Bliz Studio - Indiegame - Trixel Rocket Devlog 03

Here is my 3rd devlog for my indie game Trixel Rocket. I’m talking about some frustrations in development and then also a tip on helping your own projects Trixel Rocket - Coming Summer 2018 (look forward to my first full game - updates every day on social) Website: http://bliz.studio Instagram: ht

This Trixel Rocket update is less about a feature and more about a working method. It covers a level that's been stuck for a week, why leaving it stuck is the right call, and the list-based approach that keeps a solo project moving when one problem refuses to resolve.

The stuck problem The dark level is built around light towers on a dark planet, with lightning arcing between the tower structures. The lightning animation itself is done. The problem is timing: the towers need to switch on and off at varied, irregular intervals, and the current implementation only lets them fire at the rate of the animation itself. Getting that variation working is the open question, and it hasn't resolved yet.

Why it's okay to leave it stuck The level has sat on the list for about a week, repeatedly deferred. The reasoning is worth internalizing for anyone working solo: it's one level. The opportunity cost of grinding on it is everything else that isn't getting done. There's no shortage of alternative work — more levels to build, ships to create, ongoing UI work, and features still being added to the backlog, including a shield purchasable with in-game currency. Spending days on a single stubborn level while all of that waits is a bad trade, and there's a reasonable expectation that solving it once will make the technique reusable across other levels later.

The whiteboard method The core practice is a pair of whiteboards in the corner of the room. Every day, a list of things to accomplish goes up. Not everything gets done, and the master list keeps growing — that's expected rather than a failure state.

Pick the easiest thing first The key rule, and the actual tip of the video: pick the easiest item on the list and knock it out first. Put a big check mark next to it. That check mark does real work — it produces a sense of progress that carries into the next item, and the next. Starting each session with the hardest unsolved problem tends to produce a day where nothing gets finished at all, which is corrosive on a long solo project.

Tools other than a whiteboard None of this requires a physical whiteboard. Task management apps do the same job, and Trello in particular gets used here — especially when collaborating with someone else, where a shared board beats a wall only one person can see. The medium matters much less than the habit of externalizing the list rather than carrying it in your head.

Playtest feedback The game has now been tested by a handful of people across a wide age range, and the response has been strongly positive with useful feedback attached. That matters more than it might seem mid-project: when you're a week into a stuck problem, external confirmation that the thing is fun is what keeps daily work happening. Thanks are owed to those early alpha testers.

What's next Work continues daily toward release. The next devlog is an interview with Louis Thompson, the composer behind Trixel Rocket's music and game sounds, covering sound design and composition for the project.