The year in review 2023

Priorities, priorities and priorities

Let me start by saying that I played far too few games this year. Ever since this site got launched, everything I've played I've written about here in some way or another. And looking back now what I've covered for this year I can only say that it's been far from enough. Thankfully, I've had my writers pick up the slack on the games coverage department while I on the other hand have been involved with the various other aspects of running this site. You'd be amazed at how much there is actually going on when it comes to running this place. And the thing is though we're only a small outlet with a handful of people. Yet we have our work cut out for us.

Even though my contribution to the game coverage side hasn't been all that great I still feel that I've made up for it in other ways. By ways of providing other types of articles. This year we started the Herculean Undertakings where we get to interview solo developers and let them tell us about their game development journey. There have been some articles where I have shared some of my gaming stories throughout my life. But there have also been a couple of articles whose themes could be connected with some of the happenings we've seen during the year. For example, we had our article "In loving memory" where we took a look at various gaming outlets that have been around in the past and why they've disappeared. This was a tie-in to the various layoffs that had occurred during the year on various outlets. Or the article about the history of Unity that came not long after the upheaval that happened after Unity announced the new financial model they thought about implementing for developers. Which they regretted afterwards and rolled back on. Another segment that got launched was our Top 5 section of which there haven't been too many installments on. That's because it got launched later in the year. This is however a feature we will continue building upon as this type of format can be a bit easier to digest than say a long-form review or other type of article.

One thing to note (for the handful of people that've stuck with us since last year) I didn't write a new entry in my highly personal "My Gaming Journey" series. The reason is that those articles take quite some time to write being that they are very personal. But also I try to recollect everything as detailed as possible which leads me to rewriting the piece several times over. And it is with regret that I have to say that for this year, there won't be an instalment. I just won't have the time to finish such a piece before the new year, especially with all the goings during this time of year. What I do intend to do is try to provide you with two instalments next year instead. To make up for this one.

Apart from these, our "Indies for the Weekend" feature keeps going strong. We've had to tweak the frequency of that feature a couple of times but bringing it to you at least once a month seems the most feasible considering that we've got our work cut out for us.

Keep going strong

Even though my contribution to the various reviews wasn't all that great I still think we made great progress this year. Bringing you at times 3-4 reviews for a month. Rivalling some of the bigger outlets out there even though we're such a small team (now even smaller after some departures). Still, though my plan for next year is most definitely to play way more games than I have this year. I'll also try to make sure to have a bit more variety to them after looking at this year's coverage. Almost all the games I covered were shooters. Don't get me wrong they sure were a "blast" (pun intended) to play. But changing it up a bit on occasion wouldn't hurt. I'm also quite proud of the games we've got to cover this year. We were able to get our hands on some of the heavy hitters for this year on the indie scene. Games like Dredge, Turbo Overkill, Trepang2 and various others. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep this momentum and be able to provide you with an even greater selection of games that we cover. Some of the biggest indie releases that are planned to happen next year include games such as Replaced, Citizen Sleeper 2, and Pacific Drive among others. Hopefully, we get to cover all the ones mentioned.

I would love to cover some RPG at some point (considering that, that is my favourite genre) but those games really take a considerable amount of time to get through. Considering all other obligations, it's hard for me to motivate such a time investment on a single RPG. I'd also like to cover some strategy games more specifically some RTS strategy. However, in the past couple of years, they have been hard to come by. Not just on the indie games scene but in general.

Our coverage of games will continue as usual and we hope to expand it further. And by so doing making us an even greater source for your indie gaming needs.

A bit personal

Apart from trying to improve my contribution to the game coverage, I'll continue on as usual doing the things that needed to be done in the background so the site runs properly. As with most things nowadays, this site requires some funding to run. One of the main things that I wanted to implement this year was to get ads on the site. In the hopes of getting some revenue. While I've been successful in getting some ads on the site the revenue has been all but there. This is something that I will continue working on and trying to find ways and angles to make the process of generating some revenue from the site successful. What this success might lead to later on remains to be seen.

An idea for a new article series has been circulating in my mind in the last couple of months and this is something that I very well might implement next year. It's a series that will be far more extensive than anything we've covered so far but it'll also be something that comes irregularly considering the scope I have in mind.

Hopefully, we'll also be able to attract some new writers to our outlet considering that we are way too few on the vast amount of games being sent our way. And we try to do our best in trying to cover each one.

Going forward we hope you are willing to join us for the ride and follow us through the things that are to come. As for the ones that are with us already we hope that you keep sticking around as we are heading for bigger and better things to come. As an old man once said "Stay a while and listen"