zeekerss
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Reviewing 2024
🕑 Added 2024-12-22 07:33:27 +0000 UTCHi, it's the end of 2024 and I thought I should make a giga post of all my thoughts.
Games
There weren't all that many games I adored this year. Pretty sure my GOTY is just a contest between Home Safety Hotline and Animal Well. And I hate giving it to either of them, but I think I have to give it to Animal Well.
This is kinda the first year in a while that I haven't released a new game, but most of it was spent on Lethal Company, which had highs and lows. A lesson I learned is that a strong player/community reaction causes an equal (and opposite?) emotional reaction in me, whether I like it or not, and the Company Cruiser and Kidnapper Fox both kind of tell that story in different ways. The highs for me are the mineshaft interior and the Old Birds and Embrion. Hopefully there are more discoveries like that to come.
I've had to step away from Lethal Company, but I don't think it will be hard to come back to, at all. The reason I stepped away is because if I had forced myself to stay on it, I'd just want it to be done and over with ASAP so I can be free of it. I choose not to worry about the game's player count and "keeping the game alive", because I know people can always come back when it's time.
In 2025 hopefully I'll have Welcome To The Dark Place finished and not looming over my head, and I'll be working on Lethal Company on a shiny new computer.
I also really want to make a multiplayer party minigame collection. I believe I can make the best multiplayer minigame collection ever. The idea is basically to do my own takes on classic games that I've played throughout my childhood with my uncle, mostly on Wii, DS, Gamecube, and original XBox. It's like, what if all these minigames and multiplayer modes got spiritual successors? For example, does anyone remember that multiplayer mode for Zelda: Phantom Hourglass? Well, I do. Do you remember the best minigames in Boom Blox Bash Party for the Wii? Well, I do.
Writing
My fantasy novel, Between Song And Silence, has undergone the most massive transformation this year out of the past 5. A progress update: the current rewrite is stuck, at a particular chapter. It's so stuck that I tried just plowing on through but couldn't even do that. Because this chapter is supposed to propel the story into Act 3 with major reveals and character payoffs; it's where the rubber meets the road. And that's probably why it's where I'm stuck. My instincts are very strongly telling me to figure out the problem before I continue on. Here it is in its stuck form.
So because of this I've started to move back to Welcome To The Dark Place, which is fun to write in a totally different way. The transition back is going to be a little rough though because my heart is still in the dang book.
I've been thinking about the open-world design of Welcome To The Dark Place and drawing out where the "pointers" are (which are things that lead players in a certain direction, like clues or teleports) and "keys" which are items or codes that players need to access another area or objective. This way I can see the general flow of the map and tweak it to prevent players from getting stuck or aimless. Here is the entire map with only the pointers and clues and nothing else. It's barren in some places, but it's only going to get more crazy.
I think this map should end up looking like a web, all interconnected with lots of loops. I've also considered a "rumor log" system like in Outer Wilds, because that was so, so important to that game.
Music
The most notable music discovery for me this year was Forget And Not Slow Down, now one of my favorite albums of all time. I think 2024 had some really amazing singles but not as many amazing albums. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/79pSgymuc1eRvZt0kUIuYM?si=030d55ae913147e1
Media
I don't watch much movies and shows, but this year I binged Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul--then Arcane, season 1 and 2, which I hadn't seen at all. (I loved season 2 enough to overlook its pacing flaws. Reminds me a bit of Stranger Things's second season.) I also think I watched The Tale Of Princess Kaguya this year. So definitely a crazy year for TV for me.
All in all
I spent a lot of 2024 just exhausted, but it is a completely unique year and still had some great times. It was a year full of change and build-up, and I'd categorize it as an in-betweener year. Some exciting times ahead in 2025. Something tells me 2025 will be a very important, climactic year in general (and I've never felt that way before.)
Are there any topics you'd like me center a Patreon post around? Let me know
Comments
Tom the chest
I'd love to see more devlogs on the games, and hear you go more in details especially in music/programming and idea making, for the party game if you go in the same direction as nintendo land (you talked about minigames spiritual successor i immediatly thought of that) i'd buy the game immediatly you know how to handle humor and horror, so i think you can build something awesome.
Jalen Cene
Good idea
reamnos
Obligatory “talk about the upturned” request for another post… there’s a bunch of fans who have been speculating on certain events from the game and would love to hear about them :D things like “from the king to the two kids in a trench coat”… no pressure ofc I’m happy to hear about all of your projects!!!
Wumfumblus
I'd love to see a post on your creative process with music in your games!!
Kitriff
Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think a proper party game that revolves around minigames would be a first on the PC. I'd love to see it, especially if it had a similar charm to Nintendo games, but it seems you have a lot on your plate right now. One topic that would interest me is basically how you get your "drive". Are you just naturally interested in learning and creating new things? Or did you have a role model/teacher/family member/friend that influenced you and gave you this creative/work ethic? I'm just constantly amazed by how you always pushed forward over the years, especially from such an early age. A Lucid Dream still blows my mind, at the age you released it, I was just a little doofus messing around with free models in Roblox Studio. Anyway, Merry Christmas and thanks for your insights.
NewOK
Congrats on 100k subs on yt!
lewis m
someone else talking about phantom hourglass multiplayer i never thought i'd see the day.........
RainingLamppost
Glad you've been working away at a bunch of different things, that mini-game collection sounds real interesting, deffo looking forward to that when you start on it 🙌 Thanks for all the funny times you've enabled with Lethal Company and being a down-to-earth nice guy just doing his best to channel their creativity, it's always inspiring to unknown devs like myself - hope you have a lovely Xmas, take care of yourself and your new PC'll be great 👏🎉🎊
gibbydiddy
Anything about Dead Seater you didn’t cover on itch.io? I played it this October, and in all my dozens of horror game experiences have I never taken my hands off my keyboard and covered my eyes like a baby until now (the first MB encounter). Since you’ve been writing a lot recently, any kind of retrospective on Dead Seater’s narrative in specific? happy holidays if you celebrate!
BlakeBrown
Have you ever heard of Animal Well? It comes out May 9th. It’s like Halo 2 meets Halo 3! It’s time to finish the fight. Animal Well, May 9th, don’t forget it.
Simon Tendo
Maybe an interesting idea to center a post around (or at least I'm curious) is the cause for what you described as "a strong player/community reaction causes an equal (and opposite?) emotional reaction in me"? I feel like the features you described feel the most like "your work", and revamping or removing them would therefor be removing yourself from the product, kind of like how there are mods that give so much information about the current round that it doesn't feel like a game that would evoke genuine reactions anymore, but just like something from another genre like an RTS. And I feel it's similar to what DougDoug described in his Advice For Content Creators video: how leaning into what makes you you is how you actually stand out in a crowd and grow an audience, instead of just being the umphteenth indie game developer. However, I don't know how interesting that would be for a full post, I just find it interesting to also see this inverse reaction of the love put into developing features and the love with which the community reacts to said features.
Jalen Cene
Hope you enjoy the holidays!
SoozGoos
soozgoos
