Staying Sharp
👋🏻
I am almost done with Rangarök. I have been straight mainlining the campaign, against my gamer pull to side activities. I am sitting at 21 hours and I suspect the final push here will take another four-ish. This game is too packed. It should have been two.
I keep imagining a world where the game development took a similar approach to the great movie productions of the aughts, like The Matrix sequels or the entire trilogy of The Lord of the Rings. Do it all at the same time (which the did) but release it in two parts/chunks/games close together. Give the narrative room to breath and the pace to be well maintained. Make it two $50-60 games, sell a collector's set with both. That'd turn your $60-70 cross gen title into a $100-120 game, with two press cycles and a hype ramp that I don't think the video game industry has ever seen before? I love this idea (obviously). I hope someone tries it some day.
Creativity-wise, projects are still on pause while I get work sorted. I have found a gig editing some videos for Mike Schmitz. This is keeping my editing skills sharp, while I learn new tools, techniques, and a different segment of YouTube than I am used to. More importantly, it is some income that helps stem the tide.
That's what I wanted to focus on in this letter today. I may not be making anything personally new, but that doesn't mean I am not being creative or getting better. One skill I haven't developed in years is motion graphics. I used to use After Effects way back in the day, but haven't kept up at all. I've had access to Apple's Motion 5 for, I think, a decade? I have so rarely touched it. I was using it in my essay about The Games That got Me Through Our Miscarriages for the text squiggly effects. Mike wanted some light motion graphics. So I am taking this as an opportunity to brush up and learn a new application that I paid for already.
To learn, I've been taking Dylan Bate's Motion 5 Masterclass. I am just under half way through it and have already learned so many new ideas, tips, and techniques that I can bring right into my work and creative work flows. Even when I am not actively working on essays, I am still learning and being creative. There is value in that.
A couple of weeks ago I saw this quote from Sean Evans and it resonated with me on this point.
"It comes down to sharpening the tools in your kit. It takes time to figure it out. And it’s hard for me to look back on the old stuff...It’s tedious work, but as long as you care about the person you’re talking to and the audience it’s going to, you can churn through those times that come with getting the 10,000 hours in."
My priorities right now may be more "make money to pay bills, etc.," but that doesn't mean I can't sharpen my tools along the way and use those tools to make money. It's a two birds, one stone approach. It certainly makes me feel a bit better about my current situation.
Until next time...
This letter is one block from the newsletter Memory Card by Max Roberts. Thoughts? Send me an email at max@maxfrequency.net.
Max is the writer and producer behind Max Frequency. cultivate and curate curiosity—both for himself and for others—by delighting in the details and growing greatness from small beginnings.
He's written a rich history and dive on the making of Naughty Dog's The Last of Us Part II, celebrated the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl with the voice behind its hype, and examined how Zelda "stole" Fortnite's best mechanic.
Memory Card is a real-ish time, raw, drip feed newsletter of his creative process for telling these stories. It’s how The Thing™ gets made.
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