2024 Year in Review

This year has been one where I’ve flourished professionally. I officially began more of a design leadership role at the start of the year, and since then I’ve gone on to lead, and gain recognition for some high profile projects. My position affords both a good level of autonomy and interesting challenges - with the next one already lined up to begin in January! Professionally, I’m pretty happy and comfortable.

On a personal level, this year has had many challenges, and I feel like in some ways, I’m ending this year in a worse position than last. That being said, there have been a number of highlights throughout the year worth mentioning.

Personal Highlights

For our big wedding anniversary this year, we enjoyed a long weekend in Edinburgh, which was my first time visiting Scotland. The tour of Edinburgh Castle was a particular highlight.

I started a weekly gaming night with a couple of mates who are geographically spread out from me, which has been a lot of fun. The three of us are on the same wavelength and share a sense of humour so we get to mess about playing games and making stupid jokes each week now.

We went to see Rhod Gilbert live, which aside from the challenging subject matter of his show (about his cancer battle), he was very entertaining as always.

We managed to tick off a few home improvements this year, including landscaping the front garden and building a media wall in the living room. We’re very time poor generally, between work and raising a family, so getting these done wasn’t easy.

I started to learn the piano a little this year after my wife bought one. I haven’t made a consistent habit of it yet, but maybe next year…

Professional Achievements

I defined the experience, led the project and did the technical implementation for a new WhatsApp customer service channel at work, which launched recently and has been well received internally and by customers.

In the first quarter of 2024, I designed, built and released a proof of concept headless e-commerce application, which is being built out into a full product next year.

Travel

I got around more this year than usual.

• Barmouth for a short family getaway at the beach
• Crete for our family summer holiday
• Edinburgh, for our wedding anniversary (and my first time in Scotland)
• Disneyland Paris just before Christmas with the kids - it was magical

Personal Projects

I’d wanted to do more writing, art and coding projects this year. I just couldn’t make that happen this year due to various personal challenges, and I’m disappointed by that. I did manage some earlier in the year, but it fizzled out by half way through.

I attempted to build my gaming blog three times and am still not happy with it. I did a couple of versions using Astro, which I wasn’t pleased with because it feels too limiting for what I wanted to do, so switched to Laravel and got something pretty close. I didn’t keep a handle on the scope with that one, so it got too unwieldy to release. I’ve just made a start on the fourth version, still in Laravel, which has a simpler scope and hopefully I’ll launch it early in the New Year as a fun side project.

I started dipping my toes into game development, using Godot, this year and have built a couple of tutorial projects. Next year I want to take it further.

Books

I tend to read non-fiction more than anything, and usually books related to professional or personal development. I get my fiction from gaming; although I had intended to read some fiction books this year, I just ended up not having the time.

I’ve recently begun collecting art books from video games, which give insight into the creative processes behind them. This might be the start of an obsession…

Finished

• Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice by Dan Mall
• Story Mode: The Creative Writer’s Guide to Narrative Video Game Design by Julialicia Case, Eric Freeze , Salvatore Pane
• Creative Abstract Watercolor: The beginner’s guide to expressive and imaginative painting by Kate Rebecca Leach

In Progress

• Success At Scale by Addy Osmani
• Top Tasks: A How To Guide by Gerry McGovern (E-book)
• Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry (Audio Book)
• Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design by Scott Rogers

Gaming

I played 45 games this year, 46 if you count Tomb of the Mask+, but as someone who identifies as a serious gamer, I don’t count mobile games. This year, I got back into gaming in a big way - probably too much, as a way of de-stressing.

According to Xbox Year in Review, I spent 210 hours gaming on the Xbox platform, racking up 219 achievements. My most-played game on Xbox was Alan Wake 2, rolling over from last year as I replayed the main story again and then the DLC that released this year.

My stats from PlayStation (which doesn’t seem to update as often so not entirely accurate!) show that I spent 149 hours gaming on the PlayStation platform, earning 128 trophies. My most-played game on PS5 was Helldivers 2, which I play pretty regularly with a couple of mates, basking in the ridiculously over-the-top firepower! 🤣

That’s a rough total of 359 hours gaming this year (at time of publishing).

Although not my usual type of game, I gave The Quarry a go on GamePass earlier this year and really enjoyed it. So much so, that I went on to play most other Supermassive Games titles this year too! Starting with the original Until Dawn, then The Dark Pictures Season One (House of Ashes was my favourite of the series) and most recently, The Casting of Frank Stone. I’m looking forward to their next game, Directive 8020.

I’m currently playing Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered on PS5 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Xbox.

My aim for the coming year is to be more selective about the games I buy. I tend to pick up games on sale because I’m loosely interested in them, but all that does is add to an already massive backlog with things I’m not really too fussed about playing anyway. I’m going to buy less next year and try to clear some of the backlog, maybe even replay some favourites that I never seem to get back around to playing again.

My top 3 games played this year:

• Silent Hill 2 (Remake) - I’ve waited a long time for this, and it’s actually the reason I bought a PS5. It did not disappoint.
• Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered
• Dead Space (Remake)

2025 Goals

I didn’t really achieve most of the goals I set for myself this time last year. This year, I’m going a bit broader in the hopes that will make things achievable.

Fit for 40!

I’m disappointed that after making a good start on my fitness last year and losing quite a bit of weight, it all went back to the start over the course of this year. I turn 40 next year and would like to set myself up for a decade (and beyond) of good health. I’m referring to this as “fit for 40” and almost thinking of it like a project that needs to be completed before my next birthday. The target being to reach my ideal weight and be physically fit and healthy, as well as looking after my mental health better. I heard somewhere that the state of your health in your 30s has a massive impact on your 40s.

Make a video game

I’ve always been fascinated with video games; not just playing them, but with how they’re made. I’ve already started delving into the subject this year, and next year, I’d like to actually build a game of my own. I don’t really have an idea of what it’ll be yet, and I know I need to manage the scope appropriately for what I can achieve in my free time. I like that this is an opportunity to indulge several creative interests all in service of a single output. Feels like that’s more achievable than trying to pursue all the separate interests individually. I’m already expecting that this will give me a reason to dabble in 3D modelling, digital art and various other subjects.

Improve my web presence

For a web professional, I don’t do much on my own platforms.

I wanted to write more this year, and while I do write daily privately, the aim was to actually be publishing publicly, which I haven’t really done much of this year. I want that to change in 2025; not that I want to be churning stuff out for the sake of it, but I certainly want to be sharing more on my blog that I find interesting.

A related project will be releasing my gaming blog, which is going to be somewhere I can share my gaming stats, as well as tinker with code.

And finally, I’ve not been active on social media for several years at this point - I don’t get much personal value out of it, but I appreciate that there might be some professional value to curating some of my profiles. Who knows, maybe I’ll find some more social value in it again too.

That’s a wrap!

See you in 2025!