Code Justin

Posts Tagged ‘having more confidence in my development decisions’

I will be the first to admit that I have put very little effort into my kids virtual world/chat over the past few months due to a few different reasons but more recently it is mainly due to a pure lack of motivation.

I have been having some doubts about whether or not to pursue making a kids game.  I’m a little bit worried by the fact that kids already have very established titles to chose from like club penguin or any one of the other dozens of kid avatar chats.

I was thinking about creating a virtual world but for senior citizens… which seems ok but my art style just does not fit the bill.  I could not imagine an 80 year old man playing an online game with very cartoony graphics.

I had thought about making a kids mmorpg (with combat ect…) but the amount of resources needed just to get the game into public beta is fairly insane for one person.  The combat system and all the art assets alone might take me all summer.

So thinking very realistically and working with what I have (my two hands) I’ve decided that my first idea of making a kids virtual WORLD is still my best option.  I could start out as a kid safe avatar chat then try to build users while adding in new features/mini games.  This would be my ‘fastest’ route for development speed since I can draw the art assets at a decent speed and I already started laying the foundation for an avatar chat and already have a few dozen art assets made up.

I want to start laying some concrete goals for myself so I can stay on track because time is running out really fast.  I want to have this game up and running with paid users before I head off to college in the fall.  So I will need to get a working/playable beta out before summer starts.

Even for a medium sized development team that seems fairly unrealistic but looking at what I want to accomplish I think that the kids avatar chat will be the best way for me to create an online world and secure a good financial future for myself while I’m in college.

As I’ve been doing for weeks I have been thinking about which direction to pursue… I’ve found myself wasting boat loads of time I could be spending on development just doing other non-productive things.

So to be firm with myself I’m publicly discussing my goals so that I feel a little more apt to stick to them.  I’ve been in a bit of a development slump lately but I’m ready to climb right out.  Starting today I’m setting my first real goal which will be to STOP worrying about other ideas for virtual worlds and just focus on my kids chat.  I keep trying to convince myself that another idea might be better or even bring more joy to the development process but I know that the safest/fastest route for me to create a successful virtual world will be to start as small as I can and the kids chat seems to fit the bill.

Wow even as I type this post I’m having second thoughts about what type of virtual world to make.  It is really starting to bug me how unconfident I am about choosing one idea for a virtual world over another.

As of right now I’m going to try and stop thinking about my other mmo ideas and put my confidence into the kids chat.  Once I do actually convince myself that the kids chat is my best option I think that my motivation/dedication will pick back up again.

So the first goal for my kids chat is to be confident in my decision to pursue the kids chat over other ideas in my head.

If you want to follow the development of my kids chat you can subscribe to my blog for updates!