Organizing My Routine (More or Less)

Hey everyone! It's barely been half a month since the last post, but here we are with the monthly publication on the 15th. And wow, this month has brought some interesting changes.

If you read the first entry of this blog, you'll remember I mentioned I've never been someone who organizes everything all the time or structures their day like it's a narrative chapter. I've never approached life as a "diary," but this year I want to experiment and change my approach a bit. I'm going to start scheduling tasks and structuring objectives and goals to complement other day-to-day activities.

For many of you, this will seem normal, but during my student days, I didn't even touch an agenda. I've always been flexible and improvised as things came up, but now, both for myself and for you with this devlog, I'm even going to start measuring actual development time with an app. And I emphasize "flexible" here, because I'm not going to go crazy with this either—I'll try to integrate both philosophies and see how it goes.

Why now? Because my usual way of working has always been to dive deep into a project until it's finished, with super long hyperfocus sessions until it's done. But of course, Proyecto Neural isn't something you finish in months. It's a multi-year project with multiple fronts constantly open, and maintaining that pace might not be the healthiest if I want to make a living from it long-term.

Plus, I've always been curious about these time-tracking and agenda apps, so I'm taking this opportunity to experiment and see if they really help me get better precision on how much time I dedicate to each weekly objective.

I'll tell you in future updates how this goes, because so far I've only been doing it for a couple of days.

Speaking of progress...

February has been surprisingly productive considering I've technically only had half a month of development (I spent January closing the holiday event and setting up this blog).

I've completed the main game menus: settings, pause, and the whole navigation ecosystem that players need to configure their experience. I've also finished mapping controls for both keyboard and gamepad, with a prioritization system that avoids conflicts when multiple actions compete for the same button.

Additionally, I've been working on the dynamic illustration system that changes based on the protagonist's state. I can't go into details yet, but let's say the player's decisions will have a visual reflection in it.

Looking ahead

With this new work methodology, I'm considering expanding organization to other areas of my life. I've been practically sedentary for over a year and I think it would be a good idea to resume training. I don't know if I'll include it in future updates because the blog's focus is mainly on development, but at the end of the day, it's also my personal blog. And who knows, maybe I'll crash the app's agenda with so many tasks that I end up training at the same time as developing, and something like that deserves to be documented somewhere, right?

I also have a couple of game development books that were gifted to me and are waiting for me. Maybe for the next update I can recommend one if I have time to read it.

As for social media, I'll gradually resume activity. I'll probably start with Instagram (@rubfuertes) sharing some concept art and sketches in stories. Nothing too elaborate for now, just showing the process in a more visual way. You know I take things calmly, so patience.

Well, I think I've rambled enough for today. We'll see how using a time management app goes—this month up until now I think I've been quite productive without it, but... will I notice the difference now that I'll start using it? 👀

Don't miss the next publication on March 15th! Plus, it'll be Livaik Studio's first anniversary, so there will be news.

Thanks for reading and see you next month.

Cheers!