It’s 2025 already! How did that happen??? I was showing my website to someone at a networking event recently and was already feeling a little apprehensive - knowing I hadn’t updated my website since 2023! However, imagine my horror when the first page that popped open greeted me with a large 2021 logo! Turns out that my last proper update on my work was not even 2023 - but in fact 2021.
So, either I’ve been too busy or too lazy to update my website since then - I’ll let you be the judge of which one it is. At the very least writing this page means I can stick a lovely 2025 logo image on my front page (that probably covers me for the next 18 months). I’m promising myself that I will do better and update my site before 2029!
Recent Project Recap:
If you want to see what I’ve been up to - here’s a few projects from the last 12 months.
Can You See Me Now?
- Can You See Me Now is a reimagination of a seminal Location-Based-Game by BlastTheory
Paddling Light: The Diviners
- Following reports of a strange energy emitting from the canal, a group of misfits arrive to discover the truth. An outdoor, immersive experience in the Coventry Canal Basin.
Third Space
- I worked on a number of games for the Frontiers Gallery of Third Space, a one-of-a-kind innovative community hub in Udaipur, India.
A Rainbow for Amala
- An interactive story book that wants to save the world
Changes since 2021
I re-read my late 2021 post and was interested in how I was thinking 3 years ago. A lot of it was talking about working too much during COVID - I guess subconsciously partially out of fear that things might be drying up. And also generally with struggling to say NO to things unless I’ve got a really good reason. More recently, it was somewhat enlightening to meet another freelancer (much younger than me) who had a very different outlook - they had a fixed figure in their head and once they reached that they took the rest of the year off!
I’ve been wondering whether that would work for me. I think it’s very rare that I’ll discuss the prospect of work with someone and then start on it later that week - it’s nearly always 2-3 months away. Partly, because I’m booked up but often projects ramp up and down with full-time work in the middle and the odd half-day either end.
Also, I have school-age children - so while I’d love to just disappear for a few months Jan-March - I’m not sure Social Services would be so keen.
Move to online technologies
I think as the pandemic ramped-up the transition to online - that has been echoed in my work. I’ve certainly used a lot more web technologies - something I was slightly resistant to in the past. Things like React, Typescript, Vite, NPM are all now a bit more common to my work - along with web focused game engines (Twine, Phaser, MelonJS, q5.js, Ink etc).
I’m still not doing a great job of re-using my work. I do have a collection of micro-websites for mini-games, e.g. jigsaws, code-breaking. I’ve at least used these as the starting point for similar projects. I do intend to tidy these up and open-source them at some point - so watch this space.
Improvements for This Year
I’m vowing to leave Twitter (I’m sure you can guess the reasons). I’m not really active on any social media channel right now but I’ve at least made myself a new account over at BlueSky.
And it seems that LinkedIn has been a big winner from Twitter’s meteroic decline. Microsoft buying it for $26B back in 2016 is finally looking like a good deal.
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Note: It turns out - I did write a bit about PunchDrunk’s The Burnt City - however I somehow deleted that from my website. The Burnt City closed and their next show Viola’s Room opened, extended it’s run and has now also closed. That gives you an idea of how I’ve let this slip.