MARCH to Victory! ... Or Off a Cliff...

Like Mario reaching Bowser's castle, or Link drawing his sword on Ganon(dorf), or Mega Man walking that tiny hallway and getting ready to face off against a boss, March stands against me now.

Also much like the ghost in Escape from the Afterlife, not knowing if the next square could be its downfall or salvation.

February came and went, surpassing or at least meeting nearly every one of my goals (except for money), and overall I'm about even for Jan and Feb monetarily thanks to The Adventures of Rubberkid Kickstarter funds hitting January and selling a few copies of When Asteroids Attack. 

What this means is that The Adventures of Rubberkid bought me enough time to finish the game and line up a surprisingly awesome March. It's going to be one crazy month, though:

• March 1-8: The Adventures of Rubberkid
• March 9-17: Escape from the Afterlife (the same dates as 7DRL - Seven Day Roguelike - but won't technically be part of it since the game has already been started)
• March 18-21: Hangman
• March 22-24: (#1GAMCRUNCH? Ludum Dare? Some sort of jam?)

Luckily, we're going to have some major fun at the end of the month with some of Angel's winnings, so that will give me something to look forward to throughout all of the upcoming challenges.

Now, the challenge: While I'm going to *fingers crossed* HOPEFULLY have three full, new games done this month (and a jam game!), they have to make money! It does me no good against the evils of the MarchMonster to make unsuccessful games.

Wish me luck!

In the First Half of February this Developer Gave to Me...

In my first tracking of self-awarded work points, I'm just under 70% of my full potential for getting work done. Not too shabby for a beginning, especially with still not feeling 100% well anyway :)

As for what's been accomplished, in under 9 full work days I got back into Rubberkid (which was a heck of a task on its own after almost four months!), made 2 1/2 levels of the game (leaving just half of one and the extra stuff) and have hit my goals with social network growth, newsletter subscriptions and so on.

The only area that (still) needs work is earning some income. I did make a sale this month, which is awesome!

And for the rest of the month, I've got rewards to send out for the Kickstarter pledgers, Rubberkid should be complete this month (but won't be released since I'll still be looking for sponsors) and there's the #1GAMCRUNCH next weekend (the 22nd-24th).

Still a lot of excitement coming up, and in all honesty, I'm probably the most excited of anyone about it! I'm really having some fun working on Rubberkid, and last month's #1GAMCRUNCH resulted in quite a game... This time around, Ariel Marsh will be helping out (she's the one who has done a LOT of art for The Critterverse).

And one last thing: The Adventures of Rubberkid has been updated on the web as well! All of the levels but one (Chris, the Critter Crusher) are playable now.

The cheerleader level - featuring Jane and Jenny - is now functional! They do a little cheer as the bullies hurl their insults.

February Goals

With January done, February gives me a clean slate, but with a whole bunch of awesomeness to work with.

Now, while I'm still only about half done with my Hangman game, the fact that it's taking so long makes me realize that I need to shift my focus. One of my worst habits in the past was finding a "more important" project in the middle of working on one, therefore never really finishing anything... Because of that, I always feel awful and resist as much as possible with shifting focus, and do it only when it's really important. I shifted to Hangman because I was still sick and needed a project I wouldn't ruin, and could easily work on... And now I need to shift back to Rubberkid because I ran a Kickstarter campaign (which was successful) and the estimated release was in February. I also need to get back to it because it's a much more important project, and it's quite close to done development-wise, really!

February Goals (Games to Develop)

1. Finish Rubberkid and start seeking sponsors for the game.
2. Complete the Hangman game as well, have it out seeking sponsors.
3. Complete the #1GAMCRUNCH February challenge (22nd-24th) and have a game to show for that as well. Use it for the "one game a month"

February Goals (Other)

1. When Rubberkid is done and seeking sponsors, send out the pledge rewards for the people that pledged on Kickstarter.
2. Break even on the month (expenses/earnings)
3. 300 Work Points (1 point is given per half hour of work... I am for 7.5 hours per day (15), times 20 days this month = 300)
4. 1125 Critterverse Likes (+40)
5. 950 followers on @TheCritterverse (+113)
6. 850 followers on @CataclysmGames (+170)
7. 185 Critterville Times Newsletter Subscribers (+13)
8. 110 Minion Inquirer Newsletter Subscribers (+10)

January 2013 Recap

So, January is down, and there are still 11 more awesome months in the year. Jan 2013 was the first year I really tracked some very important things... So, how did it go?

Recap

I spent half of the month sick, and as I was getting better I got to working on a Hangman game, since I wasn't up to working on Rubberkid yet. I figured I could do the Hangman game quickly, but it ended up becoming a lot more than expected... 100 movies with over 1,000 total phrases, each with a hint and a fun fact, takes a LOT of time to do!!!

The 25th - 27th were the #1GAMCRUNCH, for which I made Escape from the Afterlife, which I was very proud of! It's another game that I want to do more work on, though, so we'll see how that goes when I do. :)

After that, I got back to working on Hangman, which still has an estimated week and a half to two and a half weeks of work left.

Goal Results

Weight Loss: Six pounds lost out of my goal of 12. Pretty good for not exercising yet and being sick most of the month, though!

Social Media (Twitter/FB): Did WAY better than I was aiming for with Twitter, but failed with Facebook. Facebook is WAY harder to get new fans with than Twitter is to get new followers...

Email Newsletter Subscribers: I managed to get my goal with the Minion Inquirer, didn't miss the Critterville Times (the main one) by much :)

Website Visitors: Not too good, but then, I wasn't doing much to drive visitors either (outside of making Escape from the Afterlife)

New Year and 2010 Recap

So, a new year has begun, and I'm rededicating myself to making games, losing weight and writing about it all!

First things first... Happy new year to you!!! It sure is for me, since New Years Day fell on a Saturday, I received a 2 day weekend, which is just unheard of where I work (with the exception of last week, since Christmas was a Saturday also). It's perfect timing too, since it gives me a chance to kick all of this off.

Secondly, here's a rundown of how everything went last year, and my goals for this year:

1) I made a total of $988.44 last year from video games! This year? $10,000, 10 times that (well, 10.117 times that, rounding off a bit, if you want to get technical). I'll be using MochiAds, Adsense, Newgrounds Ads on their site, Kongregate's revenue sharing and sponsorships, as well as referrals and Zazzle selling (those items still need to be put up for sale, by the way!)

2) I am down a total of 97.5 lbs thus far (started originally at 316, and I am currently at 218.5). My first major goal has always been 180, and I think that's majorly doable this year!

August Goal Results

So how did August go? Aside from being crazy hot you mean? Alright...

Games

Get Make a Story into Testing (15th is goal 1, 19th is goal 2, 22nd is goal 3)

So, did you enjoy Make a Story? What do you mean you haven't played it yet? Oh yeah, because it didn't reach test yet! It'll definitely be in this month's goals...

Get Million Dollar Words into Testing (31st is goal 1)

Since Make a Story didn't make it, Million Dollar Words sure didn't! It'll also be in this month's goals...

*** As a bonus, The Adventures of Rubberman was conceived and is near demo stage, after being entered into the Ludum Dare Jam! ***

Fitness

Attain Fitness Personal Points (140 is goal 1, 125 is goal 2, 100 is goal 3)

I hit about 80 or so...

Hit Target Weight (252.4 - 4 lbs down is goal 1, 249.9 - 6.5 lbs down is goal 2, 246.4 - 10 lbs down is goal 3)

248.7, goal 2 hit, woohoo!!!!

Promotion

Launch thecritterverse.com and redo cataclysmicgames.com (8th is goal 1, 12th is goal 2, 15th is goal 3)

Both done! 2nd goal.

Submissions received total (with 1 going into the month) (25 is goal 1, 15 is goal 2, 10 is goal 3)

Pfffft... Not a single one!

MochiAds total (gain $4 is goal 1, gain $3 is goal 2, gain $2 is goal 3)

$2.50 earned, goal 3!

Attain Promotional Points (140 is goal 1, 125 is goal 2, 100 is goal 3)

About 80...

June Goal Results and July Goals

Anything in life worth doing is worth tracking! I just began doing it myself last month a bit, and so I'll list my own goals for this month, as well as the results of my goals from the previous month.

JUNE 2010 GOALS

1) To drop to 265 lbs, 12 lbs total for the month.

SUCCESS!!! Only by weighing in today, however... Ended up at 265.8, whew!

2) To finish TruHangman up once and for all.

FAIL! Whoops... June heat + a laptop that doubles as a heater = someone who wants to spend as little time as possible around it! But I'm back in full force now again, so don't you worry!

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JULY 2010 GOALS

1) Hit 250 lbs. That's the lightest I've been in years and years! It'd be 15 lbs down but it'd sure be awesome to be there again. Shoot high, right?

2) GET TRUHANGMAN DONE. Seriously! It's a hangman game, it should be done by now, and I have much more awesome games I want to get done! Along with this goal would be...

3) Get TruWordHunt at least to testing stage. This way August can be lined up with super secret project of awesomeness #1.