I can see why it would be better to first practice building individual modules, but I can't really figure out why it wouldn't apply to Notemon. Why don't you put it aside for now and build the individual modules first? You got this good healthy insight, but you willfully ignore it and say you'll apply it to your next project. And you're saying you're doing it out of pride. Is it wise to connect your self-worth with the success of a project? I don't have much experience with game development, but it sounds like a good way to burnout on a project.
It may be the case that scrapping Notemon and making the individual parts as I described in the video would be better than continuing with Notemon, but I think the balance goes in favour of finishing Notemon. It's probably the smallest RPG I'll ever make so completing it now rather than coming back to it later will prepare me for making larger RPGs in the future. I've already made many of the systems required for the game, so making small games about those systems wouldn't be valuable as practice. Practicing completing games is also very important to aid in sticking with larger projects. And like I said, I feel that my integrity is at stake. I want to be reliable when it comes to my public commitments; otherwise why would anyone care about what I'm doing if it's not going to get done? I've experienced burnout in the past, in game development and other things. Right now I've successfully dealt with it by scrictly assigning one day per week as a "work day" where I work on Notemon like it's a regular job, and any other free time I get outside of my day job is explicitly allowed to be spent however I want. Before I would feel like I was wasting time if I played games or went for a walk in my free time rather than working on my game dev projects which would lead to burnout. With this method I feel good about how much work I get done every week and can enjoy my free time without worry - often ending up working on side gamedev projects but also spending plenty of time on hobbies. Thanks for your perspective :)
This is the function I made for that: function text_outlined(_s,_x,_y) for __x=-1,1 do for __y=-1,1 do ?_s,_x+__x,_y+__y,0 end end ?_s,_x,_y,7 end The variable names might make it a bit confusing but it draws the same text 9 times in black offset from the location 1 pixel in each direction, then once in white in the proper location.
