Well, I did it last year, sort of. Is not that I don’t like writing this type of post, because it is good to reflect on what happened in the year that ends, but I always have that feeling that I’m missing a lot of things. Anyway, let’s do some highlights at least.
Let’s start with gamedev: two games this year! Not bad for feeling a bit uninspired. Part of the success is perhaps because my 7 years old son want us –which is me– to make more games.
I released two good games, if I say so myself:
- The Heart of Salamanderland (Amstrad CPC), that will have a sequel we have been planning already.
- Alien Intruder (DOS 16-bit), that feels a bit too close to the end of the year, but to be fair it was almost finished for a while but I run out of steam in the last 10%.
Why I have been uninspired? I don’t know for sure. We have passed the 10 years mark of me releasing consistently at least one game every year (sometimes more!). I suspect I’m getting tired because it is a lot of effort. Not that much the actual work of programming, drawing the graphics, and writing the music; but the focus required to actually finish a more or less polished game, and release it –two different things, by the way–.
If found myself wondering if it was worth it, pushing forward for months to reach my own high standards, when it is a free game after all. Even if I do things for myself –and my sons, of course–, I believe it is human wanting to know that what you do kind of matters. There so much stuff out there, and could I be using my free time for other things? Absolutely.
I can hear you say: take a break! And you may be right, but I don’t want to go back to “not finishing things”. I suspect there is a risk of that if I stop.
As I mentioned recently, I would like to write more Haskell in 2025, and that would mean a bit less time for retro-gamedev. So that could be it: not that much a break as to do different things.
And that goes in hand with my old mini PC from 2015 (an Intel Core i3-5010U), dying on me. So I got a new one, this time a bit more powerful. Still not what you would consider a gaming rig, but is clearly not a potato like the old one, so… I can play modern-ish games now!
I suppose we can add that to the list of things I could be doing instead of spending all my nights working on games, isn’t it? Anyway, not a big factor, but I have enjoyed finishing Pyre –after I completed Transistor, I’m a big fan of Supergiant Games–. It is a beautiful game, with a great story, music and sound design. Very inspiring, even if in a way that I’m sure I can’t make games like that.
Because Lutris is awesome, we have been trying other games, but our big hit is Torchlight 2 “family co-op” in the local network. It is almost not age appropriate for the boys, but the kind of isometric perspective graphics with the fantasy theme makes it alright. We have completed it once, and we are having another go with different character classes. We are still playing some Minecraft, of course, but I prefer Torchlight 2!
The third big activity that has eaten a lot of my free time has been reading books. I’m still finishing about two books a month, although this year I’ve been reading authors that write very long books. Because I had a “not very good” book I wanted to read because it was the end of a series, and a “slow starter”; I didn’t manage to read 24 books this year. But 23 is still pretty good!
I have realised that finding what to read next is a big problem when reading two books a month. So when I discover a new author that I like, I tend to try other books by them, hoping that it would be as good. I did that last year, and it did work well, even if that meant reading a lot of Brandon Mull. This year I’ve been disappointed a few times, because it wasn’t as good –but it wasn’t bad either, so it is still a win–.
My highlights are the “Mistborn” series by Brandon Sanderson; probably the best fantasy I have read in many years to the point that I’m considering re-reading it in 2025. Another highlight, also by Sanderson, was “The Sunlit Man”. Only one book with almost no padding! Very recommended.
And that’s all. Would you believe that I’ve only been making games, playing some games, and reading books? Exactly, that is the feeling I was talking about!