"I don't see any reason why I don't know how to do this. Let's turn it into a project"
and just like that, I had inadvertently created Productionkips.
I'd say that it officially began when I started game development for Kongregate. I had made a group of friends in the room "Digg Mark 1" and had become quite addicted to the site specifically because of the social-gaming fusion it presented. I set out to make an RPG named KonQuest staring some of my friends from the site as various heroes and villains and, as development wore on, I saw a need to chronicle development and post releases publicly.
I created a Google sites page for Spartakips Productions - a rather unoriginal title, but I never was very good at coming up with names for things. Even the username most of the internet knows me by, Spartakips, is really just a mash-up of memes that I took to after the movie "300" came out, which I still haven't seen.
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| Classy, right? |
After all of this, however, I ran into terrible programming complications. I had never even heard of Ruby before I went to tackle this project, let alone actually code with it. So with the combat engine that was to be implemented for the entire post-intro part of the game in an unworkable tangle of botched scripts, I put out requests for Ruby debuggers and moved on to a side project to pass the time.
Being an avid Kongregate participant, it was only natural for me to proceed to look into flash development. With KonQuest on hiatus indefinitely, I started on a whole slew of little games. One of the games, Idlekips, became very popular with Kongregators who visited the site solely to chat with friends. Shortly after release, however, an update was made to the API used with the site, and my game was essentially broken.
Around this time, my friend had set me up on his server and set me in with my own site, Productionkips. There's a very strong chance that hyperlink won't go anywhere, though, so don't get too excited. I really got into it - I was making my own banners, tweaking my page, making posts, trying to make new games...
...but I ultimately ended up just running in circles and didn't have much to show for it. Bugs appeared faster than I could fix them, projects weeks into development hit walls or were thrown out because I didn't like the directions they were headed in, problems around the site popped up, side projects went nowhere, and the combination of everything together just ended up feeling like I was writing progress reports that were filled with excuses. So what did I do?
Well, I started a webcomic! I had always wanted to, and I'm still a huge webcomic advocate and reader. My past endeavours essentially brushed under the rug of a new theme and layout, I set out to start this grand webcomic that I'd make based off of stories and experiences. It was amazingly fun and refreshing!
Having never been particularly artistic, I learned from the ground up. I experimented with purely digitial comic creation, then migrated to inked scans, then went full sketch-ink-scan-photoshop with my comics. Everytime I had an idea, I'd scribble it down on a post-it or scrap of paper or napkin and pile everything up when I got home to review. I have a folder in my filing cabinet full of hundreds of comics, just waiting to be drawn and posted.
Following my now-apparent trend, however, new comics became less and less frequent. It would be 3 to 4 months before a single strip would be posted. At the time of writing this, I had not posted anything in over half a year.
Now, the site is being terminated, and with it, Productionkips.
I know that, given it's stark decay, it's the right decision. It costs money to host a site and hold a domain name, and there's no point in doing that if the site doesn't generate any new content or traffic. However, it shook me deeply inside. Even though Productionkips had crumbled to pieces because of my negligence, I now realize just how big of a part of me this whole idea is. A fifth of my life I've poured into this....ideal and concept that I associate with the site and what I've done. It's more than a hobby to me, and I'm filled with shame at the sight of my failure.
It's as if there was someone who set out to build a castle on a whim and started slapping stones together, feeling out the designs as it went. A single tower was completed, but the rest of the structure was basically just left off, unfinished. Because of the shoddy design of the tower, it kept needing repairs until, eventually, the damage was too great and the tower collapsed upon itself with it's negligent owner still inside.
So here I am, it's after 3am and I work in a few short hours, yet despite my exhaustion, my stomach turns at the concept of sleep - downright repulsed by it. My apartment is a mess. There's clutter and trash strewn about the place, files that need to be filed, dishes that need to be washed. I'm surviving and paying the bills on almost purely credit, or negative money as I prefer to call it. I still haven't made plans for returning to school to finish a full degree. My health is suffering with a series of unusual symptoms, plagued by chronic twitches and nausea. And the one thing I always looked forward to working on and always talked about is in ruins.
But I'm alive, and there's always something to be said about that.
 |
| https://sites.google.com/site/spartakips/download Yes, you can still download it in case you're curious. |
Around this time, my friend had set me up on his server and set me in with my own site, Productionkips. There's a very strong chance that hyperlink won't go anywhere, though, so don't get too excited. I really got into it - I was making my own banners, tweaking my page, making posts, trying to make new games...
...but I ultimately ended up just running in circles and didn't have much to show for it. Bugs appeared faster than I could fix them, projects weeks into development hit walls or were thrown out because I didn't like the directions they were headed in, problems around the site popped up, side projects went nowhere, and the combination of everything together just ended up feeling like I was writing progress reports that were filled with excuses. So what did I do?
Well, I started a webcomic! I had always wanted to, and I'm still a huge webcomic advocate and reader. My past endeavours essentially brushed under the rug of a new theme and layout, I set out to start this grand webcomic that I'd make based off of stories and experiences. It was amazingly fun and refreshing!
Having never been particularly artistic, I learned from the ground up. I experimented with purely digitial comic creation, then migrated to inked scans, then went full sketch-ink-scan-photoshop with my comics. Everytime I had an idea, I'd scribble it down on a post-it or scrap of paper or napkin and pile everything up when I got home to review. I have a folder in my filing cabinet full of hundreds of comics, just waiting to be drawn and posted.
Following my now-apparent trend, however, new comics became less and less frequent. It would be 3 to 4 months before a single strip would be posted. At the time of writing this, I had not posted anything in over half a year.
Now, the site is being terminated, and with it, Productionkips.
I know that, given it's stark decay, it's the right decision. It costs money to host a site and hold a domain name, and there's no point in doing that if the site doesn't generate any new content or traffic. However, it shook me deeply inside. Even though Productionkips had crumbled to pieces because of my negligence, I now realize just how big of a part of me this whole idea is. A fifth of my life I've poured into this....ideal and concept that I associate with the site and what I've done. It's more than a hobby to me, and I'm filled with shame at the sight of my failure.
It's as if there was someone who set out to build a castle on a whim and started slapping stones together, feeling out the designs as it went. A single tower was completed, but the rest of the structure was basically just left off, unfinished. Because of the shoddy design of the tower, it kept needing repairs until, eventually, the damage was too great and the tower collapsed upon itself with it's negligent owner still inside.
So here I am, it's after 3am and I work in a few short hours, yet despite my exhaustion, my stomach turns at the concept of sleep - downright repulsed by it. My apartment is a mess. There's clutter and trash strewn about the place, files that need to be filed, dishes that need to be washed. I'm surviving and paying the bills on almost purely credit, or negative money as I prefer to call it. I still haven't made plans for returning to school to finish a full degree. My health is suffering with a series of unusual symptoms, plagued by chronic twitches and nausea. And the one thing I always looked forward to working on and always talked about is in ruins.
But I'm alive, and there's always something to be said about that.
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