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Happy New Year!!
You've stumbled upon my traditional yearly recap, where I organize everything I was up to this past year. This one takes place of the yearly projects video too!
2025 ended up being a pivotal year for my game development stuff, and it was all because of a spontaneous and wreckless decision I made in May, mere weeks after I presented my plans for the year.
I decided to completely drop everything I was in the middle of, and start a year-long monthly YouTube series called GameDev Origins!
The idea was to make videos discussing and learning from all the unsung games I made, until I turn 30 years old next year.
6 videos in, this YouTube series is already WAY more ambitious than I imagined:
Here are some stats!
At the start of the series, I said I expected 2,000 views each month. What actually happened is hard to believe:
This turned my hobby into a revenue positive business again, which is extremely motivating!
What's even more motivating is that I reached my secret goal of having 10 patrons! Whoa!! Thanks!
My activity on Patreon has only sped up. Here is the effort I put into it this year:
The YouTube series was initially supposed to be really simple and low-pressure, but now each one involves me taking on a side-project (like creating a game), making custom music, and packaging everything as a broadly-appealing video I can be proud of.
While it's been very very fulfilling, it had also lead to stress every month. So at the end of this post, I'll talk about how I plan to continue this series in 2026, and what I want to happen afterwards when the series ends on September 3, 2026!
But first, here's a monthly view of everything that happened this year. Feel free to click around to see anything you might have missed!
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Red: Video Green: Game Blue: Monthly devlog Yellow: Music Grey: Other |
My year really picked up once the monthly videos started coming out! During this time, I made 3 little games, started an album of music, and gained a ton of experience with game development and making videos.
The only problem is that this stuff has taken up all of my free-time and energy.
The last video of the year (the most successful one so far) was the first video that missed my usual deadline, which has inevitably impacted the timing of the next video.
I was worried this would break the scope, pressure, and structure that got me this far, but we'll see how things come together this next year!
I'm hoping that 2026 will be equally productive and successful, regardless!
I want to create a bunch of quality videos and earn the coveted 100,000 subscribers plaque.
I aim to release more games, learn new skills, and start on my next music album release.
And most of all, I hope to feel ready to take on the biggest part of my life yet: my 30s! 
While I haven't figured out what the end of the GameDev Origins video series will look like, I currently view it as a transition from "reflecting on my past work" to "building whatever cool things I want to work on".
I feel more confident about testing multiplayer with Mine Blocks 2, and eventually Mine Blocks 1 (after I modernize it with texture packs, localization, and mobile support).
I'm excited to dive back into Fynnland, Frisbio, Lab Lights 2, and Maze of Mist.
And I should no longer feel against working on new ideas, like how I felt when I first started all of the above. :)
Overall, I'm really excited to pursue this shift in perspective and just... to make awesome stuff!
I hope you have an amazing year ahead! I'll see you over on YouTube, Discord, and Patreon!
Happy 2026!!
- Zanz