Area 161

It’s Amazing What Focus and Excitement Can Do

// August 30th, 2010 // By LordBron // Game Dev, iDevBlogADay, Partnerships, Purpose

We’ve had the idea for Area 161 since about January, I think. I didn’t really have any time to focus on it until April, when I officially left 360|Conferences. Since then, there was a lot of talk, but not much action. I attended a few sessions at the April 360|iDev (THE best iOS Dev conference!) and had a full schedule of sessions at WWDC in June. Smiley didn’t really get jazzed until he got his iPad in August.

In five months, we prepped a logo, knocked around a few game ideas and figured out our business. We dug deep to find out what we wanted in a company as well as what we hoped to gain out of the company in the end. I wouldn’t say that it was “wasted time” because all of that was good stuff, but it certainly was a sparse time of activity.

Excitement is Contagious

This is the great part of a partnership: excitement. Being excited about an idea, concept or notion all alone doesn’t make for much productivity. Without someone to share and help grow the excitement level, a lone person will find that excitement fades after a day or two.

When Smiley got his iPad (I still only have iPod Touches), it was a life changing moment. His entire family began to understand why he wanted to build games for the platform. They understood that it was truly a “magical” device. They began to ask questions like, “Will your games be as cool as these?” Our answer: “We sure hope so, that’s sorta the point of the business.”

Smiley was pumped full of excitement, so naturally he turned to his partner and said, “So are you programming skills up to snuff?” He didn’t ask like that, but that’s how my mind translated it.

A Partner (and/or Friend) Can Bring Focus

It wasn’t like Smiley was tossing down game art and full fleshed out game ideas that needed prototyping. However, that’s still no reason as to why I wasn’t prepared after 5 months to technically start whipping out prototypes. Part of my problem was that I started backwards. I went from Flash to iPhone Dev Kit to Objective-C. I was getting by and with some help from the great David Whatley of GeoDefense fame, I had even whipped out a small prototype using Cocos 2D.

Learn the Basics, It Really Does Pave the Way

I realized that if I was gonna take a serious stab at this, I needed to go down to the basics. I needed to learn C, then Objective-C, then Cocoa, then Cocoa Touch, then Open GL ES. I pledged a book a week, mainly the Apress series mentioned in my last post. In the month of August, I got through the C, Obj-C and half the Cocoa book. I’m at the point now where I can figure out how to build an app in Cocoa without following an example.

In ONE month, I gained more knowledge than the previous FIVE months due to focus and excitement. This despite the fact that I probably worked more hours in my day job in August than any other month. Time is not your enemy and there is ALWAYS time to get your learn on. Don’t fool yourself with silly lies. Stay up later AND wake up earlier. Most of my study time this month was 8:30 pm to 11:30 pm (aka until I passed out) AND 5:30 am to 6:30 am (after I showered and did personal development time). I was pretty much working all the other hours of those days. Yes, it was hard. No, it wasn’t easy. After spending 12 hours on a computer at work, the last thing you want to do is spend another 3 or 4 at home and after you wake up on the computer, but I did it.

Don’t Forget to Treat Yourself

With hard work comes great rewards. I’m not talking about riches and all that crap. I’m talking about little presents you give yourself. Like tonight for example, I gave myself a reward for my hard work. I took Smiley’s mom and little boy to a baseball game because he was busy. That’s why this is going to barely make the deadline. Yeah, another 4 hours on the Cocoa book woulda been great, but sometimes you have to remember: You can’t just work and live for the future good times. You need to stop and enjoy the current good times as well. This weekend, my wife and I watched over two boys that match my two boys in age. Sure, again, it distracted from my studies, but it was great fun.

Life is the reason we do what we do. Therefore, let’s not be stupid and let it pass us by while chasing “the Dream”. Because, we all know that if we catch “the Dream” but no one is around to share it with, the chase will be for naught. At least, it would be for me.