Tuesday, July 9, 2019

I was here : the story of Duel Otters 2.0 rework


Been too long since I posted anything here, and it's troublesome to type them all out later to catch up, annoying just like maintaining a changelog later.

I am not sure anymore what was already said or not, so roughly :

- Duel Otters finished before I go to Japan. From that point the team basically reduced to me alone.
- I was able to push few updates from Japan, including voice acting and Japanese localization. But at the same time I have to focus on academic papers and also pursuing my next dream : Mel Cadence, my music game.
- After I graduated and came back to Thailand, I continued working on Mel Cadence.
- However it's not pure game dev, many opportunities, many hesitations. I took various part time jobs (hit or miss). I started maintaining things on Asset Store. (right decision, I am very proud of them) Mel Cadence has bad performance, and it went through one epic rework to Unity's new ECS system, which take time to learn. I started a new http://gametorrahod.com which I maintain English knowledge articles. Then I bought Tecre's badge making machine, because I got some idea about this as a new business for my future if the game isn't enough to feed, I would have some backups if I grow a new business now.
- And then I took more part time jobs because I need money for a desktop with decent graphic cards to do 3D/video works. This money has not yet arrived yet as of today. (Ryzen 3000 arrived already, PT please give me money money...)

It's not that I abandoned Duel Otters. But everything above that piled up make my Mel Cadence plan delayed, which I planned to work on Duel Otters afterwards.

Then it came to one point, that I think a change of plan is needed. I feel that I have already failed my Mel Cadence - then - Duel Otters plan because I could feel the breakpoint, that Duel Otters is rotting. Why? I could left it stale like that without no updates and the app works just fine.