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# A Good Plan is Half the Battle

After reading "Hold off on proposing solutions" from [Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality](https://hpmor.com/) I wanted to put a decent effort into planning the development. I did this in a couple of steps:

## Risk Analysis

Pretty boring, but I'll put it here for completeness:

<details>
**Risk**: Likelyhood x Impact = Score

Mitigation.

**RSI**: 2 x 3 = 6

Breaks, limited working hours, reminder to type slowly, physical exercises.

**DNF**: 2 x 3 = 6

Good planning, reflection, limited scope.

**Risk overlooked**: 3 x 2 = 6

Look out for possible risks during the week.

**Codebase becomes unworkable**: 2 x 2 = 4

ECS, good planning, limited scope.

**Loose Interest**: 2 x 2 = 4

Work on other projects, have endurance, the jam entry is the delayed gratification.

**Data loss**: 1 x 3 = 3

Online backups.

**Illness**: 1 x 2 = 2

Stay healthy.

**Bad game idea**: 1 x 2 = 2

Existing game, good execution.

**Cartridge too big**: 1 x 1 = 1

I can fall back to the PRO version.
</details>

## Set up a schedule

I ended up with this:

4 hours each day, 40 hours in total (enough to make a game).

Two hour blocks, with pomodoro breaks.

Write down the goals in the morning, reflect on what worked and what didn't in the blog post.

## Analyse things which need to be done and make a week plan

The things I need to do:

<details>
* Design
* Graphics
* Sounds
* Navigation between screens
* Gameplay
* Phases
* * main menu
* * tutorial
* * setup phase
* * own turn
* * enemy turn
* * use terminal card
* * round won/lost
* Mouse and controller detection
* Cover
* How to play (in text)
</details>

And the week schedule:

<details>
Day 2: Visual and gameplay design
Day 3: Make graphical assets and sounds
Day 4: List behaviours and data, try to get a good set
Day 5: Implement some the systems and components
Day 6: Rework set of behaviours and data
Day 7: Implement some the systems and components
Day 8: Improve AI
Day 9: Make cover, tutorial, description, itch.io page, tic-80 page
Day 10: buffer
</details>

## Make a stamina plan

As I have previously failed completing big projects because of stamina, I wanted to make a clear plan to prevent that.

<details>
Sleep enough, at regular hours.

Eat enough and healthy.

Exercise, go for walks.

Take regular breaks.

Keep RSI in mind.

Keep up motivation by working on other things as well.
</details>

After all of that, I surprisingly still had a lot of time left. I decided to give to create some assets and designs.

Here are the results:

![The title screen](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEzNzY0MTIyLnBuZw==/original/8IYqte.png)

![Opponent screen](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEzNzY0MTIwLnBuZw==/original/rfyugi.png)

And the unfinished circuit mat (game board):

![Board](https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzEzNzY0MTE5LnBuZw==/original/R84B%2BL.png)