One of the reasons I started the Game A Week challenge was because I wanted to strengthen my discipline muscles, my determination, dedication, and of course to strengthen my shipping muscle.

The lack of released projects the past 3 weeks, shows that I’m not in a decent level, yet. I have a long way to go, but I’m not going to stop. I do not want to stop. I will continue the fight with my self. I want to keep trying and be faithful to what I started until I win.

Along the way I learned many things I need to apply and add to my qualities.

Like:

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” - Pablo Picasso

“The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” - William Faulkner

“If you want to get people’s attention, set your self on fire (figuratively) and people will gather to watch you burn. [Fire = Action/Work]”

“You never fail until you stop trying.” - Albert Einstein

Seriously paying attention to every detail, as an opportunity to cultivate your excellence: Tapping Your Reservoir of Excellence by @benserviss: “Excellence lies in the stark decision to consciously use every decision point that comes your way as an opportunity to help you become what you want to be. Excellence lies in one simple decision you must consciously make: the decision to live for something.”

A champion’s way is lonely, it’s normal to be and it should be. Obstacles in that road are negative, so positiveness’s needed for solutions.

“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.” - Malcolm Muggeridge
That’s a really important saying.

“Experience includes the collection of all the mistakes we have made in the past.”

“The key to becoming more productive and successful is to fail faster and smarter, especially if you do creative work.”

Bungee-Jumping is more easy to do than to stick with a challenge every day, even if the latter is just for a small fraction of time. Bungee-Jumping is just a single step of decision which take less than a second, but the latter requires constant effort/awareness.

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, go out and get busy.” - Dale Carnegie

“The only failure is to stop, to conform […] Stop comparing yourself and keep making games”: How to Survive a Game-Dev Event by @tanyaxshort .

Wise-life-lesson by @yu_suzuki_jp, conveyed at the ending of Enduro Racer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAku53ZQZOg Beyond the games’ framework.

“Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working.” - Pablo Picasso

“What good is an good idea if it remains an idea? Try. Experiment. Iterate. Fail. Try again. Change the world.” - Simon Sinek

“Lives of great men all remind us greatness takes no easy way. All the heroes of tomorrow are the heretics of today.” - Yip Harburg

“Unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they’re pointless.”

“Be the best, but get ready to be attacked. Only mediocrity is safe.” - Paulo Coelho

Learn & Help. Don’t antagonize. Improve yourself.
Be better compared to yesterday. Don’t compare with others.

Even though this video talks about English, it shares a valuable message about learning momentum and discipline: http://youtu.be/7Lww0J0e1pw?t=6m37s It tells Aesop’s Fable about The Hare and the Tortoise, and how that relates on discipline, long term goals, work ethic and success.

There are three worlds: Past, Present, Future
◄ Past: Taking Lessons
► Future: Making Decisions
♪ Present: Acting on your Decision with Wisdom & Love

Let’s talk about what I endeavoured during the 6th week of the Game A Week challenge.

Idea
This week I wanted to create a platform kind of style game. What I tried to do is to place some objects on the scene which could change colour according to an event (such as a press of a button). I made it so to change between two colors, black and white. In the same time, the colour of the scene’s background could change (from black to white, and vice versa). Based on that effect, the colour of the character/player on screen could change, too, and it would be the opposite of the background’s colour (so as the player to be visible).

What I really tried to do with that was so when the colour of an object was the same as the colour of the background, then it would be treated as an invisible wall/floor/obstacle, and so the character/player can get past through it (like it doesn’t exist).

I spent a lot of hours to fix the bugs of this and in the last minute I managed to solve them. Thus, it didn’t leave me with time to make the actual game, with meaningful gameplay, according to a specific mechanic of a specific goal and a meaningful structure of interaction.

Therefore, it ended up on a very early prototype state. Of course, it could be used for a future project, now that at a basic level the aforementioned endeavour is quite working. However, it still have some bugs that are still head-scratching to deal with. Probably, a less complex way could open a road to follow to achieve a completed game in the shortest time (but that depends on what is the real goal).

What it went right

As said, an almost in the basic level endeavour managed to be working, as a basis for a future project.

What it went wrong

I didn’t complete a game (with the full meaning of the word). It still have some bugs to deal with, like the player get stuck in the walls. That needs to be fixed, even by starting from scratch with a different solution to the problem/challenge.

Conclusion

Making a platform game is hard. Not impossible. You have to consider pixel-perfect collisions sometimes, and if not, at least, the jumping mechanics, stop at the walls/floors, especially when you try to make some obstacles invisible based on their colour, proved to be a demanding task. I think I will visit the challenge of design a platform game in the future (and itched to get on the very same challenge again).

Last, but no least, here is the source file of this week’s project (in case you want to try it): Download. Also, I used code from this document, so as to save some time about it (I think, probably/maybe, it would be better not to use ready code again.).

In any case, I am happy that in that current level I managed to make something, even in that incomplete form. I want next week to continue trying and yield even better results based on an even better effort. Action/effort inevitably makes you stronger and level you up!

P.S.: As always, you can contact with me, for game and self development matters, bigdipperart" rel="nofollow noopener">@bigdipperart.