Garbage Country Logbook

For the past year and a half I’ve been working on a prototype for a game, working title “Garbage Country”. It is an experiment with persistent multiplayer mechanics (using SpatialOS). In other words: a game where players can make permanent changes in a shared world.

Starting a few months ago I’ve had serious doubts about the direction I should take it in. These doubts were made worse by the fact that programming a multiplayer game comes with a certain amount of friction. Quickly experimenting with gameplay features is harder when you’re also trying to make those features work across the network. Regardless, along the way I learned a lot about workflow, prototyping, networked games, and a bunch of other topics.

Last Thursday, a dispute between SpatialOS and Unity reignited my doubts in a serious way. It has made me decide to put the project down, at least for a little while. To make it feel like my time was somewhat well spent, and to have some sort of ‘product’ from the period, I am uploading the logbooks that I kept during development. They are very chaotic. I am honestly embarrased about how badly I am capable of planning and working in a goal-oriented way. Then again, it’s also a creative process and I love the freedom of letting the experiment lead me on a day-by-day basis. At best, you might feel better about your own style of note-keeping and organisation.