2024 Retrospective

(para ler em português clique aqui)

How to sum up 2024... It was a year of intense work, but a good one—definitely very productive. I attended events, gave talks, completed a postgraduate course in Digital Games, and launched new games. In January, I even did a "social media detox," hehe. It seems the older I get, the more exhausted I feel with the dynamics of these networks. Anyway, let’s move on to a bullet-pointed list that speaks for itself:

• In 2024, once again, I competed for the GOTY award from Planeta Sinclair and Load Museum with the game Bruxólico. I was more than satisfied to win in the Platform Game category and to take second and third places in other categories. 

• It was also a year when I returned to writing more essay-like texts here on the blog. Writing here is always better and more cohesive than on social media; ideas come out much clearer. As always, the texts are indexed in the Texts and Publications section.

• As has been the case in recent years, I created a new (old) game, Marlow, for the ZX Spectrum. More than just a remake or "demake" of the version I created in 2016 for PCs, it’s a brand-new game—much more mature—while reusing some of the same characters and the premise of parodying the Super Mario World universe. You can read the launch post [click here].

• There is also the physical tape release by Teknamic (click here to go to their store), in a beautiful edition that was highly praised not only by the niche audience but also by adjacent media, such as this post on the "Time Extension" website.

• Now, besides being a solo indie game developer, I’m also part of a collective of game creators called "The Most Hated in Videogames", alongside Pedro Paiva and other friends. Supporters of The Most Hated also get access to all the games I create, and who knows—maybe there will be creative collaborations in the future.

• 2024 also marked the launch of "The Spectrum", a product from a British company that is a modern reissue of the 1982 computer for which I’ve been creating games. I licensed two of my games, Devwill Too and TCQ, to be included in the list of pre-installed games on the system. This has been very positive because, in addition to receiving compensation for the licensing, more people are discovering my games.

• Event participation: As usual, I attended both editions of Retro SC, one in Blumenau and the other in Florianópolis, bringing devices and my games to showcase to the crowd. This year, too, saw the start of the Game Dev Night, initiated by two local developers, which also had two editions. In the first edition, I gave a talk about retro game development.

What’s in store for 2025? This year, I want to produce more art, including projects unrelated to games. But I also want to experiment with creating a game for another retro system besides the ZX Spectrum or MSX. Let’s see what paths 2025 opens up.

For those interested, there are some highlighted links in the bullet points and also the entire blog archive, along with sections where most of the material is organized (Texts, Creations, etc.).