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straightforwardly) wrote2023-01-21 11:51 am
straightforwardly) wrote2023-01-21 11:51 am
243 | 2022 gaming and writing years in review
► Here’s my gaming year in review for 2022! And another year where I’m late with this (though, in my defense, I did start on this entry about two weeks ago—I wandered away distracted at some point and just didn’t get back to it up now. Which isn’t that much of a defense, haha.)
Games I Beat in 2022
Cozy Grove (Steam)
Where the Snow Settles (itchio)
The Search (itchio)
Pendula Swing - The Complete Journey (itchio)
Pale Cachexia (itchio)
The Light at the End of the Ocean (itchio)
Amelie (itchio)
MMM: Murder Most Misfortunate (itchio)
Twilight Tower (itchio) — Alpha version; ended on a cliffhanger
Heart of the House (Steam)*
Princess Maker 2 Refine (Steam)
Kindred Spirits on the Roof (Steam)
* = replay
All Games = 12 (+4 not beaten)
Visual Novels = 4
Other Games Played, Not Yet Beat
Wildermyth (Steam)
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
Okami (Steam)
Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch)
A game released this year (2022): I had a moment of, “were any of these games released this year…?”, but no, duh, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a 2022 game.
A game you can finish in a day: As always, plenty of them—mostly those I picked up via an itch.io charity bundle. On the top of my head, I think Where the Snow Settles, The Search, Pale Cachexia, The Light at the End of the Ocean, Amelie, MMM: Murder Most Misfortunate, Heart of the House, and I think also Twilight Tower all qualify. Maybe Princess Maker 2 Refine as well?
A game you've been meaning to play: Princess Maker 2! I’ve been intrigued by it ever since that one I read a Yuletide fic about Olive being engaged to a dragon and finding out that was a canonical route that one can go down.
A game chosen for you by a loved one: I mean, Wildermyth was literally bought for me by a friend for us to play together? Though we only managed a single session, oops.
A game you've previously abandoned: I think Kindred Spirits on the Roof counts for this. I played like 5-10 minutes of this in 2021 and walked away, but this year I finally came back to it and ended up enjoying it.
A game that intimidates you: None, I would say.
A game you've already solved at least once: I think the only one that could vaguely qualify for this is Heart of the House.
A game with an unusual control scheme: I think some of them do a very good job with the mechanics of the genre—Cozy Grove comes to mind, I’m thoroughly enjoying how refreshing Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels, and the gameplay concept was the only thing I liked about the absolute mediocrity that was The Search—but not in a way that I would call unusual.
A game you should have played when it was first released: I don’t feel this way about any of the games I played this year.
A game released before 1990: Pretty sure the oldest game on this list is the original version of Princess Maker 2, and googling it tells me that it was released in 1993, so.
A game you’d owned for a long time but had never played: All of the games that were entirely new to me I’d also bought or received this year. I think the one I had the longest was Okami, which my brother gifted me a Steam copy of in 2018, but I’ve played a good portion of the PS2 version before, so I don’t know if it counts as having never played it?
A game that has been the subject of controversy: I think some people were pretty disappointed in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond? At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from conversations with my brother.
An award-winning game: Cue me googling to see if Okami’s won any awards.
► And here is my writing year in review as well—aka the reason why I procrastinated so hard on making this update. In the spirit of perfection being the enemy of good, I think I’m not going to do most of my usual questionnaire, since I really didn’t write that much—just list what I wrote, a few stats, and my overall feelings on my writing year.
Blue Castle - 1
in the secret dark a fresh snow falls
Bridgerton - 1
fire is racing under skin
Fire Emblem: Awakening - 3
the hum of a red string
Of Artificial Blood
Framed By Sunlight
Pokémon (Main Games) - 1
Recharge
Princess Tutu - 1
The Language of Stars
Stardew Valley - 1
Snapshot
NU Carnival - 1
An Unbearable Pleasure
Eldest Princess Above - 2
All the Fortunes Returning Home
in the dreams of tigers
Total Posted Wordcount: 15,536*
Total Stories: 11 in 8 fandoms.
*AO3 has this as 16K, but that’s because I also wrote a Murdle for Love Nikki Dress-Up Queen as a part of my Fic in a Box assignment, which, while having a small story attached to it and having been a lot of fun to create, is not being counted as part of my words for the year.
Fandoms I Wrote In For The First Time: Most of them! Blue Castle, Bridgerton, Princess Tutu, NU Carnival, and Eldest Princess Above. With the exception of Princess Tutu, those were also new-to-me canons.
Number of Fics By Category
F/M - 5
F/F - 4
Gen - 2
Other - 1
Longest Story: “fire is racing under skin” (Bridgerton) at 4.3K.
Shortest Story: “in the secret dark a fresh snow falls” (Blue Castle) at 305 words.
And I think that’s all of the usual questions that I can get any meaningful results from this year. I didn’t write very much this year, and everything I did write was for one of two events: either Battleship, where I was quite prolific in a short span of time, or Fic in a Box.
That being said, even though writing only played a small role in my life this past year, I am pretty pleased with most of what I did write? I may not have written much or often, but when I did, I produced works that I was happy with. I can be satisfied with that for now.
I don’t foresee the situation improving much in the first half of the year or so, due to certain real life things going on, but I’d liked to try to start writing more again once the second half of the year rolls around. It’ll be tricky, of course—I have a lot less time and many more hobbies competing with the time that remains now as when compared to a few years ago—my gaming also suffers from this—but it is something that still matters deeply to me, and I do want to make an effort at prioritizing it more once [important real life thing] is over with.
Games I Beat in 2022
Cozy Grove (Steam)
Where the Snow Settles (itchio)
The Search (itchio)
Pendula Swing - The Complete Journey (itchio)
Pale Cachexia (itchio)
The Light at the End of the Ocean (itchio)
Amelie (itchio)
MMM: Murder Most Misfortunate (itchio)
Twilight Tower (itchio) — Alpha version; ended on a cliffhanger
Heart of the House (Steam)*
Princess Maker 2 Refine (Steam)
Kindred Spirits on the Roof (Steam)
* = replay
All Games = 12 (+4 not beaten)
Visual Novels = 4
Other Games Played, Not Yet Beat
Wildermyth (Steam)
Pokémon Brilliant Diamond (Switch)
Okami (Steam)
Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch)
A game released this year (2022): I had a moment of, “were any of these games released this year…?”, but no, duh, Pokémon Legends: Arceus is a 2022 game.
A game you can finish in a day: As always, plenty of them—mostly those I picked up via an itch.io charity bundle. On the top of my head, I think Where the Snow Settles, The Search, Pale Cachexia, The Light at the End of the Ocean, Amelie, MMM: Murder Most Misfortunate, Heart of the House, and I think also Twilight Tower all qualify. Maybe Princess Maker 2 Refine as well?
A game you've been meaning to play: Princess Maker 2! I’ve been intrigued by it ever since that one I read a Yuletide fic about Olive being engaged to a dragon and finding out that was a canonical route that one can go down.
A game chosen for you by a loved one: I mean, Wildermyth was literally bought for me by a friend for us to play together? Though we only managed a single session, oops.
A game you've previously abandoned: I think Kindred Spirits on the Roof counts for this. I played like 5-10 minutes of this in 2021 and walked away, but this year I finally came back to it and ended up enjoying it.
A game that intimidates you: None, I would say.
A game you've already solved at least once: I think the only one that could vaguely qualify for this is Heart of the House.
A game with an unusual control scheme: I think some of them do a very good job with the mechanics of the genre—Cozy Grove comes to mind, I’m thoroughly enjoying how refreshing Pokémon Legends: Arceus feels, and the gameplay concept was the only thing I liked about the absolute mediocrity that was The Search—but not in a way that I would call unusual.
A game you should have played when it was first released: I don’t feel this way about any of the games I played this year.
A game released before 1990: Pretty sure the oldest game on this list is the original version of Princess Maker 2, and googling it tells me that it was released in 1993, so.
A game you’d owned for a long time but had never played: All of the games that were entirely new to me I’d also bought or received this year. I think the one I had the longest was Okami, which my brother gifted me a Steam copy of in 2018, but I’ve played a good portion of the PS2 version before, so I don’t know if it counts as having never played it?
A game that has been the subject of controversy: I think some people were pretty disappointed in Pokémon Brilliant Diamond? At least, that’s what I’ve gathered from conversations with my brother.
An award-winning game: Cue me googling to see if Okami’s won any awards.
► And here is my writing year in review as well—aka the reason why I procrastinated so hard on making this update. In the spirit of perfection being the enemy of good, I think I’m not going to do most of my usual questionnaire, since I really didn’t write that much—just list what I wrote, a few stats, and my overall feelings on my writing year.
Blue Castle - 1
in the secret dark a fresh snow falls
Bridgerton - 1
fire is racing under skin
Fire Emblem: Awakening - 3
the hum of a red string
Of Artificial Blood
Framed By Sunlight
Pokémon (Main Games) - 1
Recharge
Princess Tutu - 1
The Language of Stars
Stardew Valley - 1
Snapshot
NU Carnival - 1
An Unbearable Pleasure
Eldest Princess Above - 2
All the Fortunes Returning Home
in the dreams of tigers
Total Posted Wordcount: 15,536*
Total Stories: 11 in 8 fandoms.
*AO3 has this as 16K, but that’s because I also wrote a Murdle for Love Nikki Dress-Up Queen as a part of my Fic in a Box assignment, which, while having a small story attached to it and having been a lot of fun to create, is not being counted as part of my words for the year.
Fandoms I Wrote In For The First Time: Most of them! Blue Castle, Bridgerton, Princess Tutu, NU Carnival, and Eldest Princess Above. With the exception of Princess Tutu, those were also new-to-me canons.
Number of Fics By Category
F/M - 5
F/F - 4
Gen - 2
Other - 1
Longest Story: “fire is racing under skin” (Bridgerton) at 4.3K.
Shortest Story: “in the secret dark a fresh snow falls” (Blue Castle) at 305 words.
And I think that’s all of the usual questions that I can get any meaningful results from this year. I didn’t write very much this year, and everything I did write was for one of two events: either Battleship, where I was quite prolific in a short span of time, or Fic in a Box.
That being said, even though writing only played a small role in my life this past year, I am pretty pleased with most of what I did write? I may not have written much or often, but when I did, I produced works that I was happy with. I can be satisfied with that for now.
I don’t foresee the situation improving much in the first half of the year or so, due to certain real life things going on, but I’d liked to try to start writing more again once the second half of the year rolls around. It’ll be tricky, of course—I have a lot less time and many more hobbies competing with the time that remains now as when compared to a few years ago—my gaming also suffers from this—but it is something that still matters deeply to me, and I do want to make an effort at prioritizing it more once [important real life thing] is over with.