Studio Ganzheit

I was extremely lucky to get a 43-inch 4K monitor for free. It feels like the best work environment I’ve ever had in my life. I love that I can use the editor and Visual Studio with plenty of space while keeping the text at a comfortable size. I’m also glad the lack of monitor space that frustrated me while making FX is now resolved. And it was great to personally experience and fix UI bugs that only appear at resolutions higher than 1920. I’ve squashed all the bugs that were visible for now.

Besides the bugs, I’ve heavily updated the demo. I struggled and did my best to make the early-game UX more tense and engaging, but I’m not sure how players will perceive it. Since I had to generate demo builds, I ended up rebaking the lightmaps repeatedly. Right after mentioning that this is my best work environment yet, I found myself looking up PC parts and quotes because the lightmap baking took so long. I’d heard that RAM prices were insane, but they really are crazy. Between that and the current exchange rate, part prices are overwhelming. Even if it’s painful, I think I’ll have to stick with my current PC until my next project. Looking at a build with dream components tucked into a retro case with wood accents feels like Zalem from Gunnm. Just imagining how fast lightmaps would bake and how quickly builds would generate on that machine warms my heart.

Enough nonsense. I think the hardest part of solo development is switching modes. It was manageable to jump from level design to updating the demo when an idea struck me, but now that I have to work on the trailer and the Steam page update, I’ve suddenly hit a mental wall. Since it’s something that must be done, I’m writing this dev log while I try to shift my brain into that mode.

I watched Bugonia. I haven’t seen the original, but I found it enjoyable. The idea of delusional disorder spreading through head-butting was intriguing. Or perhaps it was already transmitted and only just manifested. Or maybe, it’s not a delusion at all.

They kept saying Cakewalk by BandLab was ending, and now it finally has. I assumed I’d have to pay no matter what and was comparing Sonar and Studio Pro, but fortunately, I can use Sonar for free for now. (You do have to wait 10 seconds at startup, though.) Aside from the UI design, I’m not really sure what’s changed in Sonar, nor do I know how long it will stay free. If all else fails, I might have to go back to Sonar X3, which I bought on Steam a very long time ago.