Jul 1, 2018

Hi everyone!

I wanted to update you on my progress on my 2018 resolutions, my objectives for the rest of the year, and what it means for the blog.

My progress on my 2018 resolutions

I wrote at the beginning of the year what were my objectives for the blog this year:

1. Get Agile certified
   • Professional Scrum Product Owner I
   • Professional Scrum Product Owner II
2. Stablish this blog as a trusted source of knowledge in the industry
   • Reach at least 1000 visitors to the blog site per month
   • Average one post every two weeks for the year – no post size or topic restriction
   • Conduct and publish interviews with current producers at all stages of their careers – these count
3. Continue polishing my development skills
   • Polish and re-skin some of my 2017 projects and link them to the blog
   • Complete demo of an indie project

 

Steady progress during the first trimester

I obtained my Agile certification back in mid-January, as both Product Owner and Scrum Master, and I was writing diligently during the first trimester – 5 articles in 3 months is close to my target of two per month.

I also started a project to make a small solo indie game, and the idea was to apply the same production rigor you would need for a studio game and then share in the blog the different documents and trackers I created as part of the process. I hoped to finish pre-production with a vertical slice demo by the end of June and at least have started writing a few posts on the process.

 

… and then a wild baby appears

However, I could not keep up in the next trimester. The reason for this dip was that I did not expect how time-consuming being an involved parent would be – mind you, I identified the amount of effort I would have to dedicate as a parent as a risk in my 2018 resolution post, but the time commitment has been beyond my expectations. Between work and parenting, I have had almost no free time. Consequently, I made a conscious decision to focus every available minute on both the indie project and a few development courses to improve my Unity skills.

I did have time to accomplish one thing: I obtained my Competent Communicator certificate from Toastmasters. I am a big believer in the importance of soft skills, and toastmasters its a fun way to get my public speaking to the next level.

 

What’s up for the future

I have built most of the systems necessary for a vertical slice for the indie project, and I believe I might be able to get it to a state where I can send it to a few friends for testing by the end of July. My objective is to write one or two articles explaining how I approached pre-production and share some production documents.

I also expect to conduct at least one interview before the end of the year. I have a short list of potential interview targets and topics, and I need to start reaching out to schedule them.

I hope to be able to look back six months from now and be able to say mission accomplished.

 

Best regards,

Leonard Perez