… or pivoting as they call it in the business lingo. Well, OK, the two things are actually fairly different, and this post is about a kind of mix of the two really… I guess… maybe.

This post is going to be a bit more of a story in nature than my usual matter-of-fact status update sort of posts. Also probably a fair bit longer too. At the end of last week, I had a very different post in mind, brewing away in the organ I keep behind my face, and I was going to post it here whenever I had the chance this week. Then, the course of events of last weekend very much changed that, and the post I had planned took new form as this little reflection on life, the universe, and everything… and video game development.

To give some context to the story, I/Shane (Artist/Designer/Director of Level Machine, and the one who makes the majority of posts on this blog) had planned a trip to Sydney for the weekend to go to the Soundwave music festival. Music is my second love along side video games, and with the tendency of indie game development as a thing being juggled on the side with full time work and/or other activities involved in staying alive to become an “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy” type situation, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a breather and take in some different scenery for a few days. So, I spaced out my travel times as much as possible so I would end up with almost 2 full days in Sydney on top of the day set aside for Soundwave, to spend as I saw fit. In typical form, I decided to pack a notebook and sketch pad so that I could spend my leisure time away sitting by the harbour and catch up on some outstanding design and concept stuff for Blastronauts. Yes, apparently given I wide open blank slate, I choose to spend even my leisure time with my face in this indie development thing.

So, as I was getting ready for my trip, I kind of had in mind that when I returned, I would make a post here about doing some design and concept work in the refreshing change of scenery, and how nice it was to sit there with the wind in my hair, doing what I love, but taking it to the road. This is what I had planned anyway. The universe however, noticed I was planning something, and laughed in my face. See, the thing about the universe is, it doesn’t give a single crap about your plans. It just does whatever the hell it wants, and you just have to do the best you can with that. Last weekend was a very sobering reminder of that, and I think it’s helpful to look at all things that occur in this life set in that context.

So, as I was leaving for the trip, I was packed light with just a small backpack, mostly filled with
notebooks, and for once I hadn’t forgotten a single thing. Going well so far. That’s about where it stopped going well though. In the interests of keeping this post to less than the length of an encyclopaedia volume, I will simply list some of the things that happened over the next few days, each one resulting in it’s own little butterfly effect; My flight was cancelled. Lots of flights were cancelled. I was told that the travel insurance I had paid extra for was a waste of money and wasn’t worth squat. No other airlines had any open flights until the following Tuesday (a bit late to catch the concert on Sunday). I was fortunate enough to find a seat on a coach that would get me to Sydney 3 hours before the concert started. This in turn meant my first night’s accommodation was a write off. I called to inform where I was staying that I wasn’t going to make the first night and needed an early check in the following day at 8 am. Yep they said, no problem, someone will meet you there. I arrive at the address that was on my booking confirmation. No one there. Half an hour later, still no one there. I call them up to ask what is going on. They say, oh yes, I will send someone around now. An hour later, still standing in the street, no one there. I am starting to get suspicious looks from people who have walked past me multiple times in the last hour and a half, and am badly in need of a shower at this point. I call again to find out what is going on. They (on this, the 3rd phone call mind you) tell me that I am at the wrong address. They have 2 locations, and I am at the wrong one. So I finally check in at the other location, about a half hour walk away, have a shower, ditch my stuff, and head to Soundwave. The train station is about another half hour walk away, so I’m going to be a bit late at this point. No big deal, it’s a music festival, all the best stuff is always on last. I get on the train and realise that in my haste, I have left my ticket to the festival in my bag. 1 hour later, on the train again. OK, finally home free. Not quite, due to bad weather, several bands were delayed, and one was cancelled. The one that was cancelled just happened to be one of the 2 bands that I was going for in the first place. Then, as I stood in the pouring rain in the food queue that seemed to be the only one not moving, I figured at least I’m not getting sun burnt. Then I get to the front of the queue and they are out of food.

It’s funny, writing this all down now, I am actually laughing to myself remembering it all. No one of these things in isolation was all that big a deal. All of them put together added up to a very, very different weekend than what I had planned, but a hell of a memorable one that’s for sure.

So, what does this have to do with game development? Well, nothing more than an allegorical connection really. Apart from the fact that my plans for getting some harbour side design time in was thwarted with a vengeance. See, after all this was over and done, and I had to get up at the crack of dawn, merely hours after getting back from the concert in order to get back to Melbourne in time for work the next day, I now had a 14 hour bus ride ahead of me to reflect on the weekend’s events. I also still had my notebooks with me, so while not harbour side, I managed to get in several solid hours of pen to paper time. I even drafted this post while on the bus (but I’m only just posting it now because I have a very irregular relationship with the internet at the moment). I did however learn though, that trying to draw a straight line while on a bus is like trying to perform brain surgery on a bouncy castle. So the quality and quantity of what I managed to get in was a bit stifled, but nonetheless, the opportunity was there.

So the summary of my reflections on that long bus ride home were how similar the experience felt to my experience so far in pursuing the goal of turning Level Machine into an indie game studio. Not one thing has gone to plan. Most things have looked at the plan, said bugger this and gone in the complete opposite direction. But the things that have happened, have nonetheless been valuable in their own right, and if things had not happened the way they had, many good things would not have come to pass. People would not have been met, friendships would not have been forged, and lessons would not have been learned.

So I guess the point of all this rambling is, if you ever wonder to yourself what the correct direction to be moving in to make progress is, as long as you are moving, something will happen. It may not be what you planned, but who wants everything to go to plan? That’s so boring.