April 12, 2025
A couple of days ago, I fully committed to creating a video game, if not many. I researched a few game engines such as Construct 3, RPG Maker, and GameMaker. In the first 24 hours, I watched many, many tutorial videos. Yesterday, I took a break.
Not too long ago, Luka Doncic was traded to the Lakers. I try not to be a “fair weather fan”, but basketball isn’t my favorite sport. Football is. I’m a Dallas Cowboys fan, and even if they are having a horrible year, I will watch the NFL from week 1 until Super Bowl no matter what. Even in good Laker years, like when they had Shaq, I wouldn’t start watching the NBA until after the Super Bowl was played. Even then, it’s usually only Laker games, and I often wouldn’t start watching until the playoffs.
This year is a little different. Of course, many of us had a natural curiosity. How would Luka blend in with his new teammates. The first few games were rocky, then we started believing the Lakers could make a serious run this year. I’ll be honest, though. I didn’t entirely start watching Laker games recently out of curiosity. I did it as an excuse to get out of the house. When you’re involved in many projects which involve sitting behind a computer screen for hours on end, there’s an urge to take a break and get outside.
Yesterday, the Lakers played the Rockets. As usual, I headed out to see the game. I got the schedule wrong, though. When I read 7:30pm, I think I assumed it was Eastern time, so I arrived at a local bar and grill at 4:30 Pacific time. I was already out and about, and I now had a few hours to kill.
This is where video game design comes into the conversation. I decided to watch a movie. Minecraft was playing nearby so I decided to watch it. Good movie, actually. I enjoyed it. After it was over, I watched the Laker game and had a good time.
It’s not even 10am on a Saturday, I’m already awake and ready to take on the day. Until this recent video game hobby, I usually don’t start my day until noon, but I feel excited and ready for whatever challenges are out there. I have a lot of ideas for what I want to eventually accomplish. I wanted to mention a couple of things. These are tips for anyone beginning large projects. First of all, if the project is daunting, make sure it’s a labor of love. At the very least, make sure you enjoy the process. If you don’t, you’re likely to give up. We all love the results of a good project, but when we consider doing another one, we reflect on the difficult moments of the last one. So, be good to yourself, in other words.
Another thing is this. I read a Pinterest meme which said to have three hobbies. One to make money, one to keep you in shape, and one to stay creative. My video game hobby will be my creative hobby. The thing about “labor of love”? It’s been good, so far. If you have a hobby to make money, you’re lucky if it happens to be a labor of love. If it’s not a labor of love, stick with it. Not all hobbies are made to be enjoyable.
Right now, I’ll probably explore RPG Maker, and I’ll likely pay for a service. I also like what I’ve seen with GameMaker. I’ll watch a couple of more tutorials, and in the next few hours, I’ll be ready to start my first RPG video game. I hope it goes well…
— Homer Cocktail
(Eddie)
3:30 update… I went to lunch & did some shopping. Also, I downloaded RPG Maker and GameMaker through Steam. RPG Maker goes on sale, now and then, and you can buy it as low as $14.99, I understand. It’s a one-time payment. I didn’t want to wait, though, plus I bought the bundle. I have a feeling it’s going to be worth it. I’m looking forward to making a few games through RPG Maker. As for GameMaker, it’s free. I mentioned before that there is no cost until you plan to export your game to Steam or another system. At that point, it’s $99.99 for the professional version.
April 13, 2025
I’m very, very happy with the way things are going. I keep watching the tutorials, and when I woke up early this morning, I took a crack at creating my first RPG Maker game. I like the way it went. There were a couple of bumps in the road, but I knew there would be a learning curve. It’s really an easy system, though.
When I go through transitions in life, I have periods when I have deep sleep and lucid dreams. New job. New semester at school. That sort of thing, and this is no different. I wanted to keep developing my game until I had something rudimentary to share with friends, but I was tired.
I slept. I’ll tell you a little about my dream. I was in a cul-de-sac, and there was a classroom nearby. Friends I had known when I was a teenager were studying with me how to make video games. Many of them were doing way, way better than me, and I was fine with it. We were challenged to do some 20-step project. I did about 16 of the steps, and I was proud of my work, but my teacher wouldn’t sign off on it. She was a teacher I had at community college, by the way. It was funny! Then, in a room next to me, a girl came out startled and holding her cheek. She had been in there talking to her therapist, a lady her same age, and the therapist socked her! The dream was extremely weird at that point. I saw one of my ex-roommates, and he told me he’d be buying me lunch the next day. I was surprised by the unity I felt at the beginning of the dream. When I woke up, I felt more groggy than usual. I laid in bed for about ten minutes before I got up to use the restroom, then I headed here to type.
I have no specific plan of attack for the day, but I’ll likely continue with my game at some point. I have two goals for the future: (1) create a simple game to share online within the next two to three days. (2) create something more legit to share within the next 45 days. Not sure how this will go. This “simple” project I’m on might take a life of its own. I might not share it right away, and it might turn into my 45-day “legit” project. We’ll see. Like I said, I don’t know where this is headed. Part of me wants to go against YouTuber advice and start learning Unity or Unreal Engine. I’ve put Construct 3 on the backburner. There’s a lot of different ways this can go…
— Homer Cocktail
(Eddie)
Plodding Along 5 – initial sketch
Plodding Along 5 became Inland Kingdom – this is the RPG Maker map
Inland Kingdom – game play
April 14, 2024
Early this morning, I finished my first game with RPG Game Maker. The project start off as “Plodding Along”. I just needed a working title as I went through the first steps of the tutorial. There were bumps in the road. Plodding Along 2 was created, then 3, then 4, then finally 5. Once I got to 5, I had a good enough understanding of RPG Maker basics. I started making a game that was loosely centered around the area I live in. I altered the names, of course, but anyone growing up near these towns would get a chuckle at some of the changes. Big Bear became Giant Bear, for example. I used people I used to party with when I was a teenager, then I put them in some locations.
Even though the basic game is done, I’m going to sit on it for a day. I wouldn’t call it a bug, but the main screen doesn’t allow an option to exit to the desktop. I’d like to put that in, but it requires more tutorials. I mentioned before that I like to take breaks from my projects, and I like to rotate them. I have three main hobbies right now:
- AI music creation
- web design
- game design
Besides hobbies, I have things I like to watch for leisure. I’m going to catch up on that this evening. Tomorrow, the NBA play-in begins. I might watch that. I will 100% come back to this, though. I will rotate my hobbies, and I will make sure I don’t burn out on anything. Also, I have 3×5 cards I keep around me. There are smaller chores and to-do items I try to sprinkle in with everything else. I took care of a couple of those today, and I like where I’m at. I don’t feel rushed to complete a task, which is nice, yet I like the progress I’ve made in the few days since I started doing game design.
I wanted to mention something. There are a lot of parallels between web design and game design. They are two different things, but I wanted to mention:
- at the beginning, I had no clue where to start
- I had no clue how much it would cost
- I didn’t know about the company options
- there was a “breakthough moment”, then everything got easier
- I realized there were hundreds of hours of practice ahead to go from beginner to intermediate, then hundreds more to get to advanced
This is one reason I’m doing this log and making it available to family, friends, and the public. I’d like for more people to get involved with this. I’ve always had a “show me yours, I’ll show you mine” attitude. I look forward for what’s ahead, but this evening, I’m going to watch season 3 of White Lotus. My MAX/HBO subscription runs out in three days, and I don’t know if I’m going to renew it. I want to make sure I watch White Lotus in case I don’t. I watched all of season 1 when I was living in Las Vegas in 2021. I really, really like the show. I hope season 3 is just as good…
— Homer Cocktail
(Eddie)
April 16, 2025
My intention was to upload Inland Kingdom to Steam today. I learned that they charge $100 per game. Though I’m happy with how the game turned out, I might develop it further. A hundred bucks isn’t anything to sneeze at. I might do another project. I’ll definitely sleep on it. I maybe, maybe, maybe might upload it tomorrow or in the next coming days. If I do, it’ll be an exception to the rule. The game was fun for me to design and play, but it’s simple. It’s very, very simple. I’ll leave a button below to the Inland Kingdom page where I go into more detail…
— Homer Cocktail
(Eddie)
8/10 … This 9-minute video talks about the history of Python, first launched to the public in 1991. It centered around indentation, clean syntax, readability, and minimalism. Early on, it competed with Java and Perl. Though slower than other languages, it picked up support over the decades …
June 3, 2025
My focus on game dev has waned since April, but it’s been in the back of my mind. Lately, I’ve been more centered on AI music creation. At some point, I’m bound to return, but I’m not sure when. I just watched a good video on the history of Python. This could provide a spark, but I’m not sure. I wanted to make sure this log was updated now and then, though, so here I am checking in …
— Homer Cocktail
(Eddie)
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