I’ll also have a look at that book. I’ve actually got a copy already, but up to now I’ve only skimmed through it.

http://www.amazon.com/Foundation-Actionscript-3-0-Animation-Making/dp/1590597915/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255345126&sr=8-1

It’s very tough staying motivated on one thing. I’ve been freelancing for over a year now and have yet to get my own game out the door. This is in part due to the amount of paid work I am doing, but there comes a point where I have a few hours to do my own thing and not booting up a game, catching up on news via RSS, or going off to watch a film is SO difficult.

In the end I try and use rewards. If I want a game that gets released next Friday I can’t have it unless I achieve >insert achievable bullet point list here<. Then show someone else the list (girlfriend?) and present the finished tasks to them before that game can be yours. Sounds crazy, but it works.

I’m just very easily distracted. I find if I don’t concentrate on the task that I’m meant to be doing, I’ll drift off and do something else. Combine that with me feeling guilty if I don’t make a blog update every week, and I find myself in the situation where things start to get embarrassing.

This week I was supposed to get to speed with the basics of Flash. But if I think about what I’ve actually achieved, the only thing that comes to mind is me goofing off from my ActionScript books trying to write theme music based on polka. Not a complete waste, but not actually the most pressing issue at hand!