Rush is quite a drug.

You've put it off long enough. There is a stack of work to do and the deadline is fast approaching. Past self has played and laughed and it's time for future self to pay up. In a fit of panic you get started and do three days worth of work in a single night. The quality is fair, the efforts exhausting, and there is little time to rest. At least you had fun until then.

Usually this can be avoided if you just start small and work your way up, but it was my favorite way to work. That strung-out feeling is adrenaline, a chemical your brain produces in response to threats. I'd agree that a deadline is a threat, but it was made that way through the magic of procrastination. While I enjoy rush jobs, I have a problem.

The adrenaline my body produces causes chest pains. Sometimes it's discomfort when I slow down, other times it's terrible pain a day or two after. Here are the two major problems. Little one has about a week and change to be completed, and I'll be trying to build a bigger game within the space of a month. Add to that the last bits of planning for my next project has to be done this month.

Little one doesn't have too much more. The NPCs are done, player seems solid, critters are coming along. I'll have to finish up the critters, add some props, add the parts, and program the upgrades and part fabricators. Most of the programming is already done, I just have to make a ton of assets to add.

Textures and animations will take the most time. I might drop some features and add them later. Beasts and difficulty levels seem like the first to be dropped. The parts needed may be dropped to 20. Simple upgrades will include inventory cells, energy and health boosts. This week is going to be hard.

My next project was to make a game in two months; one bigger than little one. I wish I had spent more time planning, but I should have plenty of resources. Some of the things made for it will be added to Little One and vice-versa.  The map needs added detail and grid separation. For brevity, I'll put together the endings and work backward from there. This game's current design is just a list of notes.

The final two days of this month will be used to flesh out Little One a bit. I'm hoping I can get the opening and ending scenes together, but they'll probably just be vector images. New year's and the day after will be filled with numerous tests and final planning to get my next project up. Once done, I'll furiously prep the player and several resources, mostly from other resources I have. My collection of failures will help this next project succeed.