Nearly a month in, how are you getting on with your pledges?

[Rob Lang]

So, January is nearly over and we all pledged to do stuff this year. Here are some questions to answer. If you pledged, then I think you should at least answer them. If you don't, well... I'll send Misterecho after you. You don't want that.

Use the 'Quote' button to grab the contents of this post and then delete out my bits.

Remind us of your pledge...

What progress have you made toward it?

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?

Have you hit any problems?

How do you plan to overcome your problems?

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?

What is the % probability that you will complete your task? (Highly scientific, I know)

OK, me first...

Remind us of your pledge...
Finish and release Icar v4.

What progress have you made toward it?
I'm 42 pages through reading it through. Found loads of errors and corrected. Improved some of the examples beyond recognition. I've also made a twitter feed to keep interested people up to date. In honesty, it's more for me to keep posting about it.

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
By having a regular dialogue. If I imagine that it's a huge chunk that will never be finished then it won't be. Posts like this will help me keep focus. I also do 45 minutes every night, no matter how shattered I am. I might not get a lot done in 45 minutes but by chipping away at it, I will get there.

Have you hit any problems?
Yep. The Mrs is suffering from a long term illness (migraines) and I am doing a lot of childcare and wifecare. Adding those together make my evening packed with chores that the good lady would normally do. It also means that when I stop at 9pm, I'm shattered and getting the creative juices running is difficult.

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
I have set up another account on my computer that doesn't have Steam running and has a different set of bookmarks in Chrome. I have set up my little corner in the spare room to be nicely lit (cheapo £8 light behind the flat screen) with a comfy chair. I have two windows media player play lists ready to go with Sci Fi music (soundtracks of Tron, 2001, Bladerunner, Dune) and I have a little windows command script that opens the editing software automatically. I am not logged into Google on that account, so there is no temptation to look at G+ or gmail when I surf.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
1km1kt 24 hour contest takes a bumload of time. But it will be a blip.

Have you got a reward for yourself for when you complete it?
Not yet. Perhaps working on Commando 1940 or Cloudship Atlantis.

What is the % probability that you will complete your task? (Highly scientific, I know)
90%.

[kylesgames]

Remind us of your pledge...

I will finish Drifting and rework Orchestra.

What progress have you made toward it?

Well, these two are kinda one and the same-Drifting shows me ways I can tweak the system for Orchestra, and once it's finished I'm going to go back to Orchestra and perform surgery.

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?

Pretty well, slow these past couple weeks but that's because there's a epic math crisis with the trading metagame.

Have you hit any problems?

See above. It should work itself out.

How do you plan to overcome your problems?

Eventually (probably this Saturday unless my Shadowrun/Remnants group wants me), I'm going to just lock myself in my room and work on it.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?

Not really, though the end result on trade may be bad, the game should reach a second-playtest state soon.

What is the % probability that you will complete your task? (Highly scientific, I know)

I'm estimating it at 100%, but the question is to which degree, since both could be considered done and reworked with very few changes or very many.

[Evil Scientist]

Remind us of your pledge...
I haven't set an exact task, so most of these questions don't apply to my pledge as they do to yours. My pledge was simple: to play as many RPGs (not specified) as possible.

What progress have you made toward it?
I designed a scenario set in 17th c. Dubrovnik/Ragusa and gathered my players. Right now we are fleshing out characters and hopefully we'll get rolling soon. Other then this, nothing.

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
For this sub-step: the scenario-writing was simple and took little time, as I had most of it in my head. For making my players keep the pace I'm using the good cop/bad cop tactic. But taken as a whole, my project (play as many as I can) is going slow.

Have you hit any problems?
Yes. Time. Most of my players and yours faithfully are busy writing their theses...

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
I'm trying to get everything that's possible online done via e-mailing, Skype and stuff like that. We yet have to hold our first meeting.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
I'm leaving soon for two weeks, that might be a big enough gap for everybody to lose interest.

What is the % probability that you will complete your task?
The future is dark... I still hope to get the afromentioned game going and to join some other people playing, well, anything, I just really miss gaming.

[Groffa]

Remind us of your pledge...
1) Apply the doctors guide on how to write a free RPG to my "Djinnbusters"
2) Comment on more free RPG blogs

What progress have you made toward it?
1) Good progress so far. Printed the whole thing and started writing on it. Haven't written anything on the computer yet though.
2) One, so far, so it's a start at least...

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
1) By talking about it (aloud). Having it all (physical) on paper also helps, since it's easy to just pick it up and start writing at any time. Or just to remind me that it exists and needs to be updated!
2) ...I said I had commented on one!

Have you hit any problems?
1) Absolutely. Finding the key things in a game that will make it fun is very hard. Just because the game will involve a lot of oil lamps and the handling of such, it won't mean that's what the players will find most fun.
2) Yes. I keep forgetting to be more active in my search!

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
1) Follow the guide and eventually do a play test.
2) Search these forums for links in everybody's signature!

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
1) Yes. Inspiration and thoughts like "Don't reinvent the wheel" or "I don't know enough about this culture to use it in my game".
2) Yes, my laziness.

Have you got a reward for yourself for when you complete it?
1) A glass of Glenfiddich.
2) A glass of Glenfiddich...for every comment

What is the % probability that you will complete your task?
1) 75 %
2) 99 % (I did one, alright!)

[kumakami]

Remind us of your pledge...finish at least 1 of my newish game ideas...
What progress have you made toward it?Been writting out the main system/setting in a note book (mostly in class..hehe)
How are you maintaining your pace on your project?not very while I've gotten a lot done its still in short bursts
Have you hit any problems? Most not sure on how I want its format to be, and I can draw or download art programs to my comp...so that will be an issue
How do you plan to overcome your problems?NO clue
Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?yes my dick of a roommate may try and keep me from using the web
What is the % probability that you will complete your task?85.23% I like this game, and I keep going back to it

[Onix]

Remind us of your pledge...
Stop blogging so much and make some real progress toward getting books that I want to get done, done and out the door.

What progress have you made toward it?
Well I got the less blogging part down pat I've done less well on getting writing done. Last week I did a little for SPF but one of the things I need to do is get back into doing art. To that goal I'd like to take an old laptop and turn it into a tablet art computer. I have a tablet but it's small. I saw a wacom cintiq a while ago and was blown away. I'd like to replicate that so I was investigating how I might do that. I looked into a DIY solution but in the end I may go with an off the shelf touchscreen overlay.

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
Um. I'm not really. I'm off to a flop start.

Have you hit any problems?
Last week was a bunch of overtime and trying to figure out if I could make a tablet display (easier in the end to buy the overlay so all the research is wasted other than me feeling better about the $160 for the part). This week I had a lot of personal things to deal with and I've gotten nothing done. I entered the pledge late.

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
Well I gotta get off my duff and do what I said I was gonna do.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
Inertia. I was in the habit of writing every day. Now I've broken that habit so I've got to get back into it.

What is the % probability that you will complete your task? (Highly scientific, I know)
At this rate 40%.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Remind us of your pledge...
I made no pledge, as past performance shows that no matter how many lists I make, my ability to self-motivate is terrible.

What progress have you made toward it?
In so far as having no goal, I've gotten quite a ways. Bonus points for actually doing something, as I've had a chance to run a session of D&B, test character Creation, and have gotten in some revisions, aiming for a February Release.

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
Well, the last big release was in February, and at about 100 posts. 200 posts passed a few months ago (even given a slowdown in posting rate) and I'll feel a bit better if I can keep some regularity.

Have you hit any problems?
I have so many optional rules now that I feel like I'm writing a design toolkit rather than a real game. I'd like some feedback to solidify some of these as yay or nay. Furthermore, there still isn't a balancing mechanism for creature abilities, its just "create what seems thematically right, and hope the players survive it". Characters tend to end up with very similar abilities due to the way attributes average.

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
A new game shop is opening a few blocks from my house in mid to late February, so I'll have a new audience to actually test the thing. I'm also looking into an internship with someone who has worked on games before.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
I'm the kind of terrible self-motivator that has given up on making pledges and self-rewarding because in the past five years of doing so, nothing got done anyway?

What is the % probability that you will complete your task?
50-50

[Thought]

[koipond]

Remind us of your pledge...
Get at least 4 games prototyped and two published.

What progress have you made toward it?
Well, Critical has gone out to the backers. We should have the book available as a PDF for February 1st, which is going to be fun. The physical copy of the book will hopefully be out later. That said, that leaves 1 more book published and 4 games prototyped. The other book I may have to cheat and make an official launch of West Side Horror and give it away for free on Drivethrurpg. There are other projects but they are miles away.

The 4 games I want to prototype are my wrestling card game, Succession (which is a Tudor England board game), a better version of Cast Off and maybe one more among the jumble that is my head.

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
Well, pretty good. Taking a little bit of a break after the release of one project before I dive into another one. Probably cleaning up West Side Horror.

Have you hit any problems?
Yes. Losing my job has hurt the financials which makes publishing books hard because they are damned expensive at times.

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
Well, I'm overcoming this problem by doing the next release as a free PDF. That means free art, free lots of things involved with that.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
Really, only the fact that this is kind of an ambition idea.

What is the % probability that you will complete your task? (Highly scientific, I know)
Um ... I'd say 80%

[maledictus]

Remind us of your pledge...
translate the awesome How to write a free RPG guide to Spanish.

What progress have you made toward it?
Only the Prologue

How are you maintaining your pace on your project?
I had a good pace with the first paragraphs but then stopped for the last two weeks.

Have you hit any problems?
Two big obstacles crossed on my way: I moved from house and a new semester began (I'm a professor and stuff). Between moving and preparing the material for my classes I had little free time to spend on my projects.

How do you plan to overcome your problems?
Finally, I have some free time. I have to catch up with other projects, but will continue translating the guide.

Are there any problems you can see coming up that might stop you?
If things continue like this, there might not be any more problems.

What is the % probability that you will complete your task? (Highly scientific, I know)
100% of course!