goodbye 2025
· 5-minute read
2025 was a lot of ups and downs!
work stuff
still going strong doing full-time game dev & translation on my own! midway through my third year now... this year i tried making things that were a bit different from my usual which was fun for me.
i printed a comic for the first time ever & released it at comitia which i'm really proud of. i don't know that i want to do it again but i'm glad i did it, & it really reaffirmed my feelings about how i like making stuff that exists in the physical world... digital games are very cool but they don't feel as 'real' to me as an actual comic i've printed & can hold in my hands.
just as a quick overview, i...
- made these games
- participated in these events
- Take Control (A YEAR OF SPRINGS)
- DREAMSCAPE (Day Day Neon Tea)
- COMITIA (A TAVERN BEFORE TEA)
- IGG x Korea
- Bitsummit (Tokyo Indies)
- JILLA Ten Hisui
- Indie Game WEB Only
- Under Commons (A HERO AND A GARDEN)
- did these jams with friends
- worked on these things
- SAEKO: Giantess Dating Sim (translation)
- FREEZIA (translation)
- Thirty-Fifteen (album cover design)
- Under Commons (gallery rules design)
- (stuff i can't announce yet)
the highlight for me was probably having A HERO AND A GARDEN exhibited in Under Commons! it was so cool seeing my game in an art gallery exhibit in japan. i've had my games exhibited in overseas art events & in gaming events in japan, but i've never had them in an art event in japan before because actually there just aren't very many games in galleries in japan unless it's an archival kind of thing or more of a multimedia experience. i hope we'll see more games exhibited in this fashion here because i think Under Commons did it really well!
but now that i'm looking at my post from last year where i wrote "i think i've been pushing the limits too much so i hope i will be less busy next year"... i don't think i actually really succeeded in being less busy. for 2026, i really do want to do less, especially for events! i want to focus more on my own game dev stuff.
personal stuff
i've had a range of good news & bad news this year so it's been interesting.
so much has happened in 2025 for me that it feels much longer than it was. i wrote a much longer section about some of the bad "highlights" (lowlights?), but putting it into words helped me to process the events some, so i've decided to leave that text out.
instead i want to focus on the little things that have really made this year better for me. some nice highlights:
- meeting up with various online friends who were visiting japan! (lots of people visiting because of the weak yen 😓)
- participated as a circle in comitia (as mentioned above) - i've always wanted to do this & i'm glad i made it happen!
- one of my guinea pigs had a health scare (wasn't eating, blood in urine...) but she's recovered & seems to be doing just fine now, thank goodness!
- went to korea for an indie game event even though i was a bit nervous about going at first since i don't know korean at all... was such a nice experience though & i definitely want to go again!
- overseas family came to see me! was so nice to meet up since i don't get to see them often
as for my resolutions for 2026...
- organise my home better!
- stretch & exercise!
- rest more!
right now my home is kind of a mess & i find when my home is disorganised, i'm more easily distracted, so i want to try to tidy more overall. my goal is to do at least one tidying task a day besides the usual upkeep ones until my home is more organised.
as for #2, i've been doing these stretches fairly regularly this year & it's been great as a way to start & end my day. i also got an exercise bike this year that's in my living room so i can exercise while playing video games. i want to stay active through 2026 too!
for #3, i had "rest more" as a resolution for this year too but i don't think i did great on that front so it stays!
i hope that next year i'll be able to look back on this post & say i actually followed through with my resolutions, but we'll see how it goes.
wishing you all a happy & healthy 2026 ⛄