_Spooky month begins and with it, season-appropriate uploads. Slowly but surely a more effective routine takes shape after several weeks of initial project development. The primary goals remain the same but with major adjustments. Lighthouse Quest will be replaced by a horror-themed title with a smaller scale. Work on writing and drawing will resume as normal, I already have 12 pages completed for the Ace Combat fanfiction.

_Opening Thoughts: I don't see it as unwise to tackle the challenge of creating 4 games simultaneously because that phase of [proj_01] doesn't branch out until the assessment game is complete. With that in mind, it's important to learn as much about the MV Engine as I can. Take it from a lifelong procrastinator I know when I am overestimating the time I have to meet a deadline. To complete the assessment game before the end of the month (or at least finish the bulk of it) then I will need to design a smaller game so that I may work comfortably in the given timeline, but it must be in-depth enough to challenge myself as a Game Creator and test my abilities with MV's features.

When I think about it, the Halloween Deadline feels completely arbitrary. Because what happens once I finish the horror game? It means I'll be taking on the Four Titles with whatever skill level I build from this month. There are 3 months left in the year. Being realistic, I cannot complete something in the next 30 days while having learned enough to meet the scale of my ambition.

There are 91 days left in 2024. Call it autism or OCD or whatever condition I get from my lineage, I enjoy time tables that fit like Tetris. Not a single day should be allowed to waste. I still don't know enough about game development to structure the new timeline into anything more complex. All I know is that each item in my Project Index needs to see substantial progress daily. Each dev log for the rest of the year will include a progress tracker based on hours. On New Year's Eve, I'll tally up the hours into days to measure how I am doing.

_Challenges: Now that I have a much stronger schedule for the rest of the year I worry less about losing time to distractions. However, it is more of a problem of myself that could hinder work for the rest of the year. I have had a lifelong inability to deal with long-term objective. I lose the forest for the trees, suffer from executive dysfunction, and quickly lose interest in a goal. This all compounds into a personal difficulty to overcome challenges that take more than a few days to complete. My answer to this is to find a way to keep the work interesting, even if that means restarting so that I may do better.

There's also the matter of gaining traction with the public and building a following. This is very low on my list of priorities. I'm not going out of my way to promise something I'm struggling to deliver. Instead, I'll let attraction build naturally as progress continues.

_Closing Thoughts: Everything I've just laid out is pretty clear so far. As time goes on, more and more previous dev logs will be made irrelevant as plans change, or at the very least adapt. More than anything it's important to be cognizant of the fact that execution takes time. Also, I'm updating the quote of the week.

_QoTW: "Don't count the days, make the days count."-Muhammad Ali