So, with half the year officially over and done, I wanted to take a look at my new years resolutions and see how far I’ve come towards accomplishing them so far. Without further ado, the list below will be crossed out or numbered depending on how close I am to completing it:
Get a new job – Success!
Success! I managed to get a new job (Product Specialist & Project Coordinator) with a nice pay rise 🙂 Hard work certainly pays off eventually.
Put Twixel on iOS & Android – Success!
It took a while, and still has a few bugs, but Twixel was ported to iOS and Android! It was hard; having to work out how to fix performance issues was certainly hard, but helped me in tidying up my code for future updates.
Read 12 books – Success!
I’ll list them all now:
| Halo: The Flood |
| The Science of Interstellar |
| Halo: First Strike |
| Halo: Ghosts of Onyx |
| Service Games: The rise and fall of SEGA |
| Halo: Contact Harvest |
| Halo: Saints Testimony |
| Look Who’s Back |
| Console Wars |
| Halo: The Cole Protocol |
| Embed with Video Games |
| WTF is Wrong with gchartideo Games |
Next year I’ll read twice as much, as I’ve gotten the reading bug now!
Watch 52 new films I’ve never seen before – Success!
| The Interview |
| Life of Pi |
| Men in Black 3 |
| Capote |
| A million ways to die in the west |
| The Campaign |
| Gravity |
| The Watch |
| Cars 2 |
| Due Date |
| Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs |
| The Double |
| Parker |
| The Fifth Estate |
| The Hunger Games: Mockingly Part 1 |
| Argo |
| Horrible Bosses 2 |
| Porco Rosso |
| Big Hero 6 |
| Seeking a Friend for the end of the world |
| American Sniper |
| Birdman |
| From up on Poppy Hill |
| The Imitation Game |
| X-men: Days of Future Past |
| Pompeii |
| Identity Thief |
| Avengers: Age of Ultron |
| Ruthless People |
| Divergent |
| Pitch Perfect |
| Book of Life |
| John Wick |
| Kiki’s Delivery Service |
| Wolf on wall Street |
| Grave of the Fireflies |
| Kung Fury |
| After Earth |
| Frank |
| Good Will Hunting |
| The Promotion |
| Jurassic World |
| Terms and Conditions May Apply |
| In the Loop |
| Whisper of the Heart |
| Chappie |
| Inside out |
| Antman |
| Paddington Bear |
| 22 Jump Street |
| Before I go to sleep |
| The Theory of Everything |
This was awesome, but a little too bloody easy to fulfil. I’ll need to do this in future, definitely next year, as it doesn’t take much to do at all. Everyone can bare to spend 2 hours a week watching a film they’ve never seen before.
Write 52 games reviews (Or could be worded: Complete 52 games) – Success!
| Forza Horizon 2 |
| Battlefield 4 |
| Kingdom Hearts 2 |
| Ori and the Blind Forest |
| The Novelist |
| Hotline Miami 2 |
| Race the Sun |
| Metal Gear Rising: revengence |
| The Unfinished Swan |
| Hektor |
| Life is Strange Episode 1 |
| Game of Thrones Episode 1 |
| Borderlands Episode 1 |
| Peggle 2 |
| Game of Thrones Episode 2 |
| The Vanishing of Ethan Carter |
| The Deer God |
| Olli Olli 2 |
| Monument Valley DLC |
| Sunset |
| Game of Thrones Episode 3 |
| Borderlands Episode 2 |
| Call of Duty Advanced Warfare |
| Convoy |
| Life is Strange Episode 2 |
| Metrico |
| Not a Hero |
| Life is Strange Episode 3 |
| Project CARS |
| The Silent Age |
| Catherine |
| Tachyon Project |
| Game of Thrones Episode 4 |
| Titan Souls |
| DMC |
| Dragonborn DLC |
| Beyond Eyes |
| Life is Strange Episode 4 |
| Rare Replay |
| Everybody’s gone to the Rapture |
| Gears of War: Ultimate Edition |
| Volume |
| Grow Home |
| Rocket League |
| Smash Bros for 3DS |
| Desert Golf |
| Super Toy Cars |
| Halo 5 |
| Shadow Puppeteer |
| Life is Strange Episode 5 |
| Mario Party: Island Tour |
| Poncho |
Just as with the previous 3 years, I’ve managed to do it again! It was difficult this year considering how much other work I took on in my spare time, and the extra work load in my normal work day. But I will continue to do this, and document my journey as I manage to play through all my back catalogue and upcoming releases for Caesoose and VGChartz.com.
Make a second game for iOS + Android – Failed
Whilst I haven’t written about this game at all on twitter or here, I have been working on designing my second proper game. I don’t want to reveal too much just yet (I’ll write more in the following weeks), but the Design doc and background story is finished, with a very early prototype working on my phone already.
Write a novel – Failed
The cunning plan, to write the backstory for a game idea, never came to fruition. I may work on this next year, but I’m currently working on another game idea at the moment.
Do a Presentation at Event – Failed
I never managed to do a presentation this year. Weirdly, the second half of this year my mind hasn’t really been all here… I haven’t been as motivated as I have been in the past. Hopefully I’ll feel different once the new year comes round.
Attend 4 games conventions – Partial Success
Whilst I have only attended EGX Rezzed so far, I already have press passes to Develop in Brighton once again, and will be attending EGX in Birmingham this September. This only leaves one final event to attend, to which I’ll most probably attend one in Liverpool or Manchester towards the end of the year.
Attend E3 – Failed
This was more my own fault than anyone else’s. I managed to say to my team at VGChartz.com that I would like to attend the event, and proceeded to email the relevant team member with my details. Unfortunately, I never heard back from him, and so never chased it up. I should have pushed and asked more, but my thinking is that it’s not like I’m going to stop games writing anytime soon, so there’s always next year.
Visit Cardiff – Success!
Managed to visit Cardiff after spending the weekend camping. My thinking was that I’ve been to (almost) every other UK city, yet had never visited Wales properly. Such a weird thing to technically still be in your country but see a completely different language everywhere.
Visit Dublin – Success!
This was awesome! Dublin is gorgeous, and easily one of my favourite places (next to Edinburgh and Berlin).
Get a Second Tattoo – Failure
Whilst I have a few ideas, as with my last tattoo, I didn’t want to chose anything I wasn’t 100% sure on, so this is going to be postponed until next year.
I hope all of you managed to keep up with your New Years Resolutions! and here’s to a fantastic 2016!
Next week I’ll reveal next years resolutions, but in the meantime, have a fantastic new years eve party and get so wasted you forget about the things you missed out on!
-Dan