invaders VS retro-chores

Some of my code is here: https://github.com/JustinLloyd/invaders (Typescript with some HTML/CSS for browser) that is used on my C.V. website here: https://justin-lloyd.com/

My open source game projects are generally one shots, e.g. https://github.com/JustinLloyd/invaders requiring very little in the way of updates because I don't have the time to commit to ongoing maintenance.

These sorts of games are incredibly fun to write in modern languages, especially if you are given a canvas and the ability to blit graphics around without much concern for memory usage or blit speed.

Obligatory self-promotion: https://justin-lloyd.com/ which is my C.V. site that includes a 1970's-era space invaders style game based on the portable Galaxy Invaders 1000 game.

https://github.com/JustinLloyd/invaders

"Invaders from 78" is written in Typescript, implements a small ECS framework, uses Pixi for canvas rendering, and is event driven. No audio because, well... it's a C.V. website. It also doesn't work on mobile because the audience numbers for mobile visitors to my C.V. website is near enough zero that it would be wasted effort. Please excuse any front-end sins I may have committed because I generally don't do front-end web dev.

I keep mine in OneNote. I've started to now export notes from OneNote to markdown which I store with the source code in git, if it is a software-only or hardware & software related project, e.g. https://github.com/justinlloyd/retro-chores. But I still retain all my notes and diagrams and sketches directly in OneNote so that they are in sync with the various computers/displays available in the kitchen, workshop, studio, office, laptops, RV, out and about on my phone and various tablets. If I sketch something on paper, it is "scanned" in with the camera on my phone, and then added to OneNote. I take a lot of reference photos and in-progress photos which also go into OneNote.

Most of my ideas are, to put it bluntly, utterly shite.

That said, usually as I explore an idea it begins to slowly crystalize in to something interesting. I've built furniture, created recipes, written software, designed games, made toys, invented interesting gadgets, published stories and articles, and shot videos, and in all of those cases the resulting artifacts looked nothing like the original concept. There might be a sliver of the original idea, but it has usually drifted far from the initial idea.

I'm currently building an electrocs workbench, I say building, but I mean "thinking about it a lot." I've purchased some cabinet hardware, I've got a stack of boxes for internal storage, but the workbench itself sits as nothing more than a CAD drawing as I tweak how the workbench & cabinet will work. "How deep should this drawer be? How wide should I make that swing out tray?"

I am currently kicking around an ML idea to do with some data at work, I'm doing it as a "fun side project" in my own time, my PM keeps trying to "task it and track it." Don't do that, I need to keep kicking the idea around for a while. When I'm ready, we'll stick a pin in it, nobody is waiting on this, nobody outside of me and the PM knows about it, why add artificial urgency and process to something that's fun?

As a personal side-project I'm building a task list. The idea has evolved so far from "I want to build a task list" that it is barely recognizable. I wrote a lot of the lab notes from that project here at https://github.com/justinlloyd/retro-chores, and without expecting anyone to read through those lab notes, there are places where I write "I'm going to solve it this way" and then a few paragraphs later I write "nope, actually we're going in this direction now" because a little research showed some new evidence.

My lab notes are very free-form, the way to kill creativity and an idea is to impose structure on it. As a creative exercise for problem solving when working on an invention or gadget, is to take a part or component with me, and go for a walk, and mull over how the component works, how it fits in to the design, what issues I will run it to with it. The component acts as a McGuffin, to keep my thoughts focused on the project as I walk.

An alternative would be a large LCD screen with clever graphics and a physical overlay. For example here at https://github.com/JustinLloyd/retro-chores and scroll down until you find the images with the screen displays, e.g. https://github.com/JustinLloyd/retro-chores/blob/master/lab-notes-images/image012.jpg

https://github.com/JustinLloyd/retro-chores (Python with C and ARM assembly for Raspberry Pi)

I don't know the answer to your problem. I've gone through periods of "lack of creativity" in my own life, usually when there's too many "life experiences" happening around me and my day job is spilling over in the number of hours it needs.

I will say that WFH has helped immensely, at 6PM-ish I turn off the VM that is my day job computer and flip over to whatever it is I want to be working on, or go in to my workshop. I have designated areas in my home office for - this is where I write, this is where I do electronics, this is where I write code, this is where do my day job, this is where I do woodworking. That compartmentalization prevents other activities from spilling over. Limited social media hours, just like limited TV hours, is also another boon.

I write a lot of what I call "lab notes" about my thought processes as I work through ideas, example here https://github.com/justinlloyd/retro-chores for a current project, take lots of pictures of things as I research, and see where it leads me.

I also abandon a lot of things too, when I am no longer feeling the spark. I'd rather have a hundred abandoned creative projects than a few that I feel guilty about not working on, or not feeling the urge to work on.