I was going to sit down this morning and write a post on why I’m choosing Sprite Kit, but instead I feel the need to express how fun game development has been so far. It will be interesting to track my mood over time because I do see the tedious nature of the craft lurking around the corner, but for now I’m loving life.

The first 6 days of development have touched both extremes — incredibly frustrating to amazingly rewarding. The learning curve is steep, but not impossible. And what makes it bearable is the payoff of seeing a character animate, fight or perform some other action. It’s almost as if I’m emotionally attached to these little sprites and get proud of them when they choose the correct target to attack. Something about it is more rewarding than pulling data from a database and displaying it on view even though the actual technical procedure is nearly identical.

Another unexpected joy of indie game development is working as an individual. I’m still in the same office as Chris so my social needs are fulfilled. I’m referring to working as an individual in a strictly technical point of view. I never realized what it would feel like with no weight on my shoulders. No employees, bosses, or customers to answer to. Right now, for the next week or the next month, I can work on what I choose to work on and refactor when I want to refactor. Zero stress. The counter point to this is that coworkers and friends can push you further than you can go alone. So I welcome them raising the bar a little bit down the road, but for now I’m grateful to be at peace working alone.