Esoteric Update #305 - A Difficult Decision, But One I Had To Make

Yeah... a difficult decision...

Look, I could tell you about things I've managed to get done over the last week; some pretty interesting developments happened, I feel, but I'll just cut to the chase.

I can't continue working on the game the way I am. The things I'm trying to do right now are not working. I'm struggling to implement some minimal viable version of my intents, repeating to myself that I have to because I need to start releasing content for the game as soon as possible, that it's that time. I keep telling myself I can fix the issues later, but realistically, I can't. I'm just making things worse.

The reason is tech debt; the game had a long development cycle, and many features were designed back when I was not nearly as proficient at design as I am now. Those features are now causing massive problems for me.

It's not an easy decision, but I'm discontinuing the game's alpha line. I'm moving on to beta, fixing my tech debt, and then focusing on what I can do with everything I've designed from that point onward, reintegrating it all together like it should have been done from the very start.

I'm essentially moving on to a beta branch. Less a tech demo/a series of experiments and more the actual bones of the game I want to make.

I also want to say something else, something equally important. My employment is ending in three months. It's not what you think it is, though; at least, I'm assuming it's not what usually gets said when this is brought up. I'm unfit for work for medical reasons; I'm essentially entering early retirement. I'll have more time to work on the game and more time for myself. I'd like to make the best of that time, which means I have to address the things that are eating away at me and my ability to be productive.

It's not like what I've made so far will disappear or go to waste. It's now a rich repository of solutions I can reach for and re-adapt when needed. What's required is to reframe them in a way that's complimentary with the whole.

I will be updating some core elements of the engine and then transitioning the whole game to the GB system because that works really well, and design-wise, it's one of the things I've managed to accomplish that I feel I am allowed to be proud of.

I know that I'll get backlash for this, but I said what I had to say about the whole matter on Discord, and I'll just say one bitter thing from my thoughts on the matter: It's never "how can I help make this come together faster"; it's always "how dare you not be done yet".