2017 in Review

Here’s my write up of 2017, with a list of the most memorable stuff. Nothing catastrophic happened this year, but the dullness of everyday life has worn me down a bit. Next year I’ll try to have more fun. I shouldn’t complain, it was a good year overall, and I got a variety of stuff done.

• My favourite games this year were Doom and The Witness. Other notable games include Snake Pass, Hunie Pop, Shantae: Pirate’s Curse, The End is Nigh, The Adventure Pals, Sentry Knight Tactics, Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, Abzu, Firewatch, Everyone’s Gone to Rapture, and Tadpole Treble.

• EBF4 was included in Humble’s Overwhelmingly Positive bundle with some other great games, and sold 135K super-discounted copies. This was extremely profitable, and resulted in very little user engagement.

• Went to Malta and saw ancient ruins, towns, crazy traffic, nearby islands, caves, seaside cliffs, and all that. We went in Winter so it was quite cold and not too lively.

• Visited Finland to see Ronja’s friends and family. Stayed around Helsinki and Turku again, and had a cosy weekend at the countryside. Also went to the zoo and had a vegetarian barbeque.

• Collecting Lego is getting out of hand now. I’ve got most of the old Aquazone sets now, and my mum keeps buying me whatever stuff she finds. At this point I have enough and should just play with what I have. Also went to a big Lego event at the SECC.

• Had a good weekend at the Scottish borders with my buddies. Trying to mount a floating unicorn in a fast moving river was a laugh.

• Ronja’s health is much better now and she’s getting some of the best grades in her class at Uni. Our relationship is still full of ups and downs, but things are better than last year.

• Witnessed a burning car and helped a little in the police investigation.

• The tiny amount of Bitcoin I mined in 2013 is now worth something, and I’ve been dragged into following Bitcoin news. This may be one of the dumbest crazes ever.

• Did a bit of hill walking at Loch Lomond, Edinburgh, the Cobbler, and the Devils Pulpit. Even though I’m reasonably fit these days, I still don’t do very much hiking/walking, and found some of these very challenging. Also visited Dumbarton castle and some Scottish country parks that I’ve never seen before.

• Got a huge new TV. Probably my best purchase ever. Played a bunch of couch co-op games with friends. Some favourites include Knight Squad, Overcooked and Ultimate Chicken Horse.

• Some other notable social events include me and Ronja’s humble birthday party, our Halloween cooking party, Lindsay’s Texas-themed birthday night at the Grand Ole Opry, Neil’s wedding, a few shows at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Christmas dinner with my friends, Christmas Eve with my family and dogs, and a crazy new year’s eve at Ben’s.

• Started posting EBF5 development videos on YouTube somewhat regularly, and they’re quite popular, with my channel being at over 8,000 subs now. Lots of people are interested. Definitely a better use of marketting time than using Twitter or Tumblr.

• I’ve become much less optimistic about information technology this year, and have started cutting down my usage of social media and huge tech giants that are trying to take over the world. (Looking at you Google, Facebook, Amazon…)

• Made an EBF Discord server for chatting about the games and making debugging easier. That’s at 4,000 members now, and has been a very useful way of interacting with fans.

• I read more books this year than in any other, around 20 overall. I credit this to spending less time on social media and on procrastination in general. Some notable ones were Rise of the Robots, Tribe, Brave New World, 1984, The Road to Wigan Pier, Ordinary Men, Dictator’s Handbook, and the first half of Better Angels of Our Nature.

• Dungeons and Dragons has become a consistent part of our lives. Salazar Ratkin is well on his way to becoming a powerful atheist cult leader.

• I made a Patreon page, which got a lot of support, despite me not having very much to give to my patrons yet (full world map and boss fight demos still to come).

• Made about 38% of EBF5 this year (Roughly the same as last year, maybe slightly less). As always, everything is taking longer than expected and I’m getting quite sick of working on it. But it’s also looking really good, and finishing it will be hugely satisfying (and hopefully very financially rewarding).

• Started looking to buy a house, visited a few and came close to buying one. The search continues into 2018!

Happy new year everybody btw!
2016 highlights

10 thoughts on “2017 in Review

  1. Maud Lin

    OMG, I love these pics :stars:
    (#24 Is this a Nabstablook Snowman? xDxD
    and who are the girls at #21? (Phyrnna?))
    :hurray: :smirk:
    Happy new year and get well soon :yay:

    Reply
  2. Joseph Howard

    Happy near year! Even if I forgot to say it earlier, I really appreciate you putting so much effort into your video games and bringing joy to so many people!

    Reply
  3. Arte71

    Heh, Happy New Year.
    Good to see that you got a nice 2017.
    2017 for me was pretty dull, although way better than 2016, that’s for sure.

    Reply
  4. Yes

    Small question about EBF5, in the previous EBF3 and EBF4 games, after the final boss battle you instantly restart but you get to keep your stuff. Can we in EBF5 have a choice if we want to restart?

    Not the best post to ask this on, but it’s the most recent so eh

    Best Regards,
    Anon

    Reply
  5. Psycho

    Matt, I just wanted to say that I’ve always respected you. When I think about an indie developer, some lazy, geek wanna be person comes to my mind. Indie era has always been in a bad status on my mind. But I still remember that there are still great developers like you. I am glad that there are still newgrounds era devs that make games. EBF5 is easily my most anticipated game, following Borderlands 3 and the new Madness game.

    Right now you are one of the few game devs that I trust and would easily pay money without thinking about it. I know you deserve it and you deserve lots of sells. I am glad that you have a healthy life. Keep going like that.

    Also any news about that TD game? Will you actually do that?

    Reply
  6. Sydney

    I’m glad that 2017 was a good year for you, and hey, 40% in 2016, 38% in 2017.. so 2018 could be the year that you finish the game! 22% left!
    I hope you 2018 treats us better than 2017.
    :yay:

    Reply
  7. Gman Shadow

    The ” His dark materials ” triology got a movie so … maybe you’ll give the books too ?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *