For me, 2024 was a roller coaster of a year from many perspectives, both professionally and emotionally. Reflecting back on everything that happened, there are several insights and developments I would like to share with you.
A Case for the Here and Now
One of the most damaging side effects of being a perfectionist for me has been the belief in the idea that until I have achieved an arbitrary definition of success, my life up to that point doesn’t even count and it hasn’t really started yet. 2024 started with a shock: my mother was diagnosed with late-stage lung cancer. The doctors informed us of the little time we had left, and before I could make sense of the whole thing, she was gone. Among the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions I was experiencing, a recurring theme was that I wished we had more time together, as I always thought she would have a much longer life.
It’s now been ten months since her passing. After much reflection, I have realized my biggest mistake in approaching my relationship with my loved ones has been to treat them as if our best times are yet to come, unaware of the fact that our life together is happening here and now. In a way, by postponing my plans for my loved ones to a future that will most certainly never come, I have done myself and them the greatest disservice.
What’s more, upon further analysis, I started to see this pattern in many other areas of my life as well. For instance, believing I am going to make a hit game sometime in the future, I never gave the game I was making at the time the attention it deserved. Or, as another example, I routinely deferred the maintenance of my home and my car to a future date because I thought a much better home and a much better car would come in the future, and my current state in life wasn’t worth my time.
It took me the death of a loved one to learn this, but I now have a much deeper appreciation for my life and the people around me. With it came the somewhat painful realization that my life right now actually does define me, and my dreams and goals don’t mean anything if I don’t embody them in my everyday life. In other words, I realized I need to start living life to the fullest, right now. It’s another counterintuitive quality of perfectionism that the more you let your ideals and fantasies define you internally, the less effort you are going to put into what you are doing at this moment. Hopefully, you don’t have to go through what I did to have the same realization.
Taking a Longer-Term View on Things
After so many years of putting “learn a musical instrument” on my New Year’s resolutions list, I finally managed to do it. I’ve been learning to play piano for several months now, and the most striking thing I found while learning music is just how long it takes to get to a level where you can actually play a song—for piano, it could be close to a year, and it’s not even considered a difficult instrument.
I said that to point out a pattern I’ve observed in many things in life. I have noticed I’m very susceptible to thinking that by sheer force of will and effort, you can achieve anything you want in a surprisingly short amount of time. I had been grappling with this issue even before 2024, but this was the year I finally learned that this is simply another form of wishful thinking. I realized most good things in life take time, and that’s okay. It takes time to build a company, to learn a second language, to build a relationship, and to learn to play music. The time you spend actually makes the result that much more valuable and unique.
Leap of Faith
After around 8 years of making low-risk mobile games, we decided to take the plunge into what we actually want to be doing and start making virtual reality and mixed reality games. So far that’s meant a great deal of stress and financial pressure, but as our very first prototypes are taking shape, I can’t help but feel incredibly excited about taking a chance on a market that could be the next frontier in gaming and computing.
AI and ChatGPT
Let the record show that 2024 was the first year I could no longer imagine working without AI—in this case, ChatGPT. Even though it has already transformed so many aspects of my learning, thinking, writing, and searching, I still think we as humans fail to fully understand the depth of implications this new tech has for everything we do. Never before in the history have we had the opportunity to ask about anything and have a reasonably accurate answer ready in seconds. I understand that’s what internet search wanted to be, but it was AI that finished what internet search started.
The most accessible example of the ChatGPT’s impact on my daily life has been the transformative effect it’s had on my English learning. It used to be impossible to have a language tutor by your side 24/7—but that’s no longer the case. Using a combination of ChatGPT’s incredible Advanced Voice Mode and a custom GPT I made specifically to act as an English language tutor, I was able to make more progress in my English learning than in any other year in my life.
Obsidian
In 2024, a good friend of mine introduced me to the book How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens, and also to Obsidian. I wholeheartedly recommend both if writing and organizing your thoughts is something you care about.
Before using Obsidian, I used to take random notes here and there, and the process of writing a note and accessing it later was so cumbersome that it honestly made me do less writing. On top of that, it’s almost impossible to link and take inspiration from similar notes without using software that was specifically designed for it. That’s where Obsidian comes in. Its promise is to act as a second brain for you. The more notes you take and the more links you make between your notes, the more valuable your accumulated knowledge will become. It’s infinitely customizable and can be used and synced on almost every device out there. It’s an easy recommendation.
Books
Up Down Up by Kim Nordström was the most noteworthy book I read in 2024, particularly because it’s arguably the first book to delve so deeply into the business side of making games. It explores the phases that a successful game company typically goes through over its lifetime, and has many practical lessons no matter where you are in your game development journey. Plus, the majority of the topics discussed apply just as well to any other creative industry, making the book even more recommendable.
Games
It would be impossible for me to write about any period of time without mentioning the good games I played in it, so here goes.
Alan Wake II moved me more deeply than I’d like to admit. If you aren’t already familiar with it, it’s about a horror writer who gets stuck in one of his own stories. I believe it was so moving for me mainly because it deals with the challenges a creative person goes through, and I connected with it on a very personal level. I think it’s the most personal story Sam Lake has ever written, and I respect him for it. Update: You can now read my review of Alan Wake II here.
A more risky recommendation is Metro: Awakening, as I know how niche it is. My defense for it is that it’s one of the best VR games ever made, and whether you are a fan of the Metro series or not, chances are it’s going to be a very memorable gaming experience for you. You wouldn’t go wrong giving it a shot.
Conclusion
It’s always a bad sign when a blog post is so long that it needs a conclusion. But a year is a long time, and believe me when I say I tried my best to condense many of the topics I addressed here, and I will be sure to dive into several of them in more detail later.
I hope some of what I said here resonated with you, and I would be more than happy to hear your thoughts.
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