I'm not a professional dev by any means. I do small things. Small, quick projects rather than huge, feature-length AAA monstrosities. There is nothing wrong with this, of course, except I think I got a little off-track with this project.

You see, the mini-games work. The "loop" works. It works (almost) flawlessly. You can learn a lot from this game.

Where I really got in trouble was tacking on the extra elements. And I don't mean the keys, as they are simple area doors, I mean the EXTRA stuff. The spiders. The levels. Area 8 just about killed me, and it still isn't done. I won't say I have the best track record of finishing projects I start, but rarely does it stem from irritation or loathing for the project, as this has become.

The reason this caused problems was because there had never been any real plan to integrate the two aspects of the game as a whole. There was some nebulous thought, yes, but very little concrete. I went into the project focused on the functionality of the mini-games because that is what I am good at, as far as game dev.

A week or so ago, I finally took a step back from this project and asked myself what I really wanted or expected from it. If I just wanted a collection of mini-games, then it was almost fully roughed in. I just had to cut the fluff, polish what I had, apply a few coats of wax, and ship it out. I still might, at a later date, once the irritation has worn off.

However, the meat of this project is getting, not an overhaul, but a full redo. The ends are the same, the means have changed.

What does this mean, other than a hope and a dream? It means I have gone back and actually thought about greater integration into a larger story. Aside from mini-games, I'm a great storyteller. To that end, I got out a blank notebook and started actually thinking and planning and working on real story and educational integration.

What are these new plans? Do I have anything to show for my epiphany? Well, I got a story partially plotted out within a few hours, and some minor adjustments in the last day have resulted in a near-completion (as far as plot concept, flow, and major events). Production has included an intro video, main menu, character creation, and basic character movement.

I'm hoping to be a little more proactive about the project going forward, as far as updates and devlogs. Because the scale has increased so massively, packages may be a little slower in coming, both for size of project and also because more moving parts means more things to go wrong. Not that I was getting them out like lightning before, but meh. From them, I hope to show off a new creative style.