Here’s a summary of my year, in no particular order…

• Been grinding out work on Matt’s Hidden Cats towards the end of this year. I wanted to have it finished in 2025, but the scope kept increasing. But as of right now, all the content is done. It mostly just needs some more play-testing and polish. There’s a whopping 84 levels and 18 languages. I’ll be taking part in the Next Fest on Steam in February, and launching the game in March. Looking forward to finally getting it done – it’s taken way longer than it should have!

• Ruffle is becoming a more viable game engine, as it now supports Steam achievements, and runs on Android pretty well! I’ve heard Epic Battle Fantasy 3 runs correctly on it now, so that could potentially be turned into a mobile app quite easily now.

• The big games for me this year were Expedition 33 and Elden Ring. Both are amazing and have reinvigorated my passion for video games, and especially RPGs. Absolute cinema.

• Other games I enjoyed include Sektori, Peak, Purrfect Apawcalypse, DEAD LETTER DEPT. and Amnesia: The Bunker. I tried the critically acclaimed Sea of Stars and Silksong, but they didn’t grip me enough to keep playing. I continued to play Age of Empires 2 with my friends a lot, but we really need to try more new stuff next year.

• Me and Ronja travelled to Finland for two big parties hosted by her friends. It was painfully hot – and I upset Ronja by complaining too much! Finland is not equipped for a heat wave. I mostly re-visted the tourist destinations in Helsinki, and walked a lot in the central park. Linnanmaki’s Taiga roller-coaster is still fantastic – easily the best one I’ve ever been on.

• Helsinki’s Kiasma gallery had a memorable exhibition of work by Dafna Maimon. It was paintings and sculptures themed around guts and digestion. Very cool and creepy. The fountain/sculpture outside the gallery is also very haunting – a bunch of women and children spraying water from their eyes.

• We took a ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn in Estonia! The town center really plays into the medieval vibe, and the highlights of the trip were two medieval restaurants with LARPing staff. One was for royalty and was appropriately fancy, and the other was for peasants, with no menu – you get whatever they have, and you have to fish out some pickles from a barrel. There was a lot of historic churches and pubs to see around the town, and some great view points.

• The modern, hipster part of Tallinn was fun too. A defunct railway yard with restaurants built into train cars and buses, old warehouses covered in street art, and weird sculptures on every corner. I visited the Fotografiska, a gallery dedicated to photography, and was quite impressed.

• Spent a couple of weeks babysitting my brother’s new dog. He’s a big puppy and he’s really cute but also really dumb. It was a good chance to play his PS5.

• Glasgow was hit with the strongest storm it’s had in 10 years. A lot of fences were blown over. Less damage than expected.

• Bought a fancy new Sony TV and a sound bar – as my previous Samsung TV was 10 years old. I love the hardware, but the software is pretty clunky, so I’m mildly disappointed by the purchase.

• Attended the Newgrounds meetup in London! Met a lot of the same people from 2024’s Dublin Meetup, but also a lot of new people. Antony Lavelle (the_exp) and Matt from Eddsworld were there, as well as lot of up-and-coming animators and creative people. The documentary crew working on Once Upon A Time On The Internet was recording footage there, and I did an interview with them!

• Other stuff I did in London included seeing the big battleship (HMS Belfast), exploring the shops and street art in Brick Lane, and visiting some smaller art galleries. My train home was cancelled, so I got that refunded and they also paid my hotel cost – not a bad deal!

• Started watching Formula 1 with my dad. It’s the first time I’ve shown interest in watching any sport. I enjoyed the drama, the crashes, and the shenanigans before and after the races.

• Ronja’s been going for small walks in country parks and hills around Glasgow, and I go along sometimes. The Scottish countryside is very nice.

• Me, Ronja, my brother, his partner, and several friends, travelled to Lithuania to attend the marathon in Vilnius. It’s a beautiful city – and surprisingly modern. Eastern Europe has come a long way in my lifetime! We visited some historic landmarks, visited family members, a train museum, and rented out a wedding venue in the countryside for some sauna and hot-tub action. The highlight for me was the Vilnius TV Tower, which lets guests walk around the top on a glass floor – most terrifying thing I’ve ever done!

• Near Vilnius, Trakai Island Castle was very impressive – it’s one of the Age of Empires 2 wonders! And the Park of Europe – a huge outdoor gallery with massive sculptures – was a lot of fun too.

• Felt a bit of FOMO as more and more of my friends are having kids, but the more I hang out with them, the more sure I am I don’t want that to be my life every day. But I do need to make up for it by living an exciting and fulfilling life in other ways, which does add some pressure.

• Finished restoring all of my childhood Lego – cleaning them up and ordering missing pieces. I’ve also just been hoarding Lego in general – but I’ll try to give most of it away as my friends’ kids get a bit older.

• Tried spray-painting some graffiti on canvases at home. It’s pretty hard – and tiring on the hands! I want to keep trying, and to get better at it. I’ve also been admiring street art a lot more while travelling. London and Tallinn have really embraced it in some touristy areas.

• I’ve printed off some Matt’s Hidden Cats stickers and have been hiding them all over Europe on my travels. I’ll try to find a good platform for distributing these to fans, as it would be fun to see more photographs of the cats in interesting locations. I’m currently doing market research (and supporting artists at the same time) by buying lots of stickers from various sources.

• Did a lot of voting this year – twice in Polish elections and once in Canada. I can vote in 3 different countries so I have a lot of responsibility!

• We hosted a Halloween party, as we do every year, and this time me and my brother dressed up as French mimes from Expedition 33.

• Last holiday of the year was a 5-day stay in a renovated barn in England, near the Lake District. We visited many castle ruins nearby – Brough Castle, Bowes Castle, and Barnard Castle – and saw the tallest waterfall in England. We also stopped at Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland on the drive back home.

• I didn’t exercise much this year, I’ve been sleeping in a lot, I didn’t blog much, and I’m still wasting a lot of time procrastinating online. So I feel a little guilty about all of those and need to improve in those areas next year.

• Looking back at 2024, all of the problems from then are still happening and even getting worse. Ukraine is still being invaded by Russia, Israel and the USA are still comitting genocide, AI slop is flooding the internet, wealth inequality is skyrocketing, and the USA is starting to see Europe as an enemy now. I don’t like where things are going! But on a personal level, things are pretty great. I’m spending a lot of time with my friends and family, I’m supporting software projects and artists that are doing great work, and the Epic Battle Fantasy community is still super active despite there being no new games in a while.

• My “EBF6 ideas” document continues to grow.

And here’s a collection of my favourite photos from the year.
(If you right-click and select “open link in new tab” you’ll see the biggest version.)