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Reflecting on 2024

Looking ahead to 2025

2024 was the fifth year of my game development journey. For the first time, I was singularly focused on one project: pushing Periphery Synthetic over the finish line. It was exciting, deeply challenging, yet ultimately rewarding for the project and myself. Please join me for a look back at what made this my best year yet.

Evaluating my goals for 2024

In my previous reflections on 2023 I set some rather straightforward goals for the year. Here’s what actually happened:

Finish Project Ephemera

Status: Complete!

2024 began with SYNTH jam already underway.

At this point, Project Ephemera had a solid foundation, with two of its three minigames mostly complete. This was an easy goal to achieve, where on January 15, Project Ephemera v1.0.0 was released. Nearly a year later, I’m still thrilled with how the project turned out, revisiting it occasionally.

My greatest pleasure with hosting the jam was the community itself. On our active Discord channel there were many great discussions filled with technical advice and previews of our creations. When the jam concluded, I spent a full week reviewing each submission, culminating in a very fun livestream with my partner where I walked us through each synth. Out of the nineteen submissions, here were some of my favorites: Loop Synth, Music Maker ‘95’, Sound Gardener, and Synulator.

Finish Periphery Synthetic and release it on Steam

Status: Complete!

My greatest challenge of 2024 was finishing Periphery Synthetic.

After the success of SYNTH jam, I spent my entire February burnt out, playing Persona 3 Reload and crying like a baby as its credits rolled. I was very quiet during that time, making absolutely zero progress on the EP.

The break, however, was very much needed, as it offered enough time away to reapproach it with fresh ears. My silence was broken with a 2024 roadmap update and work on what would become an intermediate release before the full Steam launch. The v3.1.0 release dropped in April, containing every non-breaking change that early access players would experience upon release.

Yet, I was unaware of the enormity of the changes needed between that preview and the full release. It was a massive crunch to expand each world, fill them with trinkets, add milestones and equivalent Steam achievements, and finish writing the narrative text. Then, days before the release, on August 19, I posted this to everyone on Discord:

Hi folks! Very excited to tell you that I just finished Periphery Synthetic. It will be released on Thursday around 17:00 UTC!

That following Thursday was the most exciting lunch break of my entire life! In hindsight, I should have probably used some vacation hours to get a head start on the first hotfix.

Support the EP with hotfixes as needed

Status: Complete!

This was quite an understatement.

At release, there were a few outstanding issues that needed immediate resolution, such as the demo save not carrying over properly, or Steam achievements not unlocking as expected. Then there was the constant trickle of player feedback and expansion progress, which led to regular deployments of new features, enhancements, and fixes.

Overall, there were one dozen hotfixes released over the four months after release. If they had all been bundled into one update, then I would proudly call it the v3.3.0 release, for the sheer transformation the EP underwent with these changes. If it were to never receive any future updates, then I would also proudly call it finished. However, that’s not the plan.

Release a free Side D update before the end of the year

Status: In progress.

This was my biggest stretch goal.

Originally, I intended for the EP to release in the spring, affording me time for a full development cycle. In the end, I overestimated the amount of work needed to finish Periphery Synthetic in 2024 and support it after release, resulting in the unfortunate delay.

Despite this, I made significant progress on the expansion behind the scenes, with its first code written in June, and many of its improvements trickling into the hotfixes since release. Recently I even revealed the Side D trailer with extensive details on how it’s the EP’s largest free content expansion yet. Therefore, like Project Ephemera from the beginning of last year, I’m quite confident in its current state as it transitions into this new year.

Surprises of 2024

Every year is filled with surprises as we work toward our goals, and 2024 for me has been the most jam-packed:

Our community

First, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the community who has supported my work since the beginning. Throughout the year, a number of you joined me through this process by playing pre-release builds and sharing your thoughts through various channels. This includes folks on Discord, AudioGames.net, itch.io, YouTube, Reddit, Steam, and more.

While my projects are for my own personal enjoyment, your feedback and encouragement is ultimately what gets these insane ideas over the finish line. I am overwhelmed and overjoyed with the direction you have given me, to help focus disparate concepts into cohesive works of art. Thank you for your support and confidence in the shiftBacktick project.

GAconf USA 2024

My greatest pleasure of the year was being invited to speak at GAconf USA 2024. It appeared to have been a late ask due to a scheduling conflict, with an extremely tight deadline, but I was determined to make this work for us. Over the course of three weekends, I outlined, scripted, captured, and edited the thirty-minute presentation, giving me a taste of what a solo YouTuber must typically experience.

The result was Overanalyzing and Synthesizing. This sprawling brain dump essentially covered my entire journey up to the release of Periphery Synthetic, filled with technical details about my background, the project goals, technologies used, accessibility challenges, and its specific solutions. It was also the perfect platform to reiterate my support for the blind community by challenging the audience to play audio games, support their developers, and try developing one too.

I suppose I enjoy the big words and the winding sentence structures a bit too much? Perhaps, if I could redo it, I should speak slower and adapt it more to a general audience? However, for my own personal journey, it offered me a fresh birds-eye view of a project where I am so often mired in the smaller details. For that, I am deeply grateful for the opportunity and perspective. I’ll strive to do better next time!

Press coverage

This year a number of folks noticed Periphery Synthetic and had some nice things to say about the EP and its focus on inclusivity. This was an unexpected surprise for me because I don’t use social media or have a press email for promoting my projects, preferring to tinker quietly and let organic engagement speak for my work. So I’m deeply grateful for the folks who went out of their way to reach me for exclusive interviews and game footage to express, in their own words, what excites them about it.

Here are some great reads and watches that surprised me in 2024:

And, of course, if you search Google for Periphery Synthetic, then you may also find articles about…

Awards nominations

The most unexpected surprise of 2024 was the recognition that Periphery Synthetic received for its unconventional approach to accessibility, culminating in three very prestigious nominations:

It is an absolute honor to be nominated, let alone mentioned alongside these amazing studios and their projects. Although the winners have yet to be announced, I offer my deepest congratulations to all of the nominees and the eventual winners! My hope is that this recognition of diversity and inclusion will lead to continuous improvements in an industry that is sorely lacking in these areas. Thank you for seeing where Periphery Synthetic could fit into this transformation.

My goals for 2025

Like last year, I’d like to close this reflection with my goals for 2025:

  • Participate in Games for Blind Gamers 4.
  • Release the Side D expansion for Periphery Synthetic.
  • Prototype and announce the next big project.

Quite simply, my goals for 2025 revolve around finishing this iteration of Periphery Synthetic, and opening myself to future ideas and possibilities. While it won’t be the end for the EP, I’m looking forward to it becoming more of a side project. To get there, I’m prototyping a new concept for Games for Blind Gamers 4 in February, and looking into where I should invest everything that I learned from the EP next. This should ideally culminate in an announcement for my next long-term project, which will see a similar development process and timeline.

I’m excited to share my progress on these goals throughout 2025. Thanks for reading, and have a happy new year!