Heya friendos! It’s properly 2025 now and we’re back to the grind. There will be lots going on this year, I can already feel it in my bones. Let’s take a look at what I’ve got “planned” for the following months and how that will inform the rest of the year.

How Am I Doing?

Excited but trepidatious! I’m still basking in the afterglow of how chill and nice 2024 was to me. One way or another, this year will not be the same. My welfare benefits will end in August, so I have a pretty clear deadline for when I have to start making money. I still have some savings, so I could potentially extend it, but to be safe I’ll have to start scrounging up jobs around June. Not sure if that will be freelance or contract work yet.

Hopefully, I can start pitching ‘Rumorweaver’ in February. The vertical slice is coming along swimmingly, but I haven’t done a round of playtests yet. Surely that will take some time to polish as well. It’s really starting to feel like a game, however, and I’m curious what people will think about it!

What Am I Doing?

Last year around this time, I wrote a newsletter clearly stating the plan for the year. I don’t really have that for this year, since so many factors are undecided. So what I’ll do instead is make a manifestation bingo card for 2025. This will contain the things I hope to do, so I can compare it to what actually happens this same time next year! So here we go:

2025 Manifestation Bingo Card

• 🎮 Launch a commercial videogame on Steam.
• 📔 Finish 1 of my short stories. I’ve got a bunch of them but I really need to wrap them up at some point. 😭
• 📚 Publish either a children’s book or a board game. Either are near completion, but I’ll probably only have enough time for one of them.
• 💰 Make some money, preferably off of one of the things above.
• ✒️ Publish at least 2 New to Narrative articles.
• 📮 Keep this weekly newsletter going for another year!

Now, the astute of you might have noticed two things here. For one, there’s a significantly less ambitious quantity of things compared to last year. This is partly because I’m assuming I don’t have the full year to work on my own stuff, but also because I’m making a videogame.

Making games should be the thing I do first and foremost. Last year, it felt like that was slipping away from me a little bit. Doing it mostly by myself takes too much time to do much else next to it, so I’ve decided to drop some things that don’t spark joy. That takes me to second point:

YouTube

This year, I’ll take a step back from YouTube. I gave it a fair shot and enjoyed trying it out, but in the end, it’s just too time-consuming to keep doing while also making games. It’s also pretty clear to me that it’s not my passion. While writing the articles that the videos are based on is super fun, the whole process of filming and editing takes up the bulk of the time and frustrates me to no end.

I had hoped by the end of the year it could grant me a small, supplemental revenue stream, but you really have to pump out content consistently to get to that point, which I just don’t have the time or patience for. So this will be the end of it for the time being. That’s not to say I won’t make videos ever again! I might publish a deVlog here and there, and maybe even a flagship video if I find the time for it.

So, for now, 2024 will be officially known as “the Year that Daan Tried to Become a YouTuber”.

Why Am I Doing? (this)

It’s been more than a year of doing this newsletter now. I have documented so much of my thoughts and feelings over that time. At any point during that time, I can read back how my week was, what I did, and how my work was coming along. I also feel like I have a clearer view in my head of what I spend my time doing!

I’m already curious how I’ll look at this bingo card next year. Hey, future me! Hope you’re doing well!