*Taps the mic* Helloooo! Is this thing on? Right. It’s been a while since I’ve dusted off ye old blog. It’s been a crazy year for me in a lot of ways. Since I haven’t been spending nearly as much time being active on the Internets of late, I figured I’d drop a quick update on where I’ve been and what’s coming up.

Here’s what’s up:

Big Changes Afoot

A lot happened over the last year. The TLDR version is things weren’t going so hot for me in the tail end of 2017. Finances were tight, stress was high, I was juggling too much, and I was struggling with serious depression. Around that time my freelance workload had upended once again, but I was lucky enough to score an excellent freelance gig working on the content marketing team at Unreal Engine. That kept me afloat financially through one hell of a turbulent year.

In 2018 a lot of things changed. I got divorced, stepped away from the Internet (for the most part), got my own living space, and started spending more time getting back to some of the things I had missed. Playing in bands and writing music, spending more time being social in the human world, and traveling to nearby cities to catch some amazing shows (Beach House, Alvvays, Hopalong, The Swirlies, Bully, Nothing, Papercuts, and Palehound, to name a few).

Also, just released my first full-length solo CD in decades:

Also, I started dating someone amazing. Also, I lost my best friend and oldest cat, Matilda.

It’s been a whirlwind of challenges and changes. It’s been a lot of things.

Fun with Freelancing

Ironically, I’ve found myself in a weirdly similar situation to where I was in early 2017 — back when I was working on Missile Cards. Once again, my main BIG freelance contracts have just wound down around the holidays, leaving me with a small runway of funds remaining to get me through January 2019 before I run out and stuff hits the fan.

I’m currently on the hunt for new good-paying freelance gigs in the games/tech/media content marketing and copywriting space.

Meanwhile, the extra free time this past month inspired me to finish one of the many smaller game projects I’ve been working on off and on this past few years.

Getting Back Into Gamedev

I’ve just wrapped up development on my next iOS game project, which I’m excited to share (I’ll have an announcement, trailer, beta signup, etc very soon).  It’s another weird pivot from the last few games I’ve made, but I’m pumped to have hit the finish line again on a project and wind up with something I’m really happy with.

I started working on this game about a year ago, but all-told development probably only took me about 3 months of steady work spread out across the year. Stoked with how it turned out.

My plan is to launch the new game in early January. I have no expectations, but its a bit less niche than Missile Cards. If the game does well, it could save my ass for a few months while I piece things back together freelance-wise. If it does really well, I’m hoping to explore my options to push towards more sustainable gamedev work.

Working on a few card game / board game prototypes, and I’m keen to keep that rolling.

Oh also, my other project Touchfight Games isn’t quite dead. We’re very close to finishing Nuclear Golf, and signed on with a publisher to bring it to all the major consoles. So that’s a thing.

Anyway. Life is crazy, right? Keep your eyes peeled for my next game announcement very soon! Peace!

-Nathan