#Parent #Gamedev

[miguel]

Roger Wilco? Nice guy.

Spoiler

By midnight I get a half hour break, I then spend about 20 minutes removing, with my swiss-army knife, sperm crust from my boots. I could leave it for the rest of my shift because I will have to do it again but there's something in the noise it makes when I walk that annoys me intensely. Pogdan, a guy that worked with me some years ago used to work barefoot. I've never talked to him.

[close]

I'm drawing a walk-cycle right now.

[Cassiebsg]

A typical weeekday day:

5:30 - Alarm rings... snooze ....
5:36 - Alarm rings... "I really need to get up now"... snooze...
5:42 - Alarm rings... "I'm sick... going to call in sick... my kid's sick..." ..... get up from bed knowing I'm not sick and need to go to work.
5:44 - Put bread in the oven, go back and get washed and changed.
5:50 - Get bread & milk, put lunch in bag (if I done previous day, otherwise run to the freezer and quickly splice something up), add son's lunch on top of bag.
5:52 - Sit&eat breakfast while trying to read the news (teletext).
6:10 - Run to get the toddler out of bed.
6:11 - (depending on previous day: kid might be cranky and not want to get up.) Convince him to get up.
6:16 - No more time to sweet talk, take him out of bed and changed... (bonus when running already late: realize in horror that son has a brown dirty diaper! Quickly get him cleaned up and ready to kindergarten.) If kid is cranky: Fight to get him dressed!
6:24 - Put kid on the floor to go to car... pick up cranky kid that does not want to walk and carry him to the door.
6:25 - Get shoes, jacket, hat, pick up bag and lunch box. Pickup cracky kind and carry him to the car.
6.28 - "Oh shit, we should have left 5 minutes ago!" Get car out of garage (if winter), close garage door, drive out. Stop, return home, pick up extra clothes for kid, get back into car. Drive like mad!
6:32 - Arrive at kinder garden, get kid out of car - argue that you can't carry him - carry kid to door, return to car and get extra clothes and lunch box.
6:34 - Say goodbye to kid... eventually trying to calm hysterical kid,  so you can go happy to work (fail 99% of time).
6:39 - Get in car and drive to work...
6:57 - Arrive at work, park the car outside work's parking lot (that is now fully lotted) run to get in (while avoiding to slip in the eventual ice), get your lunch in the refrigerator, change clothes.
7:01 - Get annoyed that I "clocked" 1 minute too late... start working...
15:05 - End work, drive home eventually dropping by the shop to pick up some minor stuff.
15:45-16:00 - Pick up son from Kindergarten. He's not happy to see you, cause he doesn't want to go home and throws a tantrum... you realize he hasn't slept his nap... convince son to go home... carry son out after failure (Bonus: take pissed underwear and pants home).
16:15 - Arrive home!
16:16 - Son wants some bread. Give him bread and go sit by the computer. Son comes and sits also. turn computer on.
16:17 - Open browser and cartoons.
16:18 - "Milk!" Shouts the son... you tell him he needs to ask nicely... he does, and you go get it.
16:19 - "Warm!" Get annoyed, return to kitchen and warm the milk.
16:20 -  Realize you kid in hopping on the chair... ask if he need to go to the toilet. "No"...
16:21 - "Cheese!" You tell him he needs to ask nicely. he does, and you go get it...
16:22 - He gets his cheese, and is still hopping. Ask again if he needs to go to the toilet, explain he can pause the cartoons. He says "No".
16:25 - Realize he now has wet pants... get annoyed and drag him to the toilet and get changed, all the while he cries that he does not want to go to the toilet...
16:30 - Bath time for the kid (you shower at the same time, trying to win a bit of time).
16:45 - Bath done, change clothes (try to convince him to get his night diaper and pajamas already on, even though he's not going to bed right away)
17:10 - Get his dinner ready, while he's watching cartoons.
17:15 - Get him eating his dinner, sit by the computer, take a deep breath and enjoy the "free time"
17:16 - Get warm milk for son's dinner.   Return to computer.
17:18 - Help him to the toilet (as he now wants to do the dirty one). Tell him to call when he's done. Return to computer.
17:20 - Get to the toilet as he's now calling. Give him the book he's asking for... Puzzle bonus: Figure out which book he wants. Chaos bonus: Repeat puzzle once son changes his mind 5 seconds after you finnaly gave him the book he wants.  Return to computer.
17:22 - Return to toilet. He's not done but wants your company and makes up something up to keep you there.
17:25 - You tell him you're leaving and to call when he's done and now he finally says he's done.
17:26 - Help him out wash his hands, he returns to dinner.  Return to computer and take a deep breath.
17:30 - He's done eating, returns to sit by your side watching cartoons (you are a bit tired of those, and of only having half a screen, but oh well, at least he's quiet!)
17:35 - He steals your mouse so he can choose a new cartoon and/or randomly hits the keys on the keyboard making you lose what you just used the last 20 minutes to do. Argh!
17:40 - You realize he needs to get to bed and make a deal telling him that "once that cartoon is done, it's bedtime." He says "okay".
17:55 - Cartoon ends, and he gets in denial. "Don't want to go to bed"... convince him to go nicely (60% fail).
18:00 - Get him to the bathroom and "help" him get his teeth brushed. Convince him that he needs to spit the tooth paste out.
18:10 - Get him in the bedroom and convince him to get lay down in bed. And if e's nice he gets a bedtime story.
18:20 - Read bedtime story. (skip this step if clock is now 18:30 or more - and tell him why he can't get his bedtime story)
18:30 - Good night song... take deep breath... tell kids father that it's now his turn to sing a goodnight song.   Return to computer. "Finally peace and time to do something!"
18:35 - in comes Husband factor: "Shall we eat dinner?" (He made dinner, in case you're wondering where he's been at). Take deep breath, refrain from hit head on wall, leave computer and go eat dinner.
20:00 - Return to computer. Leave computer and head for the toilet.
20:10 - Return to computer. Enjoy the quiet time, read emails, check forums, write/reply to eventual threads...
20:50 - Leave computer, put dishes in the dishwasher, remaining food in refrigerator, clothes in the washing machine. Find a new set of clothes for son and place them by the door (or in car).
21:30 - Sit by the computer, starting working on game related events... remember that the toilet needs cleaning and the cats need food & water...
21:40 - Feed the cats and fill they're water bowl. Leave toilet for another day.  Return to computer.
21:45 - Cat jumps in your arms, and demands that you use both hands to pet him!
21:55 - Enough is enough, shove sleeping cat away. Check email and forums again...
22:00 - Start doing some dev work...
22:05 - Eyes want to shut down and you can no longer concentrate. Admit defeat, turn computer off and go to bed...
23:30 - Arrive in bed... use 30 minutes thinking about useless stuff before finally falling asleep...

[abstauber]

Hey, shouldn't this all go into the AGS groups Anyway, what I learn from this is: FINISH GAME BEFORE 2nd CHILD...AHHH

@Miguel: 5 customers, yet you still manage to step into j**z? Hehe, if that story isn't completely fictional, I'd suggest a toilet brush instead of a knife. Take this advice by a worker who has to travel the woods of "dog turd forrest" before reaching the office

[miguel]

Hah you got me, but at the same time I really wanted to stop that amazing work of fiction about sperm because it's not true and I wonder if people believe what I wrote! I'm galaxies away from that persona and pretty much like all the parents that wrote their daily routine. I guess that things aren't very complicated for me at the moment because my youngest kid is already 7 and much easier to take care than a couple of years ago. He has a complete set of testicles.

[monkey424]

Whenever I visit the porn theater, I will think of you miguel!

Anyone still living at home with Mummy and Daddy? Let's hear your wretched story!

[Retro Wolf]

4:00 Wake up have breakfast.

4:30 Head to work.

5:00 - 1:00 Work (lunch at 9.00).
    Come up with awesome and innovative game stories and mechanics that I will never get around to create.

1:30 Get home and snack.
    If (boolWifeOutWithKids == true)
    {
        Too tired to develop games so have nap due to screwed up sleep patterns;
        Wake up feeling like shit, not motivated to do anything.
    }
    Else
    {
        do while (varEnergy > 20%)
        {
            Entertain kids by dancing and doing funny voices;
            varEnergy -= 1;
        }
    }

Sit down and pretend to be a games developer, I might write a line of code or draw a few pixels before a child screams or does something dangerous or damaging to something. I get up, solve the problem then sit down for a minute until it happens again, and again...
Mostly I might play a video games or read random internet crap if I'm not feeling motivated (which is most of the time).

5:00 Dinner time. Try to feed myself while feeding a child or stopping them making a mess.

The Daddy show starts up again, I'm a fair ground ride or a horse or something.

Either attempt to be a games developer or play a video game.

Stay up too late because my sleeping patterns are messed up.

10:00 go to bed, having not accomplished anything games development related.

At my job sometimes I can start as early as 3:00 am.

[Lasca]

I have two kids. One 2.7 years and one 1.5 months.
My days are pretty much like the other doubble parents. If I get anything done it's usually between 23.00 - 00.30.
My youngest kid is a big sleeper. Only trouble is, she sleeps all day and wakes up right about the same time as my oldest goes to bed. Then, if I'm lucky, she falls asleep at around 23.00. And if I just get 6 hours of sleep, I manage the day. So then I press myself into an hour our so of work. But nights like tonight... when my daughters are crying in shifts... Gee. Just put a gun to my head. You carry around one of them and when you put her in her bed you got to go comfort the other one. And it goes on and on.
This wil probably change pretty soon though. This I've learnt about babys - just when you think you know how it works, it changes.

Perhaps rather than MAGS give the competition a different name so it's not exclusively AGS related.

I disagree. If we explain the concept in-game it could be used as a little nice publicity for AGS and for the MAGS. Bring some new members!
Perhaps the game could consist of a series of minigames for building assets for your game (writing a little code, composing some music, connecting the dots of a drawing, i don't know!) constantly disrubted by distractions, depending on who you're playing as.

[monkey424]

That's a good point Lasca. I hadn't thought of that.

Okay then..

The game could maybe feature existing MAGS games. We'd get to see the work-in-progress, maybe alternative dialog or characters, etc. What do you think?

[NickyNyce]

We all do have lots in common. The world is filled with millions of things to stop us from getting creative. My creative spurts last about 3 minutes at a time before something makes me get up.

Am I the only one that goes to bed with a pen and paper, hoping to come up with some ideas for my game,    only to wake in the morning with a blank page and my pen sticking into my ribs?

[CaptainD]

Side-note to future parents - to a 4 year-old, it is perfectly logical to practice playing her recorder whilst mummy and baby sister are trying to sleep.  Whilst said 4 year-old is sitting on the bed they're trying to sleep in at the time!

[Stupot]

I actually usually get a fair bit of free time in the evenings, but I kind of have to be a bit stealthy with my AGSing because my girlfriend gives me grief when there are other things she thinks I should be doing, like looking for a better job. It's not so bad at the moment because I live alone, but we're supposed to be getting a flat together in a couple of months and she's not exactly as enthusiastic about adventure games as I am. That said, she did actually sit and play Hen Man, and I think she was briefly impressed

But this could be another aspect of the game. Not only are you trying to find the time to sit and make a game around being a parent, but you also have to keep your non-adventurer other half buttered up, so they let you actually do your hobby without any guilt trips.

(P.S. Does anyone else actually have this issue or just me?)

[MiteWiseacreLives!]

+1

[NickyNyce]

Puzzle 6....How to satisfy your woman without actually being there.

[Retro Wolf]

@Stupot My wife just walks past me and tut-tuts, doesn't really say anything! So I just keep doing it.

[miguel]

Wives don't get that making a sprite is not like playing around with Paint.

[monkey424]

Yes Stupot. I think all males can relate to this. Substitute game development with virtually any hobby and its the same story! And 'stealthy' is definitely a word I'd use in my game development escapades. I met my wife ten years ago and my AGS fetish lay dormant the initial five years. Then I unleashed my inner developer (coincidentally it was the same year we got married). I remember once she got so pissed off with me that she almost deleted all my work. I now live in constant fear of this and make regular backups of my work. I'm exaggerating of course, a bit. I think she has some respect for my hobby now but she'll still refer to the computer as 'the other woman'.

Anyway Stu, I think your story needs to be captured in the game.

I reckon Retro Wolf and Adeel's collaborative experience with MAGS should also feature in the game.

I hope this project finds its feet. I think it will be really interesting.

[miguel]

I remember once she got so pissed off with me that she almost deleted all my work. I now live in constant fear of this and make regular backups of my work.

I'll remember this next time I leave the computer on, while going out for a quick cup co coffee.

[Retro Wolf]

I reckon Retro Wolf and Adeel's collaborative experience with MAGS should also feature in the game.

Not sure that would make a very good game, only interesting things that happened was me accidently convincing Adeel my real name is David Hasselhoff, Adeel sending me a virus, and tracking down my house using my IP and Google Earth (I don't know why, my forum profile clearly shows that I live in Nottingham Castle, I'm the acting Sheriff ).

[Stupot]

I'm the acting Sheriff.

Well even cops are entitled to tread the boards on their days off.

[CaptainD]

I reckon Retro Wolf and Adeel's collaborative experience with MAGS should also feature in the game.

Not sure that would make a very good game

I dunno RW, I think trying to convince someone that your real name is David Hasselhoff could be a fun mini-game!