The Angst Affairs #9

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Sept 19, 2014
From: Pippin
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Hey Teddy!

Oh Em Gee.

I can’t completely pin down why I somehow let my angsting lapse for the last two weeks. I could say stuff about travelling to South Africa last week (for AMAZE in Johannesburg, which was incredible) and then getting back to Malta and being disoriented, but I don’t think that was it. Actually, I’ve let almost every habit in my life drop off a cliff for the last two weeks for some reason (as tracked by nice iOS app Habit List).

Well, I mean, also the lack of angsting is associated with a total lack of work on Jostle Parent, and that at least is because I’ve been busy with other life stuff (two talks, one in Johannesburg, another upcoming in Cologne) plus prepping to teach two courses in the upcoming semester at my university, plus some other big (and good) life stuff that hasn’t completely shaken out yet. So.

Uh. So I guess I don’t have much to say about the game? I guess I can say that I’m horribly bored of it? That it’s in that state where the whole thing is an ugly mess and I’ve been refactoring its code a bit today just to make it comprehensible to me again? That I can’t remember why I thought this thing was a good idea? That it’s painfully close to having a full vertical slice (including UI elements, etc.) that would tell me whether or not it would work? That I’m nervous about it not working? That I shouldn’t be nervous about that because who cares if it doesn’t work? That I have a million ideas for other games I desperately want to work on instead? Etc.?

That’s where I’m at. I’m going to get back into this thing. I’m going to finish it. I’m going to make some other stuff.

How about you? I’m very sorry for disrupting this whole thing – it’s all on me! I can take it!

Pippin

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Sept 19, 2014
From: Teddy
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Hey Pippin!

Erm hi. Yes I noticed your absence, and raised you some willing participation of my own.

Everything you’re doing and prepping for sounds wonderful! I’m glad we lapsed here. I think this was a good thing to happen both to The Angst Affairs and to our respective games. It’s a junction point.

Let me first dig into what you said about Jostle Parent. I’m really excited about this exchange, because I like the idea of questioning fundamentally the things we’ve promised to Unwinnable backers. I want to discuss whether they should exist and in what form, and hopefully bring them through to the other side strong.

So, I’m curious, you said you can’t remember why you thought Jostle Parent was a good idea. Is that true? Can you dig a little deeper and talk about why you started the project in the first place?  If you can summon that same inspiration, that can be a great way to push through this hump. But maybe you can’t. Maybe it’s not worth it. Maybe you just deliver something else to Kickstarter backers, tbh.

I’ll answer my own question about Need: on one hand, the game addresses directly my personal experiences with work versus life balance. On the other hand, it represents how I overcommit and stretch myself too thin. I doubt whether it’s good for me or not, and at this point having produced almost nothing of substance, i doubt whether I even want to. I wonder if I should just start talking about Kyoto Wild here (which I do anyway), and deliver some sneak peek thing to Unwinnable. Who knows. I don’t.

So how is it going? Are you pushing forward already or still stuck? Is your attention elsewhere?

Teddy