I was beating myself up about starting a game recently, and Erlend Grefsrud, the fearsomely intelligent and astute man who helped my friend David Eastman turn Floor 13: Deep State into a reality told me what I wanted to hear when I complained of not knowing which tool to use to convey the journey.
He asked me what I wanted to achieve with my communications. I said “To document the madness of a middle-aged man trying to do something creative in a medium that has passed him by, while asking the few who can be bothered to watch to hold me accountable to deliver something.”
And Erlend replied “There is no perfect tool for the job. Just do the job.”
I love it when the things I know are so cogently rammed into my face by people I respect, who know me well enough not to beat around the bush, and who feel confident enough to tell it straight, knowing full well that I’ll receive the counsel in the spirit in which it was intended.
His opinion was that I should use YouTube and Twitter. So that’s what I’ve done. I set to work immediately and within an hour had my first video up. It’s here, and there are now 9 instalments already. Go ahead and follow my journey, if you like.
Last week, Myke Hurley, Federico Viticci and I released our latest episode of Remaster, where we discussed the PSP and PS Vita in light of the news, since backtracked on, that the PSP and Vita libraries were going away.
On Sunday morning, I appeared on BBC Radio Leicester to discuss Muslim representation in video games on Jo Bostock’s show. I have no idea how that came about.
Tomorrow I’m going to be on a panel at Pocket Gamer Connects.
Next week I’ll be on a panel organised by “Safe in our World” discussing impostor syndrome in association with UKIE.
I’ve been moving forwards a little, on multiple fronts, every day, and it makes a difference. I’ve done a little bit on the new project with my friend Pete Morrish. I’ve been pitching games to Team 17. I’ve made tiny steps on my own game. And all the while, despite Type 1 Diabetes, I have been observing all the fasts so far, thank God.
For decades I’ve tried to come up with the best possible time management system, incorporating GTD, my own values-based approach and every tool I could lay my hands on, and none of them work, and all of them work, because all that matters is that you Do The Job. What matters is that you identify the one thing you must do above everything else and just do that thing until it’s finished, or you can’t do that thing anymore, or something else becomes the most important thing. Just Do The Job.
You won’t always know if you can make a difference, but I’m reminded of Gandhi when he said:
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.”