I recently had a minor hernia (probably caused by holding a sneeze in - I’ve snapped a belt before when sneezing!), which I’ve just had repaired by keyhole surgery. I paid to have the surgery performed privately instead of waiting for an operation on the NHS. Why? Read on…

2nd dan grading

I’m training up for my 2nd dan grading in Aikido which is in September. This is the culmination of 11 years of training and teaching - so it’s pretty important to me. Having a hernia meant that I couldn’t carry on with my hard training in case it got worse, so I needed to get it operated on ASAP in order to resume training.

Health Mind and Body

Aikido helps to keep my mind and body healthy, and when my general health drops I get more tired, ill more often, and less motivated to do stuff (like work). Also, when not training, I notice that my mind thinks about work all the time and starts to get paranoid about dumb stuff. Aikido really helps because when I’m there I’m doing something totally different - so I don’t think about work or my day to day life. The breathing and meditation also helps a LOT of course, so I’ve tried to keep that going.

Waiting around is not good

If I waited for an operation on the NHS I would have missed my 2nd Dan grading and had to wait for a whole year before I could take it again. Furthermore I would’ve been walking around for months knowing that I had to be really careful not to make my hernia worse. Plus my health would have suffered and, ipso facto, my work would have suffered. Therefore I decided to take action and pay to have the operation done privately.

Spend more for a better result

I was given a choice of two types of operation: open surgery and keyhole surgery (which cost more). Keyhole surgery is less invasive and so there is a quicker recovery time. Thus I opted to spend the extra money on keyhole surgery because:

a) it meant that I could get back to work sooner and thus earn money sooner (the extra cost of the operation would be offset by increased earnings by getting back to work days earlier)

b) it meant that I could start training for my 2nd dan again quicker and harder (and as a side effect my work motivation and output would improve)

c) in theory there would be less pain (well it still bloody hurt!).

Your body is like your car

So there you have it. Let me make an analogy: if you had a car that you needed for work, you’d spend the money to get it fixed ASAP rather than waiting around for a friend to fix it for free several months later. Also if you had a choice of two repair methods and one method cost more but you’d make that money back through your ability to work sooner, you’d do that too because it makes business sense right? Well that’s what I did with my body.

Now spend some money on yourself!

As an aside, people would often PREFER to spend money on their car than themselves, when maybe they need to see a dentist, or get some new glasses, or have a massage or some acupuncture, or even just join a gym. This is quite amusing, but it’s a common trait. So, I challenge you to think “how could I spend money on my body or some holistic treatment that will improve my life and work?” and then go and do it!

P.S.

I want to say two more things:

One is that I think the NHS is great and we are very lucky to have it. I just needed things to move faster this time which is why I went private. I’m considering health insurance so that I can have more choice in the future - this seems to make sense if your business can be affected by your health; after all, you insure pretty much everything else right?

Also, I didn’t have enough money for the operation. I used all my savings and also asked for money gifts from relatives for my birthday which helped (thanks all!), and then I got a thing called a BMI card which is basically a medical credit card that has 0% interest for 6 months - bargain! I put the remainer of the cost on the BMI card and will pay it off before the interest kicks in. There’s always a way if you look for it!

Well 2007 is gone and 2008 has already started and it’s about this time that I like to take stock of what I achieved in the last year and what mistakes I made and then set some goals for the new year. I highly recommend this process for everyone. Read on…

Here’s what I said at the start of 2007 and how well I actually did:

1) Continued improvement in my self-realisation studies. I probably didn’t do as much in this area as I’d have liked just because I was so busy making Fairway Solitaire, but that’s just an excuse really. However, I did make great strides with myself, my relationship and my finances.

2) Turn my self-realisation co-venture into a huge success. This was a flop (although I learnt plenty of things). It started very well but I found I was doing all the work and my partners weren’t contributing as much as I’d have liked. So we agreed that they’d manage it for a while whilst I took a back seat. Unfortunately, they didn’t do very much at all (mainly due to their own activities taking off, which is great for them) and it has since fallen dormant. Very soon I’ll have a meeting with them and either a) quit or b) take it over completely

3) Spend more time relaxing, doing my hobbies (reading/music/games) and with my family. hmm, I always seem to feel I haven’t quite succeeded with this one. Towards the end of the year I played a few games (which was great), haven’t done much music at all, been reading a bit all year. Have had some great family times but I know I could do more. I guess I’m a bit of a workaholic because I enjoy my job so much and there’s always more to do…

4) Make some top 10 portal games that make lots of money so that I can continue in the same career. Well I only made one game, Fairway Solitaire, but what a game! It reached #3 in the BFG top 10 and I’m sure it’ll do well on the other portals when it is released on them.

5) Make some games that I *really* want to make (platformers/shooters etc), even if it’s just for fun. Didn’t do this but it’s a goal for 2008.

6) Become Rich (I’m already happy so I don’t need to worry about that one). Of course this depends on your definition of rich! Helen and I have both done well this year financially and I’ve cleared off some personal debts and we are stable, which is great - but there’s still plenty of room for improvement

Here’s some other ways in which 2007 was great:

- Re-released Easter Bonus and got tons more sales in.
- Improved my game framework considerably ready for the next game.
- Bought a Macbook Pro and converted Holiday Bonus to Mac (more games will be converted soon).
- Went on two special Aikido training courses in Austria and the Ukraine to supplement my normal training/teaching.

Here’s some 2007 mistakes (I made many more than are listed here!):

- Spent too long making Fairway Solitaire which limited what else I could do, but it was all good experience and necessary - so not really a mistake.
- Entered into a business venture with two friends who, as it turned out, left me to do most of the (boring) work. When I stopped working on it and left them to it, it went nowhere fast. I may buy them out and run it myself (with my partner). Check back next year to see if it was also a mistake
- Let my site slip in terms of affiliate game sales, advertising etc.
- Didn’t do as much blogging or game news/reviews as I wanted to.
- Didn’t spend enough time with my family or playing games/music etc. This seems to happen every year and I keep saying I’ll sort it out … hmm…

OK, now the goals for 2008 - First the Game Development ones:

1) Develop 2-3 hit games for Big Fish Games. (Depends on the size of projects we end up choosing)
2) My games will reach No. 1 in the BFG Top 10 and on other sites too.
3) One or more of my games will gross $1,000,000. (based on past performance, this is a realistic and achievable target - just need around 100,000 sales)
4) Start the next big “genre”! (gotta think big ;-))
5) Meet lots of you at Casuality.
6) Work on an “action” game as a hobby.
7) Continue improving my skills and my game framework.
8 ) Continue having great fun doing a job that I love!
9) Ramp up affiliate sales from my sites and blogs, via more newsletter subscriptions, more blog posts, more marketing etc.

Personal Goals for 2008 include (my full list is huge so I’ve just put a few here):

1) More family time + go on some great holidays!
2) Play games, make music and persue other hobbies. (Basically need to get the work/life balance sorted)
3) Get 2nd Dan in Aikido (my Sensei has asked me to go for it after 5+ years of being a black belt, so I need to train hard in 2008)
4) Go to bed on time and get up on time! (This is a big one for me as I love to stay up all night programming or playing games but I have to get up in the morning for the school run and then my day suffers)
5) Diet: reduce alcohol to an absolute minimum, reduce treats/junk food, eat more fruit and healthy food, drink more water. I’m already vegetarian and my weight is fine but I know I can do more.
6) Exercise: breathing exercises every day, more exercises (pull ups, press ups, sit ups, dancing, running, swimming, walking, clycling etc)
7) Keep my positive attitude strong and keep working on self-improvement.

I’m pretty sure that diet, exercise and good sleep are VITAL to pretty much EVERYTHING else. You get the balance right and your brain will work better, you’ll have more energy, be more positive etc.

Anyway, I’m keen to hear about your goals for 2008 (post links to your own blog entires if you like) and I wish you luck for 2008.

Remember that a goal means NOTHING unless you work hard to achieve it and don’t give in!

Probably, like some of you, I’m a bit in the dark with Windows Vista regarding its special requirements that affect casual game developers. Also I don’t have a spare PC and a copy of Vista knocking around to do some testing on - although I can probably find someone with a Vista PC who’ll let me use it.

Well actually, I’m not totally in the dark; I do have a basic understanding of the issues having been sent some development advice by a couple of portals and having read some forum threads on the topic - but until I implement and test the required changes myself, I’m not 100% clear on what I need to do to make my BlitzMax games properly Vista compatible. When I know more, I’ll post again so that you can all benefit from my mental strain In reality it’ll probably be quite easy.

I think that the main issue is making sure that you don’t have any files that are written to in the game’s folder, everthing needs to be in the user’s “special folder” (e.g. save games). Also, for global data, such as an ini file and global high scores, you need to write to a different special folder. It’s all to do with permissions you see; Vista has clamped down on what you can write where on the user’s system. There are threads on BlitzBasic.com and the Indiegamer forums that talk about how to get the names of these folders, so I’ll be researching those. Of course the changes have to be backward compatible i.e. they still work on XP at least, and possibly other Windows OSes like 2000, ME, 98SE etc.

So basically, I’m going to HAVE to convert my BlitzMax Game Framework to Vista and test it for the current game that I’m working on and I’ve got about 2.5 months before the deadline. Also, I’ve got to convert my framework to Mac (Intel and PPC). Both these tasks are BORING but they need to be done to ensure uptake by portals and, of course, sales! At least once it’s done, I probably don’t need to worry about supporting another OS for quite some time unless I decide to make games for Linux or mobiles…who knows what the future hold?