I did not managed to stay sober, but I only consumed on 2 out of 7 days, that’s pretty good, considering where I started from. Just got to try again and really stick with it this time :)
Outside of that, what a week! Extremely inspiring and exhausting.
Brin invited me to give a short talk in Lubljana about my creative process. Being in that class, talking to these really, really motivated students has rekindled my interest in teaching. My instinctive dislike of bureaucracy has also been refueled. I am looking into how to hold workshops that are open to anyone and don’t kill the organiser. There’s work to do!
During the trip to Lubljana, I have also suddenly had some strong realisations about one of the prototypes that I’ve kept coming back to over the last years. Many divergent things came together into a concrete vision. There’s something concrete to test now! Work!
At the same time, I have had to set up some boundaries with people and events in my private life. 2024 has been a year of hurting people and being hurt by people and then having to untangle all of that, sometimes together, sometimes on my own. Negotiating relationships has never been one of my strong points, but I feel like I have gotten a lot better at it over the last 2 years, when I finally left my bedroom and venturing out into the world for real. There’s a lot of work I have to do (on myself) in this aspect of my life, but the change I have undergone so far is very real and very reassuring.
I also started to sketch out a long text about the power dynamics one commonly encounters in game development spaces. So much stuff to think about!
I think that Bluesky has played a large part in all of this activity. The amount of cool papers and blogs and articles I have found through this website is staggering. If you are still on twitter, leave and come over. Bluesky is full of elder millennials, their liberal star wars memes and cringy expressions, but once you get through that you can really find your people!
Meanwhile, Rollin`Barrel has done some extremely elegant design work on Mosa Lina that we will keep secret for some time. It has been really exciting to see someone taking ownership of one of my projects with so much thought and care and creativity. <3
Of course, now there is also a text I want to write about collaboration. And a huge software project I am extremely excited about.
There is work to do. I should not forget to take weekends.