Happy (late) 2026!
Plans for this year and more
Hey everyone, Ryan here and this is my first post of 2026! Didn’t have anything to post for New Years, but it’s better late than never, right?
I did do a short video reflecting on my year of 2025, but there’s alot more I can explain here in text form.
I do have to admit that 2025 wasn’t exactly one of my favorite years as it was quite stressful for me. My younger sister was getting married, so a lot of my time had to be divided between doing my own things and helping with the wedding. I won’t go into super big details, but after a lot of struggle, the wedding went off without a hitch and I’m happy my sister was able to marry the man of her dreams who is my new awesome brother in law.
In the end, it was all worth it.
Work on my next commercial game which is an Indiana Jones style action platformer moved slow as I couldn’t get as much time to work on it as I would have liked. A lot of my weekends were spent helping with wedding stuff which took time away from game development and left me exhausted and tired before my work week. I admit there would be at least 3-4 days a week I wasn’t doing any game development due to all the things I needed to do in my personal life.
Game sales on my first commercial game, Popcorn Rocket had also plummeted in 2025 after it’s Nintendo Switch launch at the end of 2024. I made nice money in 2024 and while it wasn’t exactly “quit my job” wages, it was enough to pay off a decent chunk of my debt and I still had enough leftover which was going to go towards the PS4 physical copies. However, all that leftover money had to go to my sister’s wedding since it’s no surprise to anyone that weddings are uber expensive.
Since the game’s been out for over 2 years on the PC and consoles which makes it’s 2023-2024 release date in the prehistoric age, sales have plummeted to the point where I get a little here and there and a tad more during sale events. I’m lucky if the game makes enough to pay off my Netflix subscription nowadays. But regardless, I’m still happy I have a commercial game out there.
I’m still hoping to get Popcorn Rocket out on physical on the PS4 and the PC. I haven’t thought about doing physical copies on the Nintendo Switch yet and I’m probably gonna skip out on Xbox entirely due to most companies not even making Xbox physical copies anymore. I’ll keep you all in the know on whatever comes up.
I did also have a small health scare in the spring of 2025 which forced me to take my exercise and diet seriously. I’ve lost over 10 pounds and it’s now at the point where I had to get new clothes as my current clothes were too big on me. I definitely feel better both physically and emotionally knowing I’m keeping my health in check, but I still need to make sure I maintain it. As they say, eat your veggies!
Game wise, I did play a ton of games last year and also got a Nintendo Switch 2 which I talked about here. If I have to say what my game of the year was for 2025, it would be a tie between Death Stranding 2 and Ghost of Yotei. Both games were big improvements over their predecessors and hit me emotionally. I would have liked to play Claire Obscure Expedition 33, but my backlog was and still is way too big. Maybe one day, I’ll finally see what the hype is all about and it well deservedly won The Game Awards. There were way too many games to talk about from last year and there will be even more to talk about this year with Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, Resident Evil 9 Requiem, Pragmata, and tons more.
This year in 2026, I’m planning to go to more events and conventions as I’ve been missing them since pre-covid. I’ll be making my first convention Vintage Computer Festival SoCal in February which will be my 3rd time attending. It’s such a chill and small convention that doesn’t feel too cramped and crowded and is more of PC enthusiast convention which makes it a ton of fun.
In May, I’ll be going to The Music of Square-Enix at the Shrine Auditorium. I haven’t been to a Square-Enix related concert since the very first “Dear Friends” Final Fantasy Concert in 2004 over 2 decades ago. My late cousin and I went to the Dear Friends concert and it’s always been one of my most cherished memories. I’ll be going to The Music of Square-Enix not only to bask in my love of Square-Enix’s music, but to honor my late cousin as he would have came with me as well.
In June, I’ll be going to Summer Game Fest, this time at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood which I’m excited for since I haven’t been to the Hollywood area since the Dragon Ball Super Broly Movie premiere back in 2018. Check out my thoughts on last year’s Summer Game Fest from 2025.
In September, I’ll finally be going to my very first Blizzcon after 21 years. I’ve always loved the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo games, but I would always be too broke or uninterested to spend the money to go to Blizzcon. Now that I’m playing World of Warcraft on a regular basis, I finally made the decision to attend and am super excited.
My final event for 2026 will be The Game Awards in December. I had such a fun time last year and I felt it was the best show yet which truly encapsulates the best of gaming throughout the year. Also, it’s a good excuse to dress up all fancy and look like I’m somebody important although I’m just a measly below Z-grade indie game dev and content creator. Check out my thoughts on last year’s show here!
I really wish I could have gotten tickets to Final Fantasy XIV Fan Fest which is only happening 10 minutes away from my workplace, but I couldn’t get the tickets due to their lottery system. I could also add in SoCal Retro Gaming Expo or IGN Live which are happening during the weekend of Summer Game Fest, but we’ll see.
I do immensely enjoy writing in this blog, but I will have to write sporadically as I’m busy with a ton of other things. I was writing weekly from August to November of last year and then only did 2 entries in December of 2025. Even though posts to this blog will be more sporadic, I do have a ton of ideas in my drafts, so I will always have things to write that I’m passionate about.
I still have a ton of things to write about, but those will be in future blog entries. Thanks for sticking with me and here’s to a good 2026!