I didn’t make as much neat stuff this year. 2024 was a tough act to follow.
January and February
These year-in-review posts are supposed to highlight the stuff I made that you can enjoy. It’s not really the story of my personal life! Well, in January and February of 2025, I was mostly focused on filling out forms for my Australian permanent residency visa application, which I doubt you would find very interesting. Also I was writing a game that would be released later in the year. Also I was getting stuff ready for March!
March
I took part in EnigMarch and made a puzzle every day! My 2025 puzzles are probably my best yet so you should check them out. For Day 22 I even wrote a text adventure, which took like a week to finish. So if you’re a stickler, maybe you want me to say I “made a puzzle every day, except one of them took like a week.” STILL, THOUGH.
April
I entered a text adventure in Spring Thing: The Little Match Girl Approaches the Golden Firmament. It’s a race against a real-time clock in outer space! I was worried that people would disapprove of the real-time elements, but the game won Best in Show, so I guess they liked it. I like it too!
May
Well, um, in May, my friend Jason gifted me this game called “Blue Prince,” and consequently, playing Blue Prince was kind of the main thing I did this month. I also worked on another project that would come to light later in the year, so let’s move on to…
June
My permanent residency visa was granted! What a relief!
July
I kept working on that game. I also finished a different project: modifying a cheap Spider-Man RC car into a sort of Mario Kart for my Dry Bones action figure.
August
That game I had been working on is called The Little Match Girl 6: Fulcrum of the Telkon Vortex. I actually started working on it early in 2024. It’s still not finished as I write this, because it is a CRAZY HUGE MONSTER OF A GAME.
I entered a demo in IntroComp, the IF competition for unfinished games. It didn’t get much of a reaction! But I get the impression that none of the games in this year’s IntroComp got much of a reaction, so I won’t feel too bad about it. Feel free to play it yourself and look forward to the full release in 2096!
September
I went on a road trip with my wife! We learned about “bee sting pizza,” which I guess is just any pizza that has both spicy stuff and honey on it. Delicious!
October
Then we visited my family in the United States! It was really nice to be over there for Halloween, since Australia has basically zero enthusiasm for Halloween and it’s kind of a drag.
I wrote a spooky Halloween text adventure game, but instead of entering it in EctoComp I released it exclusively to subscribers of my Patreon!
November
In the month of November I played a bunch of Silksong and Donkey Kong: Bananza. And I prepared stuff for the upcoming month…
December
More puzzles! 24 puzzles for Advent! I didn’t set out to make these on a one-a-day Enigmarch-style schedule, but most of them are pretty simple anyway. The metapuzzle structure is not as cool or exciting as the one from March.
I’m not going to be too disappointed with myself for only making this many text adventures and that many puzzles in calendar year 2025. I have always held that a calendar year is too arbitrary a standard to judge one’s accomplishments by; this is why I never make resolutions. Rather than resolve, I expect—I believe—that I will make more cool stuff in 2026, and I hope—no, I demand—that you will enjoy it.
Thank you very much for your interest. Patreon link.