The number of times I’ve tried to start a YouTube channel, or blog, or site, or whatever is too many to count. The problem I always have is this crazy idea that I need to stick to a single topic when the reality is that pretty much all of us have varied interests and hobbies and things that we devote our time and energy to. So that’s what I’m going to do here. Whatever I’m working on and interested in, it goes on the site. And maybe on the youtube channel if I ever make a video outside of competition entry videos.
Recently in addition to trying to “do it all myself” as a solo indie dev, I’ve also started trying to “do it all myself” in the world of hosting. My homelab is ever-growing to the point where I’m typing this on my laptop, but it’s actually on a machine in my server rack. And when I do game development? It’s on a machine in my server rack. And when I play games? Well, that depends… I have too many systems and too many ways to play… and not enough time to play just about any of them. But at least part of the time they’re running on, that’s right, a machine in my server rack.
Why the move? Well first, because it’s fun and interesting! But also, I decided I wanted a better developer experience when traveling, or when camping, or when out of town helping my wife at one of the many craft shows she’s at just about every weekend. This setup enables me to access my powerful development machine from anywhere as long as I have a half-way decent internet connection and does away with what was my biggest gripe - needing to either work on just my laptop all the time OR needing to constantly keep multiple machines up to date with all of my active projects, configurations, etc. This is an even bigger deal when I have multiple external projects I’m working on in addition to this whole indie thing, and need to worry about SDK versions and what machine made what build, etc.
So consider this a part 1 of my homelab / indie game dev setup. As of right now I’m thinking part two will cover the exact hardware configuration I have to get a good experience with this at home / remote. And then maybe a part three covering the software setup and various programs I use? Or maybe those will both fit into the same post. I’m not sure yet.
What I am sure of, is that I’m just trying to sit down and write whenever I feel like writing instead of worrying about if it’s good enough, or worthwhile, or anything really. Those driven to create must create. Or something.