Dev Log 02 - The Flood
This last Thursday, as my girlfriend and I lay in bed watching Game of Thrones, our attention was suddenly drawn to the sound of torrential rain and booming thunder outside our bedroom window. As they often do in response to thunderstorms, the dogs began displaying their usual signs of anxiety—Maya urgently licking her paws, and Gimli trembling like a cheap motel bed.
After about twenty minutes, my girlfriend got up and made her way to the kitchen to watch the storm through the back door window. By this point, the wind and rain had grown so intense that it was obvious our small-town infrastructure would soon be in need of major repair. She called my name from the kitchen, and when I made my way in, I saw what looked like a river flowing through the backyard—the water deep enough to tickle the tops of my ankles.
It wasn’t the first time this had happened.
“The doors are well sealed,” I said. “This place has never flooded before.”
It was only seconds after the words left my mouth that I felt water touch my bare foot.
About ten minutes and several useless towels later, the kitchen floor was completely underwater. I scrambled through the house unplugging electronics and moving valuables to higher ground. By the end of the night, the kitchen, living room, guest bath, hallway, and—most heartbreakingly—my studio were all flooded. The next day, a muddy watermark on the back of the house showed the waterline had reached about a foot above the ground. It was the most concentrated rainfall I’ve ever seen in the kitschy southwestern theme park that is my hometown.
You may be thinking:
“Isn’t this supposed to be a dev log? What does any of this have to do with game development?”
The unfortunate truth is that, despite having made pretty significant progress earlier in the week, the two lessons I learned are as follows:
**Lesson One:** The weather doesn’t give a shit about the inventory system I’m working on.
**Lesson Two:** When my house is flooding, I too, struggle to give a shit about the inventory system I’m working on.
Despite everything, I’ve managed to cobble together a temporary office in my media room and make some positive progress on Theseus. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling demoralized. Between this, my stressful day job, and the persistent back pain I’ve been dealing with, I’m going through something of a low point. But no matter what happens, I won’t make excuses.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how I feel. If I don’t keep chipping away at this daunting process, I’ll spend the rest of my life knowing that I had the time and resources to make something I’m truly passionate about—and instead chose comfort. That’s a future far more devastating than any amount of water.