2022 in review while looking ahead to 2023?
At the beginning of 2022 I wrote about some goals I had for the year, along with some events that I expected to happen. So how did the year actually turn out?
I Had a Son
It's crazy how quickly having a baby just became "the norm", I really can't imagine what my life was like without the little guy. 10/10 would recommend, even with the loss of sleep.
I ran the Sprint Distance Chicago Triathlon.
I signed up for this race kind of on a whim (a friend convinced me to do it with him in like 30 seconds). It was easily the hardest thing I've ever done physically, and I've already signed up for 2 more races in 2023 (still just the sprint distance). I've grown a love for swimming for exercise... biking not so much yet. My long term goal is to reduce my time in 2023, then do the full olympic distance in 2024!
I participated in 4 game jams
... and completed 3.9 games (still working the last one). They were
- "Rise-n-Time" for Ludum Dare 50.
- "A Dice Garden" for the GMTK Jam. Postmortem here.
- "Pancake Simulate" for Ludum Dare 51. Postmortem here.
- "Secret Santa" for Secret Santa Jam. This is still a work in progress, as i'm currently stuck in "build it for wasm" hell.
My big game dev goal for 2023 is to only use Janet Lang. I've built up some tools and I want to use them!Maybe I'll even try my hand at making my own fantasy console (I have a lot of ideas...)
I played 12ish games and read 6ish books
Overall I feel like I played a healthy number of games (not too much, not too little), but definitely want to read more complete books in 2023. I liked keeping track of these things throughout the year, and will probably include more metadata like start/end dates. Maybe I will try and even add super short reviews!
Games
| Title | Maker | Status |
|---|---|---|
| the Pathless | Giant Squid | Completed |
| the Pathless | Giant Squid | Completed |
| Nuclear Blaze | Deepnight Games | completed |
| Zelda: Ocarina of Time | Nintendo | completed |
| Splatoon 3 | Nintendo | Still Playing |
| Deaths Door | Acid Nerve | completed |
| Playdate Season 1 | Panic & Friends | Abandoned |
| Tunic | Finji | Abandoned..may come back |
| Kirby and the forgotten land | HAL | completed |
| Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition | Monolith Soft | completed |
| Metroid Dread | Mercury Steam | completed |
| Metroid Fusion | Nintendo | completed |
| TOEM | Something We Made | completed |
Books
| Title | Author | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Fairy Tale | Stephen King | in progress |
| The Long Way Home | Ed Dover | complete |
| The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses | Jesse Schell | Abandoned...may come back |
| Murder on the Orient Express | Agatha Christie | complete |
| The Coddling of the American Mind | Greg Lukianoff & Jonathan Haidt | complete |
| 7 Secrets of the Newborn | Robert Hamilton | complete |
| Gentle and Lowly | Dane Ortlund | complete |
Said goodbye to my Gallbladder
Unexpectedly, I had my gallbladder removed! I have had GI problems periodically in the past, and a flareup early fall led to me finding gallstones.. so out she went. Time will tell if this was the underlying cause of my recurring problems.
Thoughts for 2023
In a lot of ways 2023 is shaping up to be a continuation of things from last year. I'm ok with that, as it leaves room (hopefully) for refinement and improvement. One new thing I plan on doing for the first time is observing lent. Growing up "non-denom" lent was never something really talked about, but it's a tradition I'm convinced has value. I still need to hammer out the specifics, like when and how fasting will work. Another thing I hope to do is more hiking and camping, it's something I really enjoy but did basically none of in 2022.