Let chaos reign!
I’ve been looking at my crappy placeholder graphics for too long. Every time I launch the game, a tiny voice at the back of my mind tells me how shitty it still looks. Every time I show it to someone else, they comment how they initially only saw the red handle, not noticing that a shopping cart was attached. Clearly, it’s time to add some artwork.
Trouble is, I’ve been coding for too long. I’m stuck in the analytical, the problem-solving, the technical mindset. I’m seeing immediate problems, not long-term goals. What is, and what will be, but not what could be. I’m structured, organized, meticulous. There’s incessant chatter in my mind, but rarely any visual images. “Programmer’s art” isn’t created by programmers, per se – it’s created by people in a programmer’s mindset.
So it’s time to let it all go. To stop being the programmer, and start being the artist that I know is somewhere inside me. (I know he’s probably not a particularly good artist, but he’s the cheapest and most reliable that I could find.) To be truly creative, truly original, one needs to stop thinking, to stop analyzing, and to start imagining. Since, during the last few months, I’ve been programming full-time, it’s going to take conscious effort to break away from it.
For starters, I’m spending as much time as possible away from the computer. I’m writing this post on a piece of paper, to type it up later today. I’ll be sketching, scribbling, playing music. I’ll make more time for ‘consuming’ artwork – books, movies, music, games – to expose myself to as much random sensory input as possible. Everything to suppress the vocal, the verbal, the analytical, and let the visual, the creative, the imaginary come in. I’ve stopped logging hours for the time being, because the line between work and non-work will be blurred.
Music set to ‘shuffle all’, no concrete plans for the day, pencil in hand — chaos, I welcome thee!
Later addition: I made some sketches, not all related to the game. Then I snapped back into problem-solving mode and finished the Dropbox Dropquest. Apparently, this is going to be harder than I hoped … Time to finish that title screen. It’s starting to look good!