Early January is always a good time to look back at the year that was and plot out the year that is. So maybe writing a post will help me better focus in on the things I’d like to accomplish in the next 12 months.
Apps and Game Development.
Last year I released 3 apps: Logic Grid Puzzles (this might have actually been released right at the end of 2013, but I’m counting it anyway), Cryptograms, and Survival Words. I wrote and released several new puzzles packs for logic grids and cryptograms as well, though I slowed down towards the end of the year as I took paternity leave to hang out with my son. It was a solid year for my app development since they were the first three projects I’ve ever done totally on my own. And other than Apple screwing up and continuing to screw up my launch of Survival Words – they’ve all met with a fair amount of success. That said, along with continuing to update these existing apps and continue to create new content and perfect the user experience – in 2015 my goal is to develop four new apps. If I do it, 7 will be a pretty large library to continue to update and maintain myself. So at the end of 2015 it’ll probably be time to look at my library and decide which apps I’ll continue supporting and developing, and which will get the axe. My plan is to keep making puzzle and education oriented apps, particularly literacy based, since I think there’s a lack of those out there and it allows me to brainstorm and work with my wife who is a literacy coordinator.
Video Production
2014 was slow for video work. I edited the Yamaha snowmobiling show in the winter, but then didn’t really work on anything the rest of the year. 2015 already looks like video work will ramp up a little bit. My friend Brent and I are trying to start a production company focused on making the background video content for touring musical artists. Brent already lights a lot of tours and events, so I think we’ll be able to at least get a foot in the door to show potential clients our stuff. In addition, Houchin and I got hired by Funny or Die to create a new, four episode comedy series that we are going to shoot in early February. It’ll be pretty fun to get back to making web videos again, we haven’t gotten to collaborate in awhile.
Other Stuffs
Chi Town Festivals and Grey Duck Interactive didn’t get the attention they deserved in 2014. Paul got a new ‘real’ job and I don’t think I’ve seen him since. So, working together has obviously come to a halt for the time being. We had planned to reach out to all the festivals CTF features to see if we could build up some web development clients. Almost every festival site out there is absolutely horrible – so I think our services are needed. But it’s just a matter of deciding whether or not we have the time to devote to it. We did have a few client jobs that went well early in 2014, so it seems like the work is there if we go after it. But at some point we’ll have to sit down and decide where our priorities are. Apps? Websites? Games? Who knows.
Maybe I’ll try write a quarterly post like this to check in on my 2015 progress and see if I’m meeting my goals.