Currently, I’m serving a 14-day self isolation period which means I can’t go out to meet people and eat at places I have been missing for 4 months. It also means that I can’t write about our travels. Instead, I have been taking the time to work on my next project – developing an indie game.
When I first returned, my neighbour Sean proposed we collaborate on making a game together. I have no programming or development background, but he knew I had just launched my app on the Google Playstore and have some basic understanding of Unity and thought it would be a good idea to create something. I agreed and we got to work immediately.
Here’s a simple day-to-day breakdown of what I have done so far:
Day 1: Discussed Game Design – 2D top down RPG Story and theme – Rubbish collection and sorting adventure with fantasy-based backdrop Game Engine – Unity Graphical editors – Aseprite & GIMP Set up Trello board and Discord channel
Day 2: Set tile map dimensions Set up Github for Unity Started with 2D art Discussed areas, sorted game mechanics and UI Basic movement and control
Day 3: More art Discussed inventory system, story development and pet design
Day 4: Finally got Github working New area art and theme
Day 5: Research into similar games Items list and NPC development Work on inventory system
Day 6: Major re-shading
Day 7: Repaint my rocks
This is the product of the first 7 days of art work. I think it’s pretty decent for someone who is not an artist and doing pixel art for the first time.
Japan had finally allowed us to enter, but they prevented us from taking any mode of public transport. No train, no taxi and no domestic flight. Furthermore, there are only flights to Tokyo and Osaka. We would have to either stay 2 weeks in Osaka in self-isolation, or drive 9 hours to Oita by rental car. Challenge accepted!
After arriving in Kansai International Airport, we had to undergo another PCR test. Once the test result was collected, there were stringent document checks for non-Japanese citizens. Everything took about 3 hours and by the time we were allowed to enter, it was 1.30am and all the car rentals were closed. We had to find benches to sleep on and wait till morning.
We got our car at 8am, loaded our luggage and started our drive to Oita. The GPS indicated that we would reach Oita at about 7pm, which meant that we couldn’t take long stops or deviate from our course. That was fine with us as we didn’t intend to and the temperature outside was 32°C (it rose to 39°C during the day).
Our car at a rest stop near Okayama.
We parked at a rest stop near Okayama for our first break at around 11am. We were making good time so I decided to take a short nap in the car. Despite the sun shining brightly, we slept almost immediately because we were so tired and and the air conditioning inside the car negated the outside heat. The rest turned out to be well worth it. 30 minutes later, we had some food and we were on our way. We didn’t stop until the indicator for low fuel lit up. By that time, we were past Hiroshima and within Yamaguchi prefecture. Upon topping up petrol, I switched places with my wife at around 2.45pm and she drove us for the rest of the journey back into Kyushu and finally to Oita.
When we finally arrived at our apartment at 6.30pm, we went up to find our things as we left them 4 months ago. Clothes waiting to be folded, condiment jars on display, toiletries lined up ready to be used… it seemed like such a long time had passed that things would have gone bad, or toppled, or grown moldy, or would be found crawling with bugs. Fortunately, we had cleared perishables and left our key with a neighbour so they could help us look after the place before we left.
Our route from Kansai to Oita. Courtesy of Google Maps
We are currently on a 14-day self-isolation, which means we can’t go out, but at least we are back in Oita after a 4 month absence. Looking back, I would say that the journey borne out of necessity wasn’t enjoyable at all. It was scorching hot, we were tired and we weren’t able to stop and enjoy the sights. The one positive that we took from this trip was the fact that we now know it is possible to drive up to Honshu and roughly how long it takes to get to notable locations, such as Hiroshima or Himeji. Initially we thought that since Kyushu was a separate island, we could not drive without taking a ferry. Perhaps we will go once the virus situation improves.
Oh Corona-chan, what have you done. This site was supposed to be about my life and travels in Japan. Instead, I’ve been stuck in Singapore since April, missing out on Hanami season, when the sakuras are in bloom. Our real estate agent in Oita even sent us a letter asking if the water meter is broken because it read 0. Hopefully, we will be able to get back soon before someone discards my bicycle (the communal bicycle parking is full of bikes and people have to jostle for space).
So with all this time being stuck indoors due to a nationwide lockdown, a.k.a. “circuit breaker” in Singapore, I decided to finish my project which I started in January before the madness with the virus started. Initially I wanted to create an app to keep a record of my travels. But after realizing that making an app is unlike making a PowerPoint presentation, I had to scale down my expectations.
tl;dr: My app is called PlanBuyCook and it is available on the Google Play Store. This is the result of 6 months of learning code.
This post is dedicated to those who decide life is not hard enough and want to learn to program from scratch. If you want my code, you can ask me, I won’t put it on Github yet.
So first off, I had to start over before I even got anywhere. My 3-year-old Macbook was too slow and I had to buy a new laptop. I’m quite happy to get one from Japan because it has a Japanese keyboard:)
The real complaint I have is that apps on iOS and Android work differently and I had started learning Swift (iOS) but now had to change to Java (Android). It’s like switching from Spanish to French, there are a lot of similarities, but ultimately they are both read differently. Also, their programs are different (Android Studio for Android, XCode for iOS).
I didn’t want to spend money paying for online courses teaching code, so I took the cheapskate way of watching Youtube videos and reading responses on StackOverflow. Personally, I would recommend this over paying for lessons. You actually learn faster because you are made to do everything yourself. A word of warning for those who are really impatient like me: The computer doesn’t care if you spent the last 5 days troubleshooting and debugging, it will mercilessly reject your code if you make a small mistake.
But don’t fret! Most coding programs now come with intelligent environments that help you with menial things like spelling errors and code highlighting/completion. Just don’t expect it to be smart enough to know what you want especially the UI/UX aspects.
After I finished the coding part of the app, I realized it looked horribly unappealing, the visual equivalent of drinking room temperature tepid water. So I engaged the artistic services of a close acquaintance, known only as Munchy-san (you can find her on Instagram @munchysan_). Every drawing and illustration in the app was created by her.
And so it was done. The only amount I ever paid was USD$25, to start a developer account on Google. I’m pretty happy with it since it actually helps me when I finally get back to Japan and start shopping for groceries and planning meals. I have also recently completed a course in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning so my next project will probably have that, but I’m still looking for ideas.
Mundivagant spirits 