Ok, a lot happened over the past 3 weeks. Two "game-crunching" sleepovers. Five-man team worked to death. An alpha demo ready to play. So what's with the silence from me in Eo lately? What gives?

I'm not sure, but at least I know that it has little to do with Eo.

All I know is that my ability to write is suffering, but from what? I still have my year-in-year-out-chronic headaches and classically-conditioned-lethargy attacks, as usual, but now, there's this emotional numbness that's making everything... boring. Everything.

Usually, I have a passion for writing; thus, you see text-walls from me. But now, I'm struggling to keep this blog-writing going. What the hell?

Well, there's this medicated oil, "Kwan Loong", that my father brought back from a seminar in Singapore. It's a soothing change from the oil I usually use as relief from my headaches. Somehow, it felt softer. However, it keeps putting me to sleep... why? There's Chloroform as one of its ingredients. Very tiny amount, but after a week of use, it's softening my nerves... making me feel numb and, well, stupid. And the headache is still there.

As of this moment, I'm putting away that cursed oil. It's back to "Seing Peing Ew", which is Chinese. Works better for me. My point? China rulz. :P

*takes a whiff of the Chinese stuff and two pills of Tylenol*

Whew. That's a little better.

Anyway, I took around 50 photos of us working on Diora (the casual game). You guys will see them once I finish the new Sapphire Blood Studio website.

I know barely any Chinese  :

But I do know that "ew" means oil. And your cursed oil is some sort of dragon.

...Or am I wrong?

50 photos? This game better be good  :P

i'm curious as to why you do this.
how can it possibly be good for the game?
do you do it for a learning experience?  for some reasons involving an otherwise lack of team together time?  or have you discovered that your games turn out better if you develop in this manner?

honestly, i'm not criticizing you at all.  i really am curious.  i've yet to experience a dev cycle in which any amount of crunch doesn't negatively affect the game.  sure, it makes the game "get done" by some people's theory.  but it doesn't get done right.

it's pretty interesting, as i've been putting a huge amount of effort over the past years into completely eliminating all crunch for my teams at the studio.
i'd love to hear your differing perspective on this subject.

edit

yes, indeed.  i, too, am stoked to check out your new game!  stop teasing!

I like to work in iterations, if that's much different. Like, I prefer not to leave something half-done, so I divide things up into portions and finish them by those portions or in groups. Sometimes I "crunch", I suppose, when a certain task is taking longer than determined, or I run into unexpected bugs... but it's hard to say whether continuing it later is more effective, because I kinda lose interest and focus in the particular task I was doing.

What I HAVE noticed is especially bad with this kind of dev cycle, though, is that you don't really want to have a static impression of your game in your head. If you step away from something and return to it later, you can almost criticize it as a different person and will be able to see possibilities and flaws that your "focused" self couldn't when crunching. Plus, inspiration doesn't come as avidly sitting in front of a computer; I seem find inspiration when I go about, chill with friends, walk (especially!), and either play games or watch movies. Physical activity is as good for your brain as mental activity, if you ask me. I'm no psychologist, though.

Partially off-topic, but concerning dev, I'll be goin' up north with nothing to do but work and make games for several months :). But I guess that's talk for my own blog.

Good luck with your game, Joe! I'm really curious to see what you guys cook up; I wish you'd share more about it.

Why must I be the only one with toilet humour. And I still read Diora as a misspelled diarrhea  :-[

Looking forward to seeing them screenshots! And I hope you haven't received any permanent damage from the bad oil.

I think all of us see it, we just sort of keep it to ourselves. :P

I'd like China a lot better if they'd stop putting poison in all the toys I chew on. :( In any case, keep in mind that drugs are werry bad for you.

I don't know either.

It's mostly out of necessity. Our line artist lives too far away from the rest of the team, which results in difficult communication. From my experience, it is communication that is utmost important in any teamwork, especially one that requires so much coordination and is prone to constant changes.

There's another side to it, however. Suppose that crunch time is inevitable (just pretend that it is, for now), why don't we move it forward and have a massive crunch at the start of a project instead of the end? It's an interesting learning experience, to say the least.

Cactus, what screenshots? I'm talking about photos of us working, not the game itself. :P

makes perfect sense, indeed.  sucks, but its necessary.


now that's exactly why i asked for your perspective, because that concept is quite brilliant :D
a crunch at the start would be carried with a radically different perception than one at the end.
at the start, you cats must be eager like some beavers and burning away with a passion.
end-time crunches tend to be perceived as slogging rushes to hurry and cram stuff in, or to cram fixes/finishes.

thanks for the enlightenment.
i don't believe i could ever convince a professional team to volunteer up-front crunch.  however, i'll definitely ponder on the benefits of this within an indie environment.