Important Question

by Ron Gilbert
Jan 02, 2015

Day 1 is Friday, I don't plan on working this weekend, so is Monday Day 2 or Day 4? Making games is hard.

- Ron

Markus - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:31

This depends, since your personal time can differ from the time of everyone else's. Would you count only workdays or all days? Workday's i'd say it would be day 2. If you count all of them it would be 5 since January starts with one not two :-). So how do you plan to count?

Alex B. - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:40

I would say keep it simple - Just count the Days since the Project started, so I would say it is Day 4

Didac - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:46

What? Taking weekends off already?? mmmmm... Making games is hard.. yes.. we can see... ;)

TheBuzzSaw - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:55

You have to track two values: literal days and "business days".

=]

Rum Rogers - Jan 02, 2015 at 15:56

Everything Ron says is always full of that Monkey Island-ish humor.
Or is Monkey Island full of Ron-ish humor? The mind boggles.

meuti - Jan 02, 2015 at 16:07

I wonder if working through some nights will make it even more complicated...

Ron Gilbert ✓ - Jan 02, 2015 at 16:08

What if I'm working on a plane that crosses the international date line? Maybe it's time to cancel the project, it seems these problems are insurmountable.

Max - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:08

Don't even think about it. Sitting on a plane that keeps crossing the date line is the only working form of time travel known to mankind but the Danellians will be all over you if you try it...

Johnny Newspaperseed - Jan 05, 2015 at 05:46

What if you're working while spinning counterclockwise really fast?
As xkcd taught us, each turn robs the planet of angular momentum, slowing its spin the tiniest bit.
Great way to push back deadlines, btw.

Lance Hildebrand - Jan 02, 2015 at 16:10

Actually, it's Day 314 BT.

strawberry - Jan 02, 2015 at 16:27

I can see this blog is up to a great start :D

Orcus - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:42

I thought the same :D

David C - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:04

I propose a new system; each game-day would be comprised of 24 hours of game building, design, or game-related procrastination. This system means that you can count hours towards your game development sitting on the lavatory, thinking about puzzles. Sleeping doesn't count towards game hours unless you're dreaming about the game design - this means that the dream with the twins counts if you work a reference into the design document.

The benefit of this is weekends count, if you think about the game. How this is a better solution to tracking time is a little hard to pin down, but I'm sure we can come up with a plausible reason. At the very least it's more complicated, which sounds more valuable.

ello - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:14

There are many experts of procrastination on the italian friendfeed, join us http://friendfeed.com/lega-nerd/f0ae9638/thimbleweed-park-new-classic-point-click

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:20

Lega Nerd??? Ma Bossi o Salvini cosa dicono?

Lemonhead - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:20

I would go for counting updates instead of days, like this:

10 U$ = 1
20 INPUT "Write your update here please: "; A$
30 U$ = U$ + 1
40 PRINT "Update U$ "
50 PRINT A$
60 GOTO 20

delMar - Jan 03, 2015 at 10:39

Commodore Basic is definitely THE way to count updates. I would not srore the number in a string variable however...
The $ automatically makes any variable a string IIRC

Markus - Jan 04, 2015 at 12:55

?TYPE MISMATCH ERROR IN 10
READY.

:-)

10 U=0
20 INPUT"DESCRIBE YOUR UPDATE PLEASE OR Q TO EXIT";M$
30 IFM$="Q"THENEND
40 U=U+1
50 PRINT"":PRINT"UPDATE";U:PRINTM$:PRINT""
60 GOTO20

;-)

Lord DogBrain, OBE - Jan 02, 2015 at 17:21

...actually it would be day 1 on Monday since the works done over the weekend represent a NULL SET {0,0} and all programmers seem to think that everything starts with 0 (proving conclusively that all programmers have 6 fingers...)

k0SH - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:07

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:21

The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything :-)

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 02, 2015 at 18:23

I vote for counting "working" days. So, when the project is idle, day count is idle too.
If you plan not to work in the weekend, Monday should be Day 2.
In the end, you will have the exact effort spent to develop your artefact!

Iron Curtain - Jan 02, 2015 at 21:49

I concur. Any day when we, the Kickstarter Backers (or Paypal or any other entity who are paying your salary), are not paying you is not a day that should count in the log.

Seba - Jan 02, 2015 at 22:45

First the seckrit questions, now this. I did not sign up to get my mathemalogic skills strained beyond reasonable limits by Day 3 thank you very much.

Arwyn - Jan 03, 2015 at 01:07

Use working days. You can then announce schedule in wand plan in working days. Makes it easier on us international donors who do not share US holidays.

Flitzefisch - Jan 03, 2015 at 01:48

"Weekend" is not a US holiday, Arwyn, it's an excuse to not work for everyone whos deadline is 'some time 2016' (I should know, for my deadline is Monday, and I am working both days this weekend).

joost - Jan 03, 2015 at 01:37

Call this work?!
First you'd beter stop waving that mouse around like a feather-duster.

Aresius - Jan 03, 2015 at 02:05

I would go for days actually invested on the game. If you're planning on enjoying some drinks on a caribbean beach during the weekend, then doesn't count. Now, if you're planning on enjoying some drinks on a caribbean beach WHILE DOING SOME WORK, well, there you go.

Erik - Jan 03, 2015 at 02:55

I like your humour.

Charly - Jan 03, 2015 at 06:16

Uses the DeLorean to go to day 4 and it will be the day 2 (Usa el DeLorean para ir al día 4 y así será el día 2)

dazza - Jan 03, 2015 at 06:57

It's game development, after one day you are traditionally one week behind schedule.

Flitzefisch - Jan 03, 2015 at 07:25

So, that would make day 2, day -1 and day 4 day -3 … as a result Ron has MORE time for development when he uses higher counts. On one hand thats preferrable since more time for development results an a better game, on the other hand it means we have to wait until appx. August 2012 for the game. Tough decision.

Oliver - Jan 03, 2015 at 08:03

That would mean we are on day 8 (already one week late)... ;-)

Kim Jørgensen - Jan 03, 2015 at 10:41

Only a week behind then we are in a pretty good shape! Of cause, in the start of a project we have all the time in the world.
However, I'm not sure that more time for development will result in a better game. Try read about the development of Duke Nukem Forever - that was a serious death march, poor souls.

Henning Idsøe - Jan 03, 2015 at 18:20

Why not just have a countdown instead... much more inspiring. ;-) One day is one day...

Denny Naka - Jan 03, 2015 at 23:12

Please, put portuguese version for brazilian´s friend ok!?? Thnks so much Ron!!!

Oded Ben Dov - Jan 04, 2015 at 01:56

Can we register to receive these updates as emails? Went over the site, couldn't find it (I don't use RSS).

10x!
Oded

Julian - Jan 04, 2015 at 10:57

Good luck! And dont forget Edna in the Game :)

Pedram - Jan 04, 2015 at 16:49

Right now it is 1420408110

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 05, 2015 at 03:19

Good Morning! It's 9.19 AM in Italy!

scotru - Jan 05, 2015 at 04:09

Shouldn't Friday have been Day 0?

Chris - Jan 05, 2015 at 06:43

Display the days after release of Maniac Mansion. It makes counting much easier.

Zak Phoenix McKracken - Jan 05, 2015 at 06:56

So, today, Jan 5 2015, is the Day # 9944

Guybrush - Jan 05, 2015 at 07:04

Another day in paradise :-) I guess only working days are counting :-)

Marcel - Jan 05, 2015 at 07:24

I see my 50$ are well spent on important questions.

tcmsurfer - Jan 05, 2015 at 07:47

Why counting days at all?

Write a nice title for each post. Numbering won't matter beyond 10 anyway, unless you are counting down.

Why not express your mood instead (if present)?

Ralf - Jan 05, 2015 at 11:02

If this is 2 and this is 4, what's this?

Christopher Griffin - Jan 05, 2015 at 12:32

4, you already said "this is 4".