Dev Log: July 14, 2025
I’m van camping in the mountains, week 2 of 3.
My family does this every summer. But this year, I’m on deadline and I need to work.
Everything at camp is work. Keeping the space clean, splitting the wood, wringing out laundry, monitoring the food and batteries and supplies. My dog is also sick, and you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to collect a urine sample on the road. (Treatment is underway and she’s doing better.) This work needs to get done. My game “““needs”“” to get done by comparison, but this is a dev log, so here I am thinking about it at the crack of dawn.
The meager hours I claw away for dev work never satisfy. Even now, a snail on a rock near my foot is competing for my attention. I swear he’s going about things faster than me. The actual benefits of camping - the closeness of family and friends, the silence, the molecular and panoramic beauty - are always calling. They want and deserve me more than my precious life-affirming work does. How lucky I am to be pulled by such forces!
In practical terms, I have about 1 week per in-game “Day” to get the minor art assets sorted. The more major cutscenes are about half done, and will rely on this day-a-week schedule for their own time allotment. I need a lot of help - more than I’m getting - but I can’t spend time looking for it most days. When I’m burnt out on sprite animation, I shift to the remaining code problems. At this point I only have time to check things off lists. It’s going to be this way for the next 7 months.
I miss writing and tumbling the pebbles of new ideas. But there’s something freeing about this stage, too. I don’t look at things in the game, shudder with stress, and say “I’ll get to it later” anymore. Later is now. It’s a relief to admit that. Closing gaps, putting scenes to bed, is very satisfying. I haven’t been in this place since 2021 when I was stitching up PT. Soon enough, I’ll be back on this mountain and people will have been playing PT2 for months.
The sun has burned off the morning fog. I’ll finish this post after breakfast.