A belated Merry Christmas to everyone, and a cheery New Years' as well. I hope you are all happy with what you have accomplished last year, and are as eager as me to get cracking on all of the great new stuff just waiting to be had at this year!

Results of 2008 Resolutions

Every year I like to post my New Years' resolutions here, so that I can reflect on them a year later and see how I've done. Let's see how things stack up in 2008:

Continue development of Project Skirmish. "I'm committed to seeing Skirmish through to the end, so a goal of unwavering development of Skirmish throughout 2008 is certainly a fair goal. To be a little less insubstantial, let's say a goal of being in open to the public by the end of the year, at least. :)"

I most certainly did make a ton of progress throughout the year, and I just about am at that golden point of opening Skirmish to the public. As always, it's easy to over-estimate where you'll be in the future, but I am perfectly content with how far I have gotten with Skirmish in 2008.

Complete a 3D game using OpenGL. "With plenty of experience in the small 3D demos I've made in 2007, I think it's high-time I write and complete a fully 3D game. I'm putting no minimum on how ambitious it will be. Even a Wolfenstein 3D-esque game would be a sufficient accomplishment."

Nuts. I still really want to do this, but I admit that I did NOT finish any 3D games this year. There are actually several fairly functional projects started, but due to stress-points like making textures and creating models, I've neglected it.

Get a personal gamedev website online. "I've been wanting to get my own personal website about game development up for ages upon ages. This year is the year that I get on this, and learn some more HTML and CSS in the process."

Bam! I'm pleased to say that I nailed this one. Heck, I even made a second one for Skirmish!

Resume creative writing. "I used to be hugely into writing stories and such in my spare time, but programming and real-life have come to consume that hobby years age. I've been bugging myself to get back into this, and I think there's no better opportunity to do so than now. We'll say a fairly light goal of at least 10,000 words and a minimum of one completed story. :)"

I'm very disappointed to say that this didn't even come close to happening. I definitely still want to do this, so I'll need to really focus on putting my creative-cap on this year.

Write another gamedev article. "With my metaballs article just about done, I'd really like to push myself to finish another article this year as well, if not more. Fingers crossed!"

Did not happen. I did, however, sign a deal with a publisher to get this article published in a book. I can use that to justify not completing the resolution, right? [grin]

Continue my language studies. "I've been learning German for the last two terms at university, which I plan to continue. I've also been very interested in learning Japanese, which I will also be spending time learning independently."

Definitely taken care of. I've been learning a lot of new Japanese, and I'm taking another German course at my university this upcoming term. Schon!


Resolutions for 2009

I'm thrilled with my accomplishments last year, and as per human nature, I want to do even more this year!

• Keep on working on Skirmish. Skirmish represents a huge chunk of my ambitions. After putting 1.5 years and over 21,000 lines of source into it, I won't settle for anything less than a shiny and finished product.
  
  
• Continue language studies (rigorously!). I want to continue focusing on German and Japanese, and learn as much as I can in the year ahead. I really want to prep myself up and eventually get my Zertifikat Deutsch.
  
  
• Don't dare stop biking or fencing. I'm becoming more and more conscious of the importance of exercise and fitness. I took up both biking and fencing last year, and I really don't want to lose the fun nor the exercise that they both bring.
  
  
• Dedicate time to teaching others. I won't lie: I've already made headway on this. Not only will I be continuing to be the VP of my university's game development club, but I will be working part-time tutoring a 1st-year Computer Science course.

That's it. It doesn't sound ambitious, but I picked the four things that I loved doing throughout 2008, and that I really want to see myself doing through 2009 as well.

Best of luck to everyone else and their goals. As always, wishes for good health and fortune in the year ahead. [smile]