Heya friendos! I’m sure you’re looking at the title and thinking, what does that have to do with game development or the creative process? Well… nothing! Today’s newsletter is just a bit of a brain fart, but I have some important news to tell you as well, so make sure to stick around.

How Am I Doing?

I’m vibrating with excitement. You see, next Monday I will be on a plane to South Korea. This is a trip I’ve been planning for well over a year now, back when I was still employed and never even thought about New to Narrative. That’s exciting enough already, but to top it all off I’m scooting over to Japan as well. In total, I will be away for about 6 weeks.

My mouth is already watering from all the food we will eat. Especially spicy food. I’m a big spicy food fan. I was talking about that with one of my friends and had a sudden thought. A significant amount of my friends like spicy food. By itself, not a very interesting fact. Naturally, being the nerd I am, I tried to find some kind of connection.

Is there a link between personality and liking spicy food? Probably not. My partner suggested the following though: most of my friends are from northwest Europe, which does not have a lot of traditionally spicy food. So when people from there do enjoy spicy food, it might be because they don’t mind getting out of their comfort zone. That’s definitely something I like about people. Just have a happy little correlation!

What Am I Doing?

So what will happen to the newsletter while I’m away? I do not intend to make this a work trip, nor do I intend to start a food blog. Well, I worked diligently on my YouTube videos and blog posts. I rigged it so that I keep publishing while I’m away! Yay automation! Here’s what’s coming up:

• A video about systemic design and how to apply it to game narrative.
• A video about 7 case studies of games with cool narrative mechanics.
• 4 in-depth blog posts about various game development things, including scope estimation.

In a way, I will be publishing more stuff than ever, and won’t even have to lift a finger to do so.

I’m writing some automated newsletters as well, but they will lack the usual personal content. It will just be updates on the stuff I’ve published and some cool things I’ve seen, played, and heard lately.

Why Am I Doing? (this)

Initially, that’s kind of what this whole newsletter idea was supposed to be. Just a way to keep people in the loop with the projects I’m working on. Looking back, it turned into so much more. It became a journal. It became snapshots of my life. It became a way to realize concepts in my head and put them to paper.

Taking a few hours to reflect on my week and put it into words is a fantastic exercise. Depending on my experiences in South Korea and Japan, I might take the time to write something up anyway. If not, enjoy robot Daan’s newsletters instead and I’ll see you after 6 weeks!