follow my bloated ego and believe that I was the best there I was.

Boy, I was sooooo wrong.

I've learned to be humble, especially when it comes to drawing. A cup full of tea will not allow for more tea, therefore it is necessary to empty it first. When you draw, you draw from what you see, not what your mind sees. The mind is full of concepts. It has a concept of what a flower looks, what a hand looks like etc. It has a generic image for a certain object, and drawing without seeing will end up with a generic looking image.

I write this because I've been suffering from this "generic" drawing for many years.

But I'm starting to unlearn that.

Empty the tea cup, and draw.

-Arthy

A New Schedule

Adrian and I agreed that both of us will have the wonderful opportunity to post our individual progress for Crescent Dreams. We are, after all, two different people with different tasks and approaches to bring CD into the world.

I will post my progress on CD every Monday, while Adrian will post every Friday. Our summary of weekly accomplishments will be posted every Wednesday. That's 3 posts a week, and at least 15 blogposts a month!

We hope that by documenting our own progress in CD, we will be more committed to see it "out there" in the world. It's not a simple task, as we also have our own lives to attend to. But by taking things one by one, I'm sure we'll be able to finish this project. We'll be able to discover more about ourselves. Not just in how we tackle our work ethics, but evaluate how the creative process of game-making affects our relationship and lives.

With love and happiness.

-Arthy

Adrian here. :D

..Adrian here! Arthy's partner for the team's current game in development, Crescent Dreams. I'm in charge of some of the scripts, as well as the sole sprite artist and programmer for the game.
..It was a pretty tough couple of weeks for me hence it seemed like i abandoned Arthy or something (heh), but now i'm somewhat back on track. :)
..I'm slowly (but steadily) progressing through the cutscenes script. Things should go along a bit more smoothly from now on.
..Oh, look! A new header image and a new overall theme for the blog! :D


P.S. The header image says "Crescent Dream", without the 's'. That was the title graphic of the game way back and we will be modify it soon.

3rd Week in Development

Week 3

  This sums up our current situation in CD's Development.

Our accomplishments:
1. Item Dialogue Script--------(Completed 2/2/2014)
2. Side Quest Script-----------(Completed 2/2/2014)

For our 3rd week, Adrian wasn't able to contribute much (sorry Adrian! haha)

Item Dialogue Script 
    I had fun with this one! Haha, it was challenging to think what an inanimate object would say once you talk to it.

Side Quest Script
     Fun yet difficult. I based the script according to what I wrote in the NPC script. I hope Adrian has no difficulty when he programs what I wrote.

Did you notice the picture above? Isn't it great to have a picture in a blog post! (smiles)

That sums up CD's progress. (the dude is Adrian, the gal is me).
I'm finished with the non-art related aspect of CD, and I asked Adrian if I could proceed to the graphics aspect without him. He said yes (yay!)

About Adrian... he's lagging. (lol!) He's a freelance illustrator, so he can't focus in CD all the time (plus, he has an adorable kid). But I keep on reminding him to do his part in CD, one step at a time. It's his brainchild of course.

Since I'm the one mananging this blog and our other forum accounts, I decided to participate in rpgmakerweb's GAME DRIVE for FEBRUARY 2014!

                                                               RED TEAM! WHOOOO!

Honestly, I'm worried whether Adrian and I will be able to produce at least a playable prototype. He's in charge with the cutscene script, the programming and the script. I'm in charge with the character design, and i make suggestions on what Adrian does. I hope by the end of February, we'll be able to produce, or at least make decent progress

Thanks for dropping by! Stay tune for more updates!

-Arthy