The EOYFOMO

Happy Christmas, you clock-watching fucks.

It’s this time when the End Of Year FOMO arrives: I’m supposed to be making lists! contemplating my achievements! setting new resolutions! sending a newsletter covering all those super-important topics, after all!

Instead, I'm frantically composing this while watching Christmas NYC Walking Show on YouTube. I just have one New Year's resolution: write and publish our book so that it might find an appreciative audience. A book is a real thing, and it’s just ONE thing I’m ready to concentrate on (apart from my day job). That’s enough. Because in 2023:

• I got my first job in a major gamedev studio after years of being self-employed.

• Moved with The Child to Belgrade, Serbia.

• Found new friends.

• Started this newsletter (please let me know if you like it! and what would you like to see in upcoming issues).

• Enrolled The Child in a school.

• Had a beach vacation (first in 2 years).

• Read ENOUGH books.

• Got myself a bunch of pretty fountain pens.

• Started learning Serbian.

• Finished construction in my first own flat (alas, it’s in Russia, so I doubt I'll ever live there).

• Played more games than in previous years (well, that was easy).

All of this while the country of which I am a citizen, is waging a murderous war and enacting new ultra-repressive laws, the video game industry is in turmoil, another war has been unfolding, and people in Serbia are protesting the results of recent elections that appear to be rigged.

How has 2023 treated you? What’s next in 2024 for us as gamedev people and storytellers? Please share your thoughts.

Happy (or at least, gentle) New Year!

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On Substack and Nazis:

As you might’ve heard, a lot of authors are leaving Substack because its founders are happy with Nazi speech monetisation on their platform. I’d be happy to do the same, but haven’t found yet a platform that would allow me to host this newsletter with thousands of subscribers while keeping it free — I’d rather spend their fees on my kid’s tuition. So, for now, I’m staying here. And, to quote a dolphin from John Scalzi’s “Starter Villain”: “Fuck Nazis”. Whew, managed to use up all my profanity quota before the year ends.

P.S.: I have 5 Bluesky invites and would be happy to share; this is where I tweet (or, eh, “skeet”) these days.