2021 in Review

I used to do quarterly retrospectives back when I was in school, so the last time I had one of those was....2012...

Let's go by topic matter, I guess.  I'll try to keep it a little succinct.

Rhythm Quest

Probably the biggest headline for me this past year was quitting employment to work on my indie game, Rhythm Quest.  Having put a solid 7 or so months of work into it now, it's....at a pretty good place.  I guess 7 months is a little misleading -- really there was quite a bulk of development done a few years back.

Full-time indie development has its own sort of rhythm and challenges to get used to, but given my record of following through on these sorts of things, I wasn't =too= worried about maintaining consistent progress.  It's easy for me to feel like I'm not working fast enough (to be fair, I slowed down quite a bit during the past two months), but looking back on it it's hard not to say that I've put in quite a lot of solid work.

My hope is for development to finish in 2022...it's just up to me to maintain a steady pace in order to make that happen. 

 

Cooking

This year saw me try to reduce my meat consumption -- previously I was having some sort of meat with every meal and that's gone down, though I usually still have some each day.  Red lentil curry and dry-fried green beans have been some notable additions to my repertoire this year, but I think the biggest exploration has been into vaguely roman-style pasta dishes.  I don't know if I actually made a single tomato sauce-based pasta dish this year...instead I leaned heavily into using parmagiano reggiano cheese and making cacio e pepe or carbonara.  Sometimes the classic roman pasta dishes are a little plain for me so I take to adding in mushrooms or some shrimp, but overall I feel like I really explored and enjoyed pasta a lot more this year.  I also enjoyed making basil pesto sauce with pasta, as well as butternut squash pasta.  I even cobbled together a nice pasta that utilized some leftover pork shoulder as well as pork juices in an emulsified sauce...

Ironically despite eating less meat, I somehow managed to gain something on the order of 10 pounds (!?) this year, which astounded me as I've been stuck at the same weight for quite a number of years.  Not sure exactly which factors led to it, but the extra weight is actually a healthy sign for me, so I'm not complaining.

"Dance"

Social dance continues to be vacant from my life and I continue to get exercise via a mix of DDR and freestyle dance practice.  DDR is the "easiest" form of exercise, so that's what I default to.  I played less DDR this year than last, but I leaned fully into becoming a doubles player, so I've been moving around more and enjoying more complex patterns.  I believe last year I managed a Max 300 clear somehow, but I haven't really tried to replicate that.  Perhaps that's a goal to work towards again?

Freestyle dance progress is....I'd like to say slow and steady, but really it's more slow and sporadic.  It's not high on my priorities, so I only get around to it every once in a while.  But it's something I'm interested in, so I do my best to work on my movement.  It takes a lot of work.  I was pretty bad about doing tai chi this year, but eh, you pick and choose your battles.

 

Chickies

This was probably the other headliner for me this year.  Funnily enough, the actual number of birds in my life stayed the same, but the 4 duckies are gone (now in a different home, doing okay there), and instead I've got two silkies and....more recently, two quails.  It's certainly been an experience integrating the chickies into my life, and coming up with a good setup and routine to care for them.  I approached it all with a bit of trepidation, but as with all things, now that I've put in the work, it's settled down into a comfortable routine and they are doing pretty well.

Games

Here's what I can remember playing this year....

- Mega Man 7 FC
- Mega Man: Rock and Roll
- Mega Man: Super Fighting Robot
- ALTTPR/SM/SMZ3 (1991/1994)
- Mega Man X2 (1994)
- Terranigma (1995)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997)
- Baldur's Gate (1998)
- Descent: Freespace - The Great War (1998)
- Descent: Freespace - Silent Threat (1998)
- DDR (1998)
- Pop'n Music (1998)
- Freespace 2 (1999)
- Pharaoh/Cleopatra (1999-2000)
- Diablo 2: Median XL (2000)
- Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom (2002)
- Symphonic Rain (2004)
- 2064: Read Only Memories (2015)
- Stardew Valley (2016)
- Sky: Children of the Light (2019-2021)
- Coffee Talk (2020)
- The Last of Us Part II (2020)
- Rhythm Doctor (2021)
- Little Nightmares II (2021)
- Hades (2020)
- Chicory: A Colorful Tale (2021)
- EDDA Cafe (2021)
- Deltarune Chapter 2 (2021)
- Pokemon Unite (2021)

Hades was of course a highlight, but everyone kind of knows that already.  Stardew Valley continues to be a great netplay-and-voice-chat hangout game.  Symphony of the Night was solid, and Pokemon Unite really impressed me with how fun it made the moba experience.  TLOU2 really impressed me, and of course I've got a soft spot for the city-building games (Pharaoh, Emperor).  I'm loving Chicory so far, as well.  Read Only Memories is probably the best adventure game / visual novel I've played in recent memory.

Overall out of everything I played, Hades is an easy standout, but I'm looking forward to having more praise for Chicory as well.

Music

I only had 3 non-monthlies releases this year and only one of those was a full album (the School of Sorcery OST), but overall music has been going well.  The big cleanup I did of my VSTs and such really helped, and I managed to track down some great new sounds, which I've already put to good use.  I finished up the Super Mega Zero soundtrack commission this year as well, which I consider one of my better soundtracks to date.

Life Overall

The beginning of the year feels so long ago, it's hard to even remember how I was feeling throughout the year.  I remember some bad times -- nothing horrible, just bad -- but I think you're bound to have some of that every year.  From what I can remember, I honestly feel like the year went fairly well.  "As well as can be expected for another year in the covid pandemic", is the natural thought, but honestly it seems old hat by now, and I've already waxed about how we were already halfway isolated to begin with.

Finishing Rhythm Quest is the obvious goal and hope for 2022, but it's honestly just as important (a prerequisite, really) to ensure that I'm enjoying life as I do it.  I don't know if it's just the holidays, but I feel like I've been gaming more often these days, and honestly I'm all for it.  I feel like it's made me remember how to enjoy life a little more; that there's actually something you're supposed to look forward to at the end of the daily tunnel/grind.

Edit: I forgot to note that this past year also saw me take a big step in trying to reduce my material possessions by cleaning up my wall decorations and such.  That felt like it was a long time coming but I think still represents a sort of turning point in how I'm approaching some things in life.  I've written about it here as well, about feeling less like things are inherently meaningful.