It is time to reset, to re-build. To re-learn what is forgotten, to test what has been learnt. To shed bad habits picked up along the way and pick better ones instead.

A few months ago I found myself in need of a new tool for making video games and other interactive software. For quite some time, I’ve felt this disenchantment with technology in general but software in particular and I wanted to avoid the bloat inherent to developing a new application these days. I wanted to start from the ground-up but with a full-time job, it is difficult to carve out time for personal projects. So I decided to take the more reasonable route of going with a pre-built engine.

It did not work out. I tried several different frameworks and engines, all with their own advantages and disadvantages. However, none of them really gelled with me. And of course, why would they? A general-purpose tool is supposed to cater to every one with different situations and needs. While this ensures that it can be flexible enough to please a large group of people, it also means that the tool very likely won’t serve your particular way of working and thinking.

Exploration in Godot Engine

None of this is a revelation and I was well aware of this going in but I did learn something else. Going with the reasonable choice and opting for pragmatism is the sensible thing to do when it comes to work related projects especially when there are deadlines to meet, customers to satisfy and where I generally don’t have control over processes and decisions but still have to get the job done. I’ve realised that for personal projects however, I want the opposite. It’s a mode of working and thinking where I want to dare to fly close to the sun and perhaps do things in seemingly unreasonable ways.

I feel it’s important to push the boundaries of our knowledge and from time to time, re-evaluate the things that we hold to be true about ourselves. To see what still remains and has stuck with us and what should throw away. In doing so we might learn of where the contours lie and over time, etch out a shape of what really lies within. As a sculptor slowly and eventually arrives at a sculpture, we must similarly arrive at Truths by a process of elimination and refinement.

I have a plan for applying this and other similar lessons to my work which will encompass the projects that I will work on, as well as the tools I will be using and making along the way and some of the principles that I will be using to make my decisions along the way that will act as my North Star.

I’ll write more about them in the next update, as I plan to use these blog posts not just as a way of journalling but also to flesh out these ideas and leave some notes for the future to reflect, refine and to eliminate if necessary…