Breaking Through The Biofilm

Jacob p -

Kenshi is one of my favorite video games of all time. It isn’t a triple A game from a big studio and doesn’t have the fanciest graphics either. Instead of having a huge budget, it has a soul. For a long time, Kenshi only had only one developer, Chris Hunt, who poured 12 years of his life into creating a masterpiece. It may seem random to bring up an incredibly violent and relatively unknown video game, but for me it is a major source of inspiration. Like Chris Hunt did, I want to create this game to the best of my ability without having to cut corners and rely on giants of the industry. What’s most important to me is that I create this game as close to my dream as possible.

I have struggled with motivation to develop this card game for the past few weeks because I was getting caught up in my own self-doubts. Through my last meeting with Ms. Lizak and Ms. Giles, I was able to vent my frustrations about the card game market and my own lack of ability as an artist. This really helped me and I have been able to accomplish a lot this week. Given this, I would like to give some advice to my fellow senior project entrepreneurs: Find that game, book, movie, or even show which inspires you because of the amount of heart put into it. Hold onto that inspiration and nurture it by remembering the hardships the creator had to overcome to make it. Remember, you can always be that inspiration to someone else when you have accomplished your dream. Also, it doesn’t hurt to talk to people about your concerns.

Now I should get back to the normal posting:

I’m so glad you could make it to this blog post, Bacilli-Born Bipeds (yes these will keep getting weirder). I hope you all have been more productive than an Escherichia coli colony in a new substrate. For the title, I drew inspiration from how many bacteria create biofilms together for them to survive harsh environments. I feel like for a long time, I have been in a harsh environment created by a lack of motivation. Now, I feel like I have broken through this “biofilm” and finally entered a space where I can get things done.

This week I have been super productive. I have printed out a set of all the bacteria cards (with artwork!) and have started designing the gene cards. Next week I am hoping to have enough of the game printed so I can actually playtest and try my hardest to break the game!

It does take a significant amount of time to cut out the cards so I will either borrow a card cutter from Baxters or the school to speed it up. For now, I’m only making normal paper versions because cardstock could get a bit expensive. The downside of this is that I can see through the cards.

I’m really looking forward to this next week, because I’ve accomplished so much this week. I hope to see you all next week to share my progress and hear some feedback. Attached there is a picture of all the bacteria cards that I will be printing. I just need to do some minor edits to explain abilities more.

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    rohit_p
    Thank you for your advice, Jacob, especially since it's helpful for my project's effort. I love your card designs so far, as well as your color schemes for each one. Just curious, how expensive is the cardstock? Have you thought of other materials to use for a cheaper cost?
    dina_i
    I love how you tie Kenshi into your own game development journey. it makes your passion really stand out. The biofilm analogy is also a fun and clever way to describe breaking through a slump. It’s great to hear that you’re making so much progress, and I’m excited to see how the game continues to evolve!
    jacob_p
    Hello Rohit! I'm glad that my advice was able to help you. Thanks for the compliments on my artwork and the color schemes (I suck at choosing the right colors). For cardstock, I am exaggerating a little on the price, but It's still best to save money where I can. A problem I've come across with cardstock before is that it's a little harder to get a good print on, especially for art. For now, I want to avoid cardstock because I haven't done a play test yet, so I don't want to keep editing, reprinting, and cutting with cardstock.
    jacob_p
    I appreciate the compliments, Dina. I’ll definitely have a lot of progress to show next week. The evolution of the game will definitely be fun as I’ll be play testing and breaking it soon.
    meggiles
    Jacob, I am such a fan of your work (and your reflection on your work). The amount of work & thinking you've done here is really a gold standard. Keep going! MG

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