2025 in review

So post Y2ROLL, the plan was to then make one or two shorter, probably around three month dev cycle games. As I've only released one game this year, this clearly did not pan out.

While I had a couple games that did not get off the ground, I think in general this wasn't a wise plan. Outside of very quick sequels, games need a lot of time to cook to be something that would be worth buying - outside of flash-in-the-pan winning-the-lottery situations, but every gamedev discussion point should exclude those.

So for 2026, my plan is to work on games that facilitate follow-up games; be that sequels or heavy systems re-use.

The furthest along of these is a Touhou-style bullet hell shmup I've been working on with my brother. If that goes even somewhat okay, we'll be in a very good place to make follow up shmups. There's a lot of story been written for these!

source: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@MenacingMecha/115713795862690482

source: https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@MenacingMecha/115753685259395933

I also quite like DRPGs, which are definitely a genre where entries play similarly enough to each other that making one would put me in a very good spot to more easily make other DRPGs. Much more art bottlenecks with those, though.

Speaking of art bottlenecks, my white whale for the longest time has been a single player RPG card game. There is just way too much art required for this to be feasible in the near future. It would, however, be another example of a type of game that would very easily lead to follow ups, though!

I would like to eventually make a Y2ROLL 2, but there isn't any plans in the near future.

While it did sell decently enough, and there's definitely an audience there, the sheer amount of content needed, the extra mechanics, and the physics issues I was never able to fully fix in 1 are all too much to do solo for it to be an easy sequel.

I was hoping the custom level workshop could lead to potential collaborations with other level designers for official levels for the sequel, but no one has really used it.

I own a car now! Wasn't planning on it, but suddenly had an opportunity come up for a good deal from a private seller, so I had to pounce on it.

I also didn't have a full license when I learnt to drive, as - again - wasn't planning on owning a car right now, so I restarted lessons. I thankfully passed my test first try this round (second try total), which is primarily a huge relief expense-wise, as lessons are expensive.

While I planned to go out very regularly after passing my test, when that time came, I've driven a hell of a lot less. Strangely, I wasn't intimidated at all by driving while learning, but now that I've passed my test I'm suddenly very intimidated by driving.

2026 will be the year I finally learn to draw. It's something I've always wanted to do, and every so often dabbled a tiny tiny bit in, but never committed to regular practice, and never felt like I had enough incentive. Now that I'm making games full-time, however, I have more of an incentive to be able to draw, as I could end up using it professionally.