I’ve been trying to regulate my work/sleep schedule to be more present for my mom and to be more available to my publisher when Mardi Gras 3000 is released for the retail market. But this new project—Project Pupae, my “time away from MG3K while everything reorganizes” game—is kicking my butt.
I’ve secured three of the eight researchers we need. All hard science experts. One is in the Czech Republic, one is in Cameroon, and the third is in Bangladesh. GMT is -8 for me. I set my tablet to pull messages 24/7 every ten minutes. You do *not* make scientists wait.
I get up with Mom and do breakfast and morning coffee chat. We’ve been using the Journal as a jumping off point, talking about articles and opinions. Then I work on the artwork for the game—I’m doing a lot of it this time—until lunch. We lunch together then I do my fifth of the research divided between the collaborators. Break for dinner and coffee then back to research until 9. Until midnight I playtest and trouble shoot with Mom or over the Internet with the virtual mock ups we set up.
Midnight to 2, I answer email, blog online or on paper for upload later, post on my regular forums, and play a game of MG3K HSOL (the “old school system” that’s being replaced with Gille Hawkin’s system).
Then I make phone calls for about an hour because in the middle of the night (2 AM PST) is when everyone I need right now is wide awake. By 3, I usually notice that my publisher’s AIM account has signed off and I take them closing as a sign that I can too.
In bed, I read the March issue of “Fast Company,” a business magazine that’s so insanely precocious and self-reverential that they actually seem to believe the fluff they pass off as news-worthy. This is “business” for the “bizness” set. A magazine all about mind share... which is to say a magazine all about a whole lot of nothing. I am pleased to have one and only one issue of this magazine because it is mind-numbing prattle. Which is exactly why I read it.
After thirty minutes of reading about... nothing of importance in the real world... my mind is totally blank and I drop the drivel and pick up my tablet. I work on game mechanics for an hour and half, timed, and not a moment more. The pressure and focus is good for me. It won’t allow me to get bogged down in my own what ifs. I don’t open any other windows. Just me and my Microsoft Journal for sketches and hand writing recognition. I pose questions to myself across the screen and answer in a different color. I save frequently.
More than once I’ve woken up with my forehead on the screen, the tablet long since hibernating.
By morning, around 9, over coffee and gatah, I scroll through my notes. I rarely remember any of it but, so far, its all been good.
Feels right to be working. Reminds me why I fell in love with this.
E.J.
