Project Minotaur Progress Report: A Surge Without Direction

Legend:
(-) Goal incomplete
(~) Goal partially complete (buggy/hacked)
(+) Goal complete

Goals for this week:
1. (+) Map out overall architecture
2. (+) Damage model object
3. (+) Polish Spell Casting state
4. (~) Combat architecture

Goals for next week:
1. Spell casting creates damage model
2. Create a new development plan for the month

Other work done:
None.

This last week was thoroughly productive, but why didn't this update go out on Friday? Well, mostly that's due to not knowing where I'm going next. I have a lot of stuff left to do, but next Saturday is March 9th, the date I had hoped to launch. Problem is, when I originally set that date, I had much higher hopes for my work velocity, and I had somehow mathed it up as three months between January 10th and March 9th. I realized later that night that in reality, that's only two months.

So will I be able to complete the game as originally planned within just one more month? No. It's not going to happen - not unless I suddenly find myself without a day job for the next month.  Even, I'd need to win the lottery first or have some equally unlikely event happen that would allow me to spend the month focusing on my game instead of searching for a new job.

Where does that leave me?  Well, I'm very excited about the Ouya, and it will begin shipping at the end of the month, so I'd really like to wrap Project Minotaur up and play with my new toy.  However, I also want to really finish Minotaur up, polished and released properly, which will likely require more than a month.  In short, I'm torn.

Aside from this turmoil, this next week seems like it will be full of life getting in the way of this "indie development at night" thing.  I'm expecting lower velocity, lower morale, and just a hard time convincing myself to work on a project that will be past due. All this progress from this week basically ran me off a cliff.  This project has been built on the run so far, and I can either build the plane in the air or wait until I hit ground with a renewed plan.  Right now, I choose planning.

See you next week (perhaps on the regulaly scheduled Friday) - here's some screenshots of the improved spell casting state.