Time to look back on 2019 and feel guilty about everything that I wanted to do but didn’t, then promise some more things I won’t do this year.
2019 was meant to be the release year for Echo Terminal. A year I got independence from client work and made Jamo Games self sufficient. It was also going to be the year I started blogging and promoting myself more consistently. Neither of those things have happened, and that’s okay.
Let’s talk about what I didn’t do.
First, Echo Terminal. The game is pretty far along, and is playable from start to end, admittedly with some truly horrible parts. It is still a priority to finish it, but I have struggled with it in places, and there are some nasty design challenges that I have to work through. My goal is to get it finished this year, but I will get back to that.
Secondly, blogging / posting. I even talked about vlogging, but let’s be honest, that wasn’t going to happen.
I struggle with social media at the best of times, I just don’t have the urge to post what I’m thinking, and weekly or monthly tweets just don’t cut it. I do browse a lot (too much), but in the past year I have found it to be more toxic than usual, or it bothers me more, so I’m not very invested.
I managed to do some blogging up until around April, at which point I lost motivation. I still think this is valuable, if just for me, but I’m very much in the mindset of ‘I must build games with this time’, so changing that is difficult, especially with what amounts to at most 12 hours a week for Jamo Games.
What did I do?
Well, I did a bunch of cool client projects, as ever, and I’m forever thankful for those opportunities. I also learned a bunch of new stuff and improved my skills.
I also spend a couple of months on a really cool ‘thing’, that I’m not going to talk about yet, but hopefully time spent on that instead of on Echo Terminal give me some value this year.
In my personal life, I think I got a slightly better work / life balance, took a few breaks, my family are healthy, and I have a little nephew now who is awesome! Life is good so don’t let this fairly negative post worry you. It wasn’t all positive in 2019, but is it ever?
So what about 2020?
I’ve been thinking about my goals for 2020 a lot, especially with everyone reflecting on the last decade.
For this year, my only resolution is to not promise things until I know they’re happening. Don’t give myself resolutions or goals that I will just beat myself up about in 12 months. Life is unpredictable, and I already feel like this year will be more unpredictable than most. I will work to the best of my ability, as consistently as I can, but not worry too much if I fall behind.
There are only a few hours in the day once I take out work, sleep and chores. I’d rather not add too much stress to what little time is left.