July DevLog: Aha! Now I see...

Time was in fact wasted cleaning up old code and creating all those Variables in EzDataManager, because Playmaker isn't as compatible with them as I thought. Extra oof because I spent a couple weeks tidying up my old code to find out enough small pieces were still missing to not have it working the way it did 2 years ago. 

All the hoops to jump through to get these scripts & plugins to play nice with each other just aren't worth it so I scrapped EzData, and disabled all my code while I recreate it all in Playmaker Finite State Machine language. 

It's a lot less devastating that it sounds, cuz Playmaker turns complex stuff simple once you know where all the tools are. (But it's a pretty big toolbox so I got a little lost until I took the time to read over everything and study tons of example projects.)

I'll admit that it took me an embarrassingly long time to get the basic fundamentals down. Dunno if its stress, losing my touch, or what. But after getting my feet on the track I've been able to run ever since. 

Turns out you'll get tons of stubborn infinite loop errors without having little buffer states called "Next Frame Stalls" between everything that checks updates every frame. Not how I'm used to coding, but after 2 days of headscratching I'm wrapping my head around it.

Other than hiccups like that Playmaker is super sleek and helping me make sense of the game's logic in a much clearer way. I can tell this time investment will be a net blessing once I get started on combat stuff.

Making the game feels more like a logic puzzle now than a scavenger hunt for syntax. If I just keep at it, one little feature before bed each night after work & exercise, by this time next year I'll have a complete game on my hands, being stress tested by super hyped patrons and followers (and my doctor will be proud I replaced daily pizza with salad). One step at a time man...

Unfortunately this is a pretty slow pace compared to what I was expecting, but hey, I'm the one who chose to make a video game. Ya know, the hardest and most expensive kind of art to do... And after 4+ years and countless other sacrifices, there's no turning back. I clearly love this idea, so it will see the light of day.

Even if its late. Even if the Pokemon backlash comes and goes. Even if Friendship is Magic is long gone. Even if I have nothing to show at the very last BronyCon ever. Even if I can only squeeze out 2 hours max of relaxation throughout any weekday. Even if I basically miss an entire generation of gaming to make this one. I'll keep at it, because I truly love this game.

Whenever life comes at me with its worst, Battle Gem Ponies is the one thing giving me hope. I want to see the future where I can say it was all worth it.