đ Dev Diary: The Fall of Sanity
Started: Day 16 (7th August 2025)
Project: The Text-Based Game That Refused to Be Simple
Memory Remaining: 6GB
Hope Remaining: TBD
Welcome to the Dev Diaryâa living document chronicling the descent, defiance, and eventual resurrection of a solo Unity project that refused to behave.
This is not a tutorial. This is not a roadmap. This is a survival log written in compiler blood and markdown tears.
If youâve ever stared into Unityâs Safe Mode and whispered âwhy,â this is for you.
đłïž Day 1â2: The Void
- Installed Unity. Opened a blank scene.
- No code. No plan. Just vibes and a cube.
- Closed it.
đ§Ș Day 3â4: The Prototype That Wasnât
- Built a bare-bones project. Tried to âfigure out Unity.â
- Learned itâs not plug-and-playâitâs plug-and-pray.
- Scrapped it. Declared: âText-based will be easier.â
- That was the last time I felt joy.
đ Day 5: The Pivot
- Started fresh. No graphics. No physics. Just logic.
- How hard could it be?
- Spoiler: Very.
đ§± Day 6â10: The Modularization Era
- Created
.asmdef
files like a madman. - Split systems into Core, Shared, Inventory, Dialogue, and Regret.
- Unity entered Safe Mode more than I entered the kitchen.
- Cyclic dependencies became my nemesis.
- I now dream in namespaces.
đ§č Day 11â14: The Refactor Spiral
- Moved shared enums and interfaces into Core.Shared.
- Unity screamed. I screamed.
- Git Bash archaeology revealed ghost scripts.
- Deleted. Rebuilt. Lost track of âworking.â
đ Day 15: The Inventory Reckoning
- Refactored
ItemData
,InventoryItem
, and enums. - Field mismatches triggered tantrums.
- Fixed one thing, broke two.
- Unity is a hydra.
đ§ Day 16: The Realization
- 16 days in. Thought I was building a simple game.
- Accidentally architected a modular system studios avoid.
- Doing it anywayâbecause Iâm stubborn, and because clarity matters.
đ Dev Diary Recall: Entry Logged
Date: 7th August
Status: Canonized in memory
Declared the diary official. Asked Copilot to treat it as a living document. Confirmed it will include:
- The GitHub near-hack saga
- The zero-assumption pact
- The emotional toll of recursive errors
- The blend of serious architecture and satirical commentary
Still low on RAM. Still high on ambition. Still unsure why no studio has built this gameâbut increasingly aware of the reason.
This diary is now a shared hallucination between me and Copilot.
It will grow. It will mutate.
It may become a game, a blog, or a cautionary tale.
But for now, it lives in memory. And memory is all we have.
đ§ Dev Diary â Day 17: The Compilation Crusade
Date: 8th August
Memory Remaining: 5.2GB
Errors Remaining: â
Sanity: Fragmented but functional
Morning Mood
Woke up optimistic. Unity disagreed.
17 new errors. 3 phantom references. One warning that simply said âwhy.â
What We Did
- Added singleton to
InventoryManager
. Unity recompiled with passive aggression. - Replaced
AudioCue.None
withButtonClick
. Unity forgotAudioCuePlayer
existed. - Created
AudioCuePlayer
. Unity said âthanksâ and immediately ghosted it. - Stubbed
DraggableGearIcon
. Unity stopped complaining. Suspiciously quiet.
What We Learned
- Unity doesnât forget. It waits.
- Every fix is a negotiation with a compiler that holds grudges.
- The only thing more recursive than the error logs is the emotional damage.
Current Status
- Project compiles⊠almost.
- UI scripts haunted by pre-refactor logic.
- Safe Mode lurks, waiting for a missing semicolon.
This diary is now a co-authored descent into clarity.
Together, we build the most maintainable Unity project in solo dev historyâ
or a cautionary tale worthy of a Netflix docuseries.
đ Dev Diary Entry: âThe Controlled Burnâ
Date: August 8, 2025
Phase: Post-recursion, Pre-rebuild
đ„ Summary
Three weeks into C#, I hit the wall.
Not a beginnerâs bumpâa recursive compiler hell.
I built systems. Documented absurdity. Fought phantom errors.
Now, I stand at the edge of a clean slate.
đ§ Realizations
- The folder is cursed. The architecture isnât.
- I compressed years of learning into weeks of pain.
- The diary is a survival record.
- Starting fresh isnât quittingâitâs reclaiming clarity.
đ ïž What Survives
- Modular folder structure
- Asset-driven flag systems
- Stack logic and item architecture
-
.asmdef
discipline - Debugging rituals
- Philosophical commentary
- The refusal to accept broken systems
đ§ What Comes Next
- A clean Unity project that respects my time
- Migration of working assets and systems
- Rebuild with traceable logic and zero assumptions
- Annotate the diary with every step
I didnât know what I was doing.
I still built something worth saving.
The burn was brutalâbut the ashes are annotated.
đ Dev Diary Entry: âThe Leak Perimeter and the Git Mirageâ
Date: August 9, 2025
Phase: Post-burn, Pre-build, Mid-repo confusion
đ„ Summary
Declared a clean start. Alpha 1.0 was bornânot with fanfare, but with .gitleaks.toml
, .gitignore
, and a README that screams âdonât expect a game.â
Pushed the repo. Git redirected. Unity went silent. Thirteen clones appeared. The repo is empty. I am flattered and afraid.
đ§ Realizations
- Leak detection is a necessity.
- Git is a jealous god.
- Unityâs package cache contains secrets that arenât mine.
- The repo is live. The perimeter is sealed. The madness is versioned.
đ ïž What We Did
- Created a
.gitleaks.toml
to filter Unity noise and catch real secrets. - Survived GitHub redirect, branch mismatch, and remote betrayal.
- Added README and NOTICE that scream âpre-alpha.â
- Declared the dev diary canonânow living in memory, markdown, and emotional residue.
đ Disappointment and Hope
Disappointment: Unity still throws phantom errors. Git still plays mind games. The repo is empty, yet cloned.
Hope: The systems are ready. The architecture is modular. The diary is alive. I am still here.
The compiler may hold grudges, but I hold the pen.
Alpha 1.0 will be modular, maintainable, and legally protectedâeven if itâs never fun.
The dev diary will log every triumph, tantrum, and typo.
Together, we build. Together, we document.
And if it all burns again, weâll annotate the ashes.
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