Kingdoms of Amalur - a small business lesson

Think this game got back into the news recently as THQ bought over the rights to the game and released a graphical remaster, with an expansion soon to come. But this game was largely forgotten by the public for years. With THQ's announcement of a new DLC, I wanted to speak about its past.

The open-world fantasy action role-playing action video game Kingdoms of Amalur was funded by Curt Schilling, Major League Baseball pitcher. The project cost him a full year of his salary, and the studio that made it quickly went bust after his sponsorship ended, laying off all their employees. Personally don't have much sympathy for Schilling's losses, considering he later revealed himself to be connected to the American alt-right. But it's still a cautionary tale into just how expensive video game development is and how it can become a massive financial hole.

Thing is, based on both my personal opinion and aggregate review scores, Kingdoms of Amalur is a pretty good game. If I hadn't known how the studio ended up, I would have thought it would have sold a lot more than it did and been at least somewhat successful, much less been a money pit.

What went wrong?

I think the first problem was timing. KoA fell into the same genre, and was thus competing directly, with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, one of the most highly acclaimed video games of all time, and which was barely a year old at the time KoA came out. Had KoA released today, it would have had a much larger following - not only is the games market much larger today, but it also is somewhat more tired of fantasy open world titles such as Skyrim (which has now been repackaged so many times there's a running joke in the games community about the future of gaming involving Skyrim-playable toasters and smart fridges).

The second thing was the cost. Open-world RPGs are extremely expensive to make, easily climbing into the tens of millions, because the entire model of video game revolves around artistic and graphical fidelity and scale (which is very labor-intensive). The number of copies needed to break even is so exorbitant that even if your game is good - heck, even if your game is amazing - it may simply be unfeasible solely because the target audience is too small or you don't have a large enough marketing budget after paying millions in development costs.

So what are the lessons here?

• Start small. Don't begin with your dream. Make smaller prototypes and build up.
• Timing is key. Even if your idea is great, if it releases at the same time as someone else with more money releases a similar project, you will lose by sheer scale.
• Don't build an open world video game, lol (unless you've got the funding of a whole corporation)

(Final?) Project Update

Well, it's the start of November. I thought I would quickly get this update in. I think it's pretty big, at least for myself.

I am abandoning the project, at least in the way I've been planning it.

What happened is simple: I've taken a look at the costs to develop the game I want to make, and they would stretch into the hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and years' worth of time. (Case in point: Grim Dawn was crowdfunded at 0.5 million USD, while Path of Exile was crowdfunded at 2.2 million USD. This does not include any cash the developers or sponsors may have invested themselves, which would not be publicly known.)

My father might be a multimillionaire, but that doesn't mean I'm free to casually drop six digits into a hobby. Not to mention, given the years it takes, nobody knows what's going to happen by then. What if Diablo IV comes out in 2023 / 2024 and it's the amazing game I've always been wanting? Controlled by a notoriously scummy corporation, perhaps, but I can't deny that my dream would be answered for less. Not to mention, if I tried to release an ARPG in an environment where everyone is already playing Diablo IV or some other game, that would be financial suicide.

 

After I realized how absurd the costs were going to be, I sat down and asked myself what my aims with this project were:

• To make some contribution to society, however small: I don't need to make a video game to do this. Hell, a lot of people would argue video games aren't good for society (although I firmly believe they can be).
• To make something that my friends and I can play together (preferably for hundreds or even thousands of hours): This goal is actually impossible and I was naïve to believe otherwise. The simple reason is that, aside from Warframe (which can't bring us together anymore), our tastes in video games are all extremely different. I'll talk about this in more detail some other time but that's the short of it.
• To innovate upon the ARPG genre: Just because something is innovative doesn't necessarily mean people will enjoy it. In my research/polling I've found there's many factors, graphics and etc., that can make or break someone's enjoyment, not just my design ideas. And looking at those millions in development costs, I am certain a majority of it is on models and animations. And, okay, even if people do enjoy my game despite some ugly graphics, so what? I've entertained some toxic gamers for a few hours. Applause.

Given these conditions, I've decided that abandonment is not really abandonment - it is not only the reasonable thing to do, but also the reasonable thing to do in terms of actually achieving my goals, or at least, the first one (which is the only one that didn't stink).

I've created an action plan.

• Take the two months until the end of the year to organize the absolute jumble of project documents that I have
• Start looking into picking up reading and writing short fantasy stories and making some fantasy-based visual art (I will start this parallel to my cleanup).
• If I get time, maybe I'll take a look at Unity and make some tiny games, Pong or Tic Tac Toe or something
• Starting January, I'll also start my next job and start putting a lot more effort into my career. I'll continue to make time for the other stuff, but my goal is to prioritize work for the first 12-18 months until I can get my first raise.

The idea now is to keep my options open, work on more traditional skills and perhaps get the works of a novel or some art pieces going. In the tiny chance that game development does work out, then those characters can go into the game, so nothing is wasted. And if it doesn't, it may very well be a blessing, as more traditional media may have been a better option all along.

Status Update

Oct 13
Been a bit busy. Company called [redacted] called on Sunday saying they found my resume and they think I'd be suitable for a position there. I had interviews on Monday and Tuesday, and both went well, but it was tiring nonetheless. In the meantime, I had some minor issues with my current job (at Brenntag) - HR partner sent me information that is weird / seemingly wrong, and controlling complained. Over the weekend I sent out emails explaining HR's process and pushed (rightful) responsibility to the partner. When my supervisor came back from leave I was told I handled it well. And yeah, I did the monthly closing by myself and all.

Safe to say I am, ah, getting exhausted.

Oct 18
On Friday I got the offer from [redacted]. The pay is not low, let's just say. So, I'm taking that job - it starts on Jan 10th next year, so I've got ample time to clear up my current work and submit my resignation.

Dad tells me to thank the Lord for my good fortune. I'm taking a moment to do that now.

I should note that this week I also received a (verbal) offer to extend contract for my current company. Obviously, I'm not accepting that as [redacted] is offering higher, plus it's a permanent (whereas my current position can only extend until the end of 2022 / early 2023 when the project finishes, then it'd be quite illogical for them to extend it as they don’t have any other work for me).

Anyway, after this exhausting week, I had a quiet weekend sleeping and playing a new title, The Riftbreaker. It's decent - a few problems with the game are quite detracting from my fun, actually. But I'm willing to overlook a few problems if it's a small indie developer and an innovative enough game, both criteria of which The Riftbreaker satisfies.

The Monthly Post - Oct 2021

I'm a little frustrated with myself. Honestly, it's the same deal again and again that's been plaguing me for years.

All my life, I've been instructed to find meaning out of this life through career and family. I've been questioning this on several lines:

 

[1] My career in many ways feels like I'm just padding the back pockets of corporate leaders, rather than an actual contribution to society. It's mildly less bad with my swap to HR from accounting, but still…

 

[2] Needless to say family is important. But if all we spend our lives looking for a spouse, amassing resources to give to our children, then our children spend their lives amassing resources to give to their kids, we produce a selfish society where generosity ends at the family line. In this sense, we are no better than animals.

 

At least when I was a teenager and a younger tween in college, I thought about taking on a "side gig" - singing, art, some sort of hobby that would make a more direct contribution to others' quality of life. But:

 

[3] When I look at artists who have day jobs, they often spend their whole lives between their jobs, so it is difficult for them to find spouses and begin settling down. I've now mostly accepted that if I am to take on a side gig, family is not happening, so this is not really a concern anymore. But it's still worth noting - not least because many of the amateur artists and entertainers I know are often exhausted or struggling under their double workloads, while the professionals also struggle with money in a saturated industry.

 

[4] There are perhaps millions of artists and entertainers in the world, and with the rise of online entertainment platforms like Spotify, the spread of the arts has become so overly saturated that its value is diminished. Why listen to me ever when you can listen to hundreds of thousands of the best artists anytime on the go?

 

[5] I picked video games because I feel the video game industry is the one place where amateurs and indies have an advantage over professionals. This is because professionals must craft their games in a certain way in order to retain profits. As someone not limited by this, I have greater freedom to tackle niche markets. However, because I am an amateur, my budget is extremely low, and thus I might not have the budget to even advertise. It is very likely I might just be looking at a few players in my game solely due to a lack of publicity. Neither is there a guarantee I'll be successful, and the game I make might just suck.

 

As of this weekend, I was thinking maybe I should look outside art/entertainment instead. It won't do much about [3] but it will help with [4] and [5]. But what exactly should I tackle? Given my expertise, I'm not sure what I can do that will make this world a better place.

New Job!

Got a new job. It's a 6-month contract but so what, it's better than nothing.

My job search was short, but admittedly very frustrating, with many interviews but no offers prior to this company (who are clearly desperate for someone). The main problem was simply how Singaporeans think. "Never come between a Singaporean and a rule," the saying goes. Well, a lot of job postings in Singapore have experience requirements; and while in other countries they might take these as a guideline ("approximately 1 year" for example), in Singapore I found many companies took this as a rule. So I could have 11 months of work experience (I have 10) and they would categorize me as having no experience rather than 1 year. Kind of stupid but that's how it works.

 

Anyhow, the lesson is that knowing the work is temporary, I've got to keep looking and improving myself. Maybe it's the economy, but it's clear that my qualifications aren't holding well in the current job market.

Wish I knew where to go with this, though…my personal feeling is that hiring managers struggle to see me as an effective HR professional if I lack experience in local HR regulation, since my degree is foreign. So I've been looking into taking a postgraduate diploma from a local institution. Problem is there's two HR certification institutions in Singapore, and I have no bloody idea which one I should choose. I've looked into both websites and both ways to certify look like heavy time, effort, and money commitments. So I've got second thoughts, especially with this new job coming up.

July 17th (highly belated)

Okay, it's been a good while since I last wrote for my public blog.

In short, I had an alright departure from my previous company. My senior highlighted that it was a change of management direction that created budget changes for the department, causing me to not get my expected contract extension, so none of the blame is on me. They must know it felt like shit.

 

In the month since, I've mostly been chilling out and working on my project while applying to jobs. I've had interviews with about 6-8 companies (lost track a while back), so that's good. But nothing has really been converted into an offer yet. I'll keep working on it, I guess.

 

Ironically the games are doing the poorest - everything just feels boring and eh. Even though the summer sale just ended and I went on a shopping spree, I found most of the games I bought lackluster, and I have limited motivation to play my old/existing games. Am I outgrowing video games? I don't really think so. I just have this vision of a game I want to play and I'm trying to look for games that are similar to my vision, but I've played through just about every possibility I can find, and nothing gets close enough to what I want. There are good games out there but they aren't relevant to my goals, and I suspect I feel bad for playing them out of enjoyment, knowing I have a project to work on.

 

I've also been kind of feeling…directionless? Let me put it this way. I started my game project with the full acceptance that my "failure rate" is above 95%. My goal, you see, is to make something fun that people will want to play - and why would anyone play my game? It's not like music or visual art; games comprise an oversaturated market of half-decade-long projects built by teams of highly experienced professionals with a variety of different specialized skillsets. A single talented person can hope to make quality music or art, but they cannot hope to best the might of a full organization. At least that's what I think.

 

I also thought, perhaps overly idealistically, that video games might be used as a medium for change. Literature and art have been used as catalysts for positive societal change for millennia; why not, then, a digital medium consumed by millions of youth that serves as a platform for literature, art, and music? But at least in the current day, I question if there is really a place for video games with social statements. The nature of video game development lends itself to corporate production, and the core audience of many video games, I think, lacks interest in such things.

May 19
Got a call. They pay low and the location is inconvenient. But in this job market an opportunity is an opportunity, and it's a multinational at least. I will be interviewed on Monday.

May 24
Well, I had my interview. It's another one down the drain, maybe? Because I was actually overqualified for the job. They were kind of just needing a data entry clerk and weren't looking for a true degree-holding analyst. I offered to maybe do a better job and help with data validation and analytics, and the manager said he would be appreciative but he didn't sound super convincing, like he wasn't really interested in paying more for that. Kind of sucks, but I did know the pay was low and was mostly aiming to get the interview practice.

May 25
As stressing as it is for my mental health, one of the things that has contributed to my life successes in the past is the ability to self-reflect critically: that is, even if the circumstances are largely catalyzed by external factors, you can still try to take the opportunity to reflect and try to do better. For example, if you're on a sports team and your team members are repeatedly missing the ball and causing losses, you can still ignore your team members and try to find a smaller mistake you might have made in those games, instead of putting all the blame on them.

So, work. Maybe my manager isn't lying, maybe the company lacks adequate headcount for me. Or maybe they hate my guts and think I can't perform. Who knows? But I can always improve.

I talked to my father today for a few minutes (my folks are the perfect people to go to regarding this because they are highly critical of me, too) and he gave me several pointers to think about:

• I don't invest enough time into my work in the early stages of the project
• My planning is poor because it does not adequately take into account contingency for emergency factors
• I accept too much upscaling/scope increase in my work, leading to failure. If I accept too much workload and then fail to deliver, management will only remember the failure and ignore all of: my other successes.

When I think about it, I do think there was a timeliness issue in my work as a trainee. Granted, trainees do not have performance objectives and I do not think that should have affected my chances of a full-time contract with this company (and have no idea if it did or didn't). But that is something I should really improve upon as an actual worker - and contract or not, that is what I am now.

(Part 1)

Well, I've got some bad news.

Originally the head of my department said he was interested in extending my contract by "one year." (Or maybe it was "up to one year" - he said it about 1-2 months ago and I don't remember.) I'm not quite so stupid enough to actually think they'll give me a full year, but I did think they would give me about 3 months, as their Gantt chart reveals a ~3-month timeline remaining for my project.

With literally two working days left until the end of my contract, my manager spoke to me today and said they would give me up to 1 month - and I would have to write a justifying statement explaining what I would do for that month, due on my very last day itself. This technically means they can do a 180 on my last day and just tell me to gtfo!

Kind of scummy. As my dad said after he heard that: "Welcome to the real world." (Although he also says it's very telling that the company "has no concern for the individual", and so me leaving is not a bad thing.)

Granted, it's technically not too bad when I look at it from this perspective:

• My original attachment outline was to enter and learn about their HRMS while helping them out with work.
• When they noticed that I am the most skilled Excel user in HR, the head of department put me on this dashboard project, which otherwise would be done by someone else. This is a major point that I put on my resume!
• The only reason they're even considering the extension in the first place is because of the dashboard project. Had they not been proactive in noticing my skills, there is a 100% chance I would be out of work by Monday.

So I mean, I'm still walking out with more gain than I expected going in. The only thing that I consider scummy (although it's pretty major!) lies in their informal treatment of me. They seem to have intentionally conjured a false hope of giving me a bigger extension, then pulled it back quickly at the last minute.

There's three things I would like to consider.

Firstly, the past: is this sudden news a consequence of my performance in this job? It's very difficult to quantify because I am classed as an intern and am not subject to performance appraisal. From the very limited feedback I have received, I would guess the quality of my work is at least okay but I could do better at meeting deadlines (I missed one, which is one too many).

(I'm not a sensitive person so there's no way of telling if they secretly hate my guts. But the workforce development specialist is universally hated and he still has a job despite butchering his relationship with just about everyone at work, including and especially those he reports to. So somehow, I think that's not the problem.)

Secondly, the present: what do I do now? I'm not sad to go - if I didn't see that there was something funky with this company, I would be blind. I will rant about that later. The question, then, is when and how I should go: I think I will take the 1 month extension so I can get a bit of cash, but who knows, maybe Monday comes and they don't even give that to me.

Third, the future: I haven't managed to secure a new position for myself. Dad says my job search is way too lax, while I would argue it is a combination of my job search being too lax, the job market being quiet, and my father only wanting me to apply to big companies and HRIS/"HR Analyst"/Digital Transformation roles. I've spoken to him today and he's agreed to expand this to include all HR roles and mid-sized companies.

(To be continued in Part 2...)

Big news for my personal project: Magic: Legends released their first gameplay overview, and it's…very similar to what I had in mind.

Basically, the idea is to play an ARPG like Diablo where you run around smacking things and casting spells. But instead of a traditional skill list, you would collect cards and pile them into a deck then "draw" them for use in battle. The advantage of this system is that your gameplay is always "fresh" because of the sheer number of permutations you can have with a deck. The disadvantage (as some comments on that Youtube video have highlighted) is that gameplay is far more luck-based and if you get a poor draw it just feels bad and unfun.

Of course, I had several additional ideas that make my game different: I had a dark steampunk theme in mind actually, with aesthetics based on Bloodborne and Underworld. I also had a number of other mechanics, e.g. weapon swaps and DOOM-style glory kills. But I am fully aware a majority of people will home in on that one thing that is "a ripoff" rather than consider the game might be different in every other aspect.

This might sound bad on paper, but it's actually a very good thing. If Magic: Legends can just be the game I've been looking to make, it would allow me to have fun while saving me a ton of money and effort to actually make a game. Alternatively, I can just change the project to not resemble that game, which isn't a problem either.

So there's several options for me to consider:

1. Abandon the project entirely.
   As described above, I could save myself a lot of time and effort in to a project that might be headed in a very futile direction.
2. Continue the project in its current trajectory OR delay the project and continue it later.
   Perfect World Entertainment kind of has a bad reputation in the English-speaking market (which makes no fucking sense* but that's how the world is). So the game could end up unpopular, and if it gets shut down in 4 years due to financial constraints then, well, it's time to start building again.
3. Change up the project to no longer resemble Magic: Legends. This is the one I'm leaning towards. My vision doesn't really rely on this deckbuilding system, you see. I just wanted a game that involves fancy footwork while also having a strategic/building aspect. If I could change things up to not involve a deckbuilding system, then there's no problem.

*most of Perfect World's poor Western reputation is solely due to the fact it is Chinese. Having published Neverwinter and Remnant From the Ashes, is limited consistent evidence that tells me they will apply predatory marketing policies in their games outside of China, despite everyone on social media claiming the contrary.

Questionable Practices

Mar 10

Had a job interview. I took a day off work, prepared quite nicely, and…it was for the wrong job.

The short story is this: the position I applied to was titled 'HR Data Analyst' via an external recruiter/headhunter. I submitted and I got a response. The recruiter then tells me that they would also like to consider me for a position they called 'Learning & Development Data Analyst' (which I thought was a bit odd, but hey, if they feel their L&D team needs their own data analyst, who am I to question it?). So, that's more than cool. 2 tries for the effort of one!

Anyhow, I schedule the interview to meet with the managers, and…

• They only invited the L&D manager, not the HR manager. So (at least for this interview) I was only being considered for the L&D position.
• The L&D position is in fact not a data analyst position at all - it's a general admin position!

I did try to show interest but it was clear my career interests and current experience don't match an L&D admin job. So, whatever. Afterwards I made an angry call to the recruiter, who clearly demonstrated she didn't understand the job scope for nuts, and I had to explain to her what L&D executives do (and that it has very little to do with data analytics). Regardless, I asked about the HR Data Analyst position I originally applied to, and she said she would "get back to me in 14 days." Sketchy, if anything. But anyway, now that I have the company’s contact, I sent an email inquiring about the HR Data Analyst position, attaching the job posting and another copy of my resume.

Not that I think I'll get a reply. There's a solid possibility that the data analyst position was already closed, and the headhunter was incompetent enough to not know. Thus, a call for a nonexistent position. Then when the headhunter realized it, she tried to cover it up by substituting another position, lying to me in the process that I'd be considered for both - only to err again as she did not understand the latter position had no relation to the original. At this point, I'm just trying my luck.

Anyway, I'm the angriest that I've been in a while, and definitely the most furious in my short career so far. I would much prefer something like, "We didn't think you were qualified / suitable for this position" "We found someone else already" "We're dumbfucks who made a serious error and we're sorry" or something concrete and vaguely professional, instead of this mistaken roundabout that has caused me to burn a weekend on job assessments and half a day of leave for a pointless interview. I don't think the HR at this company will be particularly stoked when they read my email either.

Mar 12
Took me 2 days but I'm mostly cooled off from that fiasco, namely because one other company has called me to schedule an interview so I don't feel as desperate anymore. I also got a verbal "offer" from the company I currently work at, although it doesn't sound particularly great (1 year contract, no clue about pay, and I may have to write a value proposition explaining what I can bring to the company during this time).

TBH I don't really mind if that miserably incompetent (and possibly sketchy) recruiter doesn't call me again - the client company might not be quite as shady, but it reflects badly on them that they're outsourcing to such headhunters. I also wasn't a fan of the company's recruitment process: inefficient and impersonal compared to what my current workplace is building, and the only reason they revert applications much faster than my company is due to external recruiters (which is more expensive). So, I'm not sure how effective my learning or career advancement would be with them.

Resolutions Recap

Feb 02

Bit of a wake-up call. I thank the Lord it was so gentle. Over the past month I've hardly been working on anything except my job and video games: PoE league start and then about a week playing LoL. I did a tiny bit of work on weight loss but the loss is barely noticeable; and I've done basically no work on my other NY resolutions. Yet, the year is already 8.33% done. Can you believe it? I certainly can't.

 

The wake-up call came in the form of a colleague. Guy I'm on pretty good terms with. Approached me when no one else was around and asked:

 

"You applying to jobs now?"

 

(Me) "Nope, I'm thinking I'll start at the end of this month."

 

"You should start. The companies like to hire after Chinese New Year. It will be difficult."

 

Right, yeah. Here I am reaping the benefits of COVID restrictions: the traineeship, the reduced work hours, the working from home, the reduced traffic, and all. Not hard to forget there's actually a pandemic out there crippling the jobs market in ways never seen before.

 

Feb 11

Happy Chinese New Year. Family is not visiting this year, which I am very happy with. Seems like most other families are, though.

 

Rather than just sitting around in an eternal work - video game - sleep loop (like I did for most of December and January), I'm getting back into working on things that are important to me in my life. I figured I should talk about them.

 

The Job Search Begins…Again

First of all, I've been updating my resume. Probably going to finish a draft today. There's one open position my dad found that looks vaguely interesting, so I'll submit that either tonight or tomorrow.

 

The job market is picking up but it most definitely still sucks. Definitely I face a problem where most positions for similar jobs are only taking more senior candidates. For example, this opening by DBS bank…

…Is pretty much on-the-dot for my career, as I am already implementing Qliksense (the basic package of Qlikview) in my work. But this opening requires 5 years' experience and some other jazz, and pays far above my grade. Who needs 5 years' experience for this nonsense? You just need someone who can do statistics, has 2-3 years in HR, and has like 9-12 months' experience picking up Qlikview syntax. It's not a difficult thing at all - just difficult for someone like me who started a while ago.

 

Now, my dad's idea is I would write in to DBS and etc. and see if they have a similar-but-more-junior position - with less pay but also less experience required. But while it's something we can try, I expect the response to be limited as I don't think HR operates that way. My idea is to get into more general HR services (e.g. recruitment, business partnering, etc.) and get broader HR experience on my resume.

 

Of course, there's no reason we cannot attempt both, which is what I intend to do. I simply think that Dad's strategy is less useful, and I'm frustrated at the experience requirements in the market.

 

A Heavy Question

Second, my weight…I have not yet solved the gym-is-too-inconvenient issue besides my weekly sessions at the office gym. I have a couple of small ideas, such as a couple of basic exercises at home with my bodyweights and some cheap 7lb dumbbells my folks bought a long time ago. (I did consider just going out to buy heavier weights myself, but you do kind of need a proper floor for that.) But, while beneficial, I don't think doing like 15 minutes of jumping jacks and sit-ups is going to significantly impact anything.

 

More substantially, I have cut down my diet significantly. I think I have actually lost some fraction of a kilo already, but it's too small to tell given the deviation of my lousy scale at home.

 

Sleep

This miserable goal, sigh. There's so many things I want to do with my life that sleep really doesn't make the priority list. At least I have been attempting to get 6 hours a night.

New Years' Resolutions

Jan 2, 2021
Here it is. 2021.

My end of the year had a small conflict: actually an error on my part, but I forgot there was a new years' eve party at the company, and took work from home. So I got a stern note from my senior, especially since I told him I would be in the office on NYE the week before (before I forgot). Kind of feel really bad about it.

I also got a new PC, which is why I didn't have a post for New Years' or anything, at least until today. Very happy about that. It's fast as hell and hopefully I'll be more productive like this.

So let's reflect on the year.

2020 was a shit year for many but it was actually decent for me. Sure, the first few months were kind of bad because I was unemployed (further extended by COVID) and not sure how to go about doing job applications. But the break gave me a period to take some courses and pad my resume a little, getting me a sizable number of calls when the economy restarted and I started applying again.

And then I got this job, which I find not too bad - lot of experience and decent challenge for someone starting out their career. I actually don't mind that there are disagreements and issues, because this way I can learn and improve. (I'm pretty mad at myself for my flaws, though.) My senior and manager are reasonable people so I'm not getting shredded for every single mistake I make, which is nice.

What can I work on?

Well, for one, my social progress got held up due to COVID. I also want to pick up some of my old hobbies again, or find some new ones.

In terms of more general self-improvement though, I think one of my big flaws is I have a poor memory. It's been a pretty big issue for me: academically from when I was a kid; in my work now; and in things like relationships. I think that's part of why I've always had no confidence in relationships. Well, time to fix that.


Jan 3, 2021 - New Years' Resolutions

1. Get 44 hours of sleep per week in uninterrupted nightly sessions (That's 6.5 hours of sleep a night, plus 8 hours on the weekends)
2. Find 10 minutes a day to listen to music, with no interruptions - aim for 3 days per week
3. Finish the Python course with notes
4. Find and complete a Unity tutorial of some sort, and begin work on building the game project
5. Consolidate my notes and finalize a game design document for my gameplay (story and stuff can come later)
6. Watch 4 anime series on my to-watch list (I've currently got a list of 5*, plus Fire Force which I did last year)
7. Lose at least 1kg (74kg → 73kg)
8. Find my old tablet and restart reading on it
9. Read 1 nonfiction book