End of week pomodoro report
Added 2018-11-25 17:56:22 +0000 UTCA pomodoro is a 25-minute block of focused work. I promised to do at least 10 per week when the first funding goal was reached.
Target: 10 pomodori
Achieved: 52 pomodori
Today I finished writing and coding in the Analyst mission cycle. Next on the list is to code in the Operator path, which will hopefully not take long. I'll keep you updated here, of course.
Smashing pomodori
52 pomodori feels like a record, but the truth is I'm feeling highly energised and excited about the work right now. Part of that is probably because the end is in sight, but part is because I've deliberately been trying to focus on the to-do list instead of stressing out about hitting a certain release date.
As I said in the Transparency post, once the next release is out, I will reflect on ways I can improve the way I work and engage with the community – thanks to everybody who has provided feedback in that thread so far. Right now my plan is just to keep attacking pomodori until the release is ready.
It feels close, but every time I've guessed a date I've got it wrong, so I don't want to say a day and let you guys down. Please just rest assured that this humble crab is working as fast as possible.
Comments
@ceol: pretty sure I am in the minority in this case, that's why I was suggesting a secondary patreon rather than a change (I try not to be unreasonable). I've supported quiet dev's (only 1 of those that I still support, trust has been earned there though), dev's that posts every week or two (my preference), and dev's that post close to daily (which I find annoying since I support multiple devs). You may simply prefer a different amount and type to feedback from devs than I do. As for the proving thing, like many people who support via patreon, I've had some lousy experiences. Ran into one a bit ago who did streams, and while I'm not particularly interested in watching them it was still nice to see someone who recognized that there's a lot of distrust, and took steps to ensure full transparency. Wasn't just claims that they were working on something, they offered indisputable proof. Necessary? No. A good call? I thought so. As for lying, wouldn't be that hard to work 10 hours, claim 20, and repeat each week producing a steady rate of development (using crush as an example, sorry) As for the paying for a service thing, while we legally are not, some (like this one) are run in a way that in practice we are, as there's tiered rewards, rather than just having a re-occurring tip jar. Necessary to bring in enough funds to justify working 20+ hours on a project? Most likely, but it is what it is. Feel free to disagree if you like, but remember that ultimately I'm just another person on the internet who may simply view things differently.
raska42
2018-11-27 00:41:49 +0000 UTCTo most of those who commented, I think you missed my point. Was talking about the possibility of a secondary patreon for those who dislike constant updates, was not suggesting getting rid of them for those that like them. As for the post tagging thing, I'll admit that was kinda vague. Currently, your post tags are available for patreons only, so as someone who's been eyeing the game for a bit, I've gotta say it's been a nuisance to try to search through a month or so of posts to try to find non-promodoro posts that actually give information about whats going on. A 'non-promodoro' tag on all releases, info, etc could probably work, those like myself that don't want to have daily notifications could disable notifications about public posts. Isn't perfect, still requires manually checking regularly/semi-regularly (and obviously clicking the non-promodoro tag), but it's a work-around of sorts (seems like there should be an exclude tag option) EDIT: scratch that, it'll still flood the quick access (personal) patreon page hiding relevant posts from other devs Alternatively, splitting every tier to to have promodoro and non-promodoro versions could theoretically work, although there very well could be practical issues to that which I'm not seeing.
raska42
2018-11-26 23:58:34 +0000 UTCHey raska, thanks for this feedback, I really appreciate it and I'm sure you speak for more people than just yourself. As someone who strives for, and occasionally achieves, "inbox zero" I can definitely see how daily pomo reports could be an annoyance. I'm definitely happy to look into ways of being less annoying, but setting up a second Patreon seems like a big hassle. Is this something I could fix using the "public post tagging" you allude to? What even is that? EDIT: also, thanks everybody else for coming out in support of pomo reports! Don't worry, they're not going away!
Crushstation
2018-11-26 19:21:06 +0000 UTCYou might be in the minority in this case. Sure there isn't much being presented each update, but past progress and the constant communication on Discord serve as fairly believable evidence that there is work being done. Maybe a photo or two every once in awhile of some work wouldn't hurt, but a stream seems a bit unnecessary. It's not much spam anyway and it's quite easy to ignore (though it seems you find that a bit difficult so to each their own). Better than seeing an update every few months and learning that there was no progress done in between that time. Just remember that you aren't really paying for a service as you are supporting someone's freely distributed work that may not exist if not for us. As Breadloaf mentioned, lying to us would be really tedious/difficult to maintain and hurt their work more in the long run. Seeing these updates that take time to write shows a level of effort and dedication to their work that isn't all too common.
Ceolrus
2018-11-26 06:11:10 +0000 UTCI, too, prefer this kind of communication to the weeks-long silence of other developers. Especially since on Discord (ok, I still have access to other channels there than the general public), receives very good feedback on the current development.
Falloutbabe
2018-11-26 04:45:29 +0000 UTCYep, I like knowing I am paying for something, and getting the service in return.
Hanako
2018-11-25 22:40:49 +0000 UTCThe fact that he's providing us with the constant updates is one of the reasons why I am a supporter. That way I know that the project isn't dead and that he's still chipping away on the update. Him crafting a very elaborate lie about working on the game hasn't crossed my mind, since that would take (almost, at least) as much time as writing and coding. Simply unfeasible.
Breadloaf
2018-11-25 20:15:20 +0000 UTCBeen eyeing the game for a bit now, kinda hate to say it, but the main thing that's keeping me from being a supporter is the constant promodoro updates. The game's fun (clothing customization being restricted currently and lack of public post tagging are my only real gripes, and expecting the former to change), but I have no desire to get a stream of daily messages that your patreon has updated. The filter options could theoretically get rid of those (removing notifications about all public posts), but they'd be getting rid of notifications about any public announcements as well. Any possibility of setting up a secondary patreon that lacks these? While it's nice to see that you're claiming to be working on the game, if you don't stream it than it's just taking your word for it (which in my opinion doesn't necessitate daily spam). To be clear, I'm not trying to be critical about you doing those, just trying to point out the daily updates are a turn-off for some (like myself), and that a secondary option might be beneficial.
raska42
2018-11-25 19:39:02 +0000 UTC
