My latest game – Gone Fission! – has been released and is available to play on itch.io.
How To Play
⬅️⬆️⬇️➡️ – move cursor
❎ (mapped to X/C on browser) – place atom
🅾️ (mapped to Z/V on browser) – next player (2+ human players only).
The goal is to eliminate all other players from the game by causing chain reactions of 4 or more atoms. Probably the game is best explained in animated gif form.
You can play up to 4 players local multiplayer, or you can play with up to 3 computer opponents with 3 different difficulties.
Why I Made It
Been a real labour of love this game, working away on it – as it was the first game I largely developed in public. Working on it publicly when for many years a lot of my work has been behind NDA’s has been equal parts refreshing and terrifying: I’ve had a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to showing off my work, but learning things like particle engines and programming my own difficulty curves has been rewarding. In the world where AI slop seems to be king, humanly crafting something with love for other people’s enjoyment does feel great.
Anyway, would love for you to play it and see what you think. You can play it in browser and made the PICO-8 cartridge free (which means you can play it on retro devices such as the Anbernic). Donations of $2 or more means you get the executable to play on devices such as your Steam Deck. If you do like it, please share my Itch.io page with details on the game on, and leave a review and a comment: it really helps the algorithm.
I was happy to see that Homestar Runner, a web toon, celebrated their 25th anniversary of their website going live in their usual style that resonated in the same way it did when I was a student. Surrealist humour with enough satirical nostalgia touchpoints to make a bearded Welshman with high blood pressure smile.
Their content is syndicated on YouTube now, rather than Flash cartoons, but the website is still present, and although it’s output is a lot slower nowadays (cartoons are now at best quarterly), they’re still must watch.
I got into Homestar Runner during university, I’d say my third year – when Yahoo! Music would be my Spotify, and I’d use the University T3 connection to browse the internet, read blogs, moderating the forum of the university’s ten pin bowling team and dip my toes into website building. Wednesday mornings were dedicated to consuming the latest Strong Bad Email. My girlfriend at the time for my 21st birthday got me a Homestar Runner T-shirt. I probably still know all the words to “The Ballad of the Sneak”.
It’s fair to say that my fortieth trip around the sun was overly quite eventful, and I’m in a very different place to where I was on my 40th blog post, in every sense of the word.
July of 2024 my world was largely turned upside down and saw huge changes. After years of abusing my body with alcohol and crap food I was severely overweight and was diagnosed with raised blood pressure. I needed to make lifestyle changes. I began running (read my Couch to 5k App experience here), knocked booze on the head and generally decided to take better care of myself. I’ve been sober for around 7 months, and in that time I’ve dropped 3 stone in weight (about 20kg). As I write this in mid February I’ve absolutely flatlined with my weight loss. I am still larger than I should be, but a lot better than I was.
My weight loss over the last 7 months
Everybody says I should feel better about it but…I think I do? It’s self doubt creeping in a bit. I worry about my blood pressure and said worry raises my blood pressure. Turns out I have the worst white coat syndrome. I also bought a Garmin which has both been incredibly useful and a pain in the arse. Garmin basically is telling me on a daily basis that I’m a rather pathetic human being. Seriously. I watched 3 episodes of The Traitors back to back and my stress levels went through the roof. Similarly to my blood pressure being raised when I worry about my blood pressure, Garmin’s sleep tracking is single handedly the one thing that prevents me from having a good night’s sleep. So I only wear it during the day. Cracking for tracking my running, mind.
Yes. Running. Running has become a new hobby, and I love seeing the world through the eyes of a Parkrun. Seeing the world on a Saturday morning before folks get up has been a joy. I also did the Aintree 5k just before Christmas, and I’m happy with the time. I don’t think I miss alcohol really. I think I can count on one hand the number of days I can say I’ve missed the booze. Usually when I’m in a place that doesn’t have a non-alcoholic beer option is the worst. So far, the worst offenders are the football stadiums and gig venues in the UK, and the entire country of Italy.
Away from health stuff, one thing I have done lots of is travelling. This year I managed to go to Barbados, United States, Germany (Berlin and Dusseldorf), Romania (twice), Italy, Austria and Poland. Within the UK I’ve made significant trips to London, Cardiff and Blackpool. A lot more travel has been outside of the UK so I’m fortunate in that regard. Barbados and the United States was to see the Cricket World Cup (I was in the stadium when USA beat Pakistan), and the Germany trip was tied with the London trip, in that I went to AEW All In (watching an excellent Brian Danielson vs Swerve Strickland match) and Bash in Berlin a week later. Just a proper fun old school wrestling weekend. Blackpool was for Play Expo, which is one of my favourite weekends of the year.
The rest of the travel have been due to another large change in my life. For the first time since 2017 I’m no longer single. My partner doesn’t live in the UK, so we’ve been trying to meet up in easy/cheap/convenient locations every few weeks. So far it’s working pretty well, so please keep your fingers crossed. Right now as I hit publish I’m being whisked away for a evening or two somewhere close to Bucharest, I can’t wait! She’s been a massive rock and – along with 2 other people – been the constant source of strength with my health issues last July.
Work wise 2024/25 has been consistent. Largely one or two clients have kept me busy, which has meant I’ve not really had to look for work. However, that is coming to a change in the next few months, and I’m actively looking for projects now, so if you do need a WordPress developer, please do get in touch.
Side projects wise they’ve been ticking along. All Rumble Stats has been great, albeit it’s incredibly seasonal. A month or so of incredible traffic and then a baseline of a couple of hundred visits a month. It was nice to be cited in 411 Mania’s website which was a nice traffic bump. I’ve got an idea which I need to get on in Q3 which will hopefully work well. Retro Garden and Drive in Cinemas are also doing okay. Retro Garden it’s getting to a nice place where I can turn articles out pretty quickly, so looking to expand that. I’ve also been working on the shop as well which is doing well. Drive in Cinemas is still doing well. They’re pretty much my three sites at the moment.
Being able to play a game I made on a handheld system was a bit of a highlight.
I picked up video game development as a hobby, and I’ve made a number of video games. MonoScale, Frosty’s Snowed Under and Mari Lwyd’s Festive Rap Battle were the games I made this year. They were all done for Game Jams (read about the 1-Bit Game Jam and Pico-8 Advent Calendar Game Jam entries in those links). I’m playing around with another game (which I’ve been sharing on BlueSky). I think I’ve a pipeline of about 3 or 4 games I want to build. Whether they get done this year I’m not sure, but it’s something I’m keen on exploring.
Cricket was a bit of a nothing season, but training for the new season has started well (still bowling with a tendency of bowling leg side). Still the Sponsorship Secretary of Earlestown Cricket Club.
Twitch Streaming has been up and down. I begin in earnest and then get bored. I have been able to stick to somewhat of a schedule on Sundays (it helps not drinking to be fair), and also been streaming my game development stuff. They have been popular. I am looking to do more of those!
I’m a wee bit behind on my 50 before I’m 50, but I’ve ticked 2 off. I finally finished that list of 50 things too!
My 40th year feels like potentially one of the most significant years of my life. It had it’s fair share of challenges, but it feels like things are beginning to solidify and crystallise in some sort of place as I continue the next phase of my life.
Which seems rather dramatic when I say that.
And now the yearly comparison!
As you all love it so much. Here’s my updated comparison with you know who.
Rhys (With a Spoon)
Reese Witherspoon
Age
Nearly 41 (Up 1)
Nearly 49 (Up 1)
Oscars (Nominated)
0 – No Change (0 – No Change)
1 – No Change (2 – No Change)
Books Written
1 (No Change)
4 (No Change)
Marriages
0 (No Change)
2 (No Change)
Children
0 (No Change)
3 (No Change)
WordPress Plugins Written & On the WordPress Repository
I love goals, I love the “whooshing” sound they make as they pass me by.
So last year I made a bunch of goals – you can read about them here – and I’m happy to say there has been a dismal failure. The year of 2024, as mentioned on my Dwi’n Rhys roundup, was a bit of a “good smack in the mouth”, as my plans changed post about February, meaning my time was largely booked up on other projects. So of the 6 tasks I had, I achieved a grand total of 1 of them. Let’s look at these.
Get Back into Public Speaking – Failure I didn’t achieve this, with no even remote chance to do it. Although events are beginning to start up again, being so busy meant I didn’t have time to even think about a talk. There was only one event I even remotely thought about applying for, and to be honest as soon as I decided to go to the Cricket World Cup instead, I gave up on this.
Get at least 2 months income of £30 or more not from revenue streams that exist for me (Adsense, Twitch, Plugin Sales or Web Development Work)– Failure (albeit working towards this) I do now have a couple more revenue streams, but they aren’t £30 a month yet. Nevertheless it is a failure, alas.
Look at the Winwar Media Site with Pride – Failure It is still a mess. Hopefully will get this done this year.
Reconnect with the WordPress folk I enjoy spending time with – Success! 🎉 We did it! Thanks to WP Leeds returning and (more importantly) MWUG returning – with me as a Co-organiser, I saw a lot more of the WordPress community in 2024, and probably more than every other year. Come to the next one!
Take a catch at cricket – Failure (but succeeded elsewhere) my season was odd with cricket. With health issues and my role in the team changing, I didn’t really feel like I contributed much. Alas, my best chance to take a catch in cricket (a position at slip) I dropped and I never really got an opportunity post that. Nevertheless, I did manage to debut for the first team, which was a nice feeling.
Score 23 in a game of cricket – Failure yeah I had a bad season through a lack of confidence and some health issues. We go again.
So of the 6 goals I had, I had success in one of them! Oh well. It wasn’t that 2024 wasn’t bad, it was good! Just ended up doing something totally different.
What of 2025? Well, here are my goals for this year.
Professional Goals
I’m going to keep this short, as I don’t know how many times I can rewrite it, but get back into public speaking and finally rebuild Winwar Media to my liking are my goals for 2025.
I know I say this every year, but this year there’s a chance to do more public speaking (from February) and a bit of time towards the middle of the year, I should be able to build a new version. So those two are still on my list. I’ll add one more to the list.
Sing about my Work More
So you may be able to read between the lines and gather that – as things stand – work may be a bit quieter this year (change that!), one thing that kind of held me back was that I didn’t sing about my work much.
I’ve thought about this and I want to add a “Case Studies” section on Dwi’n Rhys, as a lot of my work when starting out was White Labelled and NDA’d so I didn’t have the need to talk about it. Now? People come direct, and a couple of case studies would be great on my professional sites. Not least because it’ll mean I don’t have to rewrite it whenever somebody asks to see my portfolio! So whilst I don’t thik I’ll get a lot of work from it, there’s every chance it’ll save me time.
Personal Goals
First a scary goal, but my 34 and a half minute 5k was done towards the end of the year, and my new goal is to run a sub 30 minute 5k. I haven’t got anywhere near my 34:30 in my 5ks since then, but once the weather gets a bit better I’m going to set up Runna to work towards this goal.
Secondly, I’d like to continue my weight loss goal. I’ve got a goal here so don’t want to make it public but nevertheless I wanted to include it, so I’ll let you know when I hit it!
Finally, I’d like to attend a Game Dev meetup. I’m getting more and more into game development, so I’m keen to in 2025 attend one, just to meet a few people and get a few ideas and inspiration for my games.
And Now Something New…
Somebody I’ve followed for years – Jess Rose – posted something wonderful on Bluesky that I’m going to do going forward.
A beautiful soul on Twitter gave me an idea that improved my life: replace new years resolutions with a bingo card of goals you want to try and do over the yearIt's great for goal setting, motivation, it lets you see your progress throughout the year and I give myself a little treat w each bingo🎁
I included 3 more goals – achieve 3 from my “50 before I’m 50” list – to generate a 9 by 9 card.
Like Jess, I’m also setting myself up with treats as and when I achieve these goals – 3 for when I complete 1 line, 3 bigger ones when I achieve a cross, and 2 mahoosive if I achieve 2 lines and a diagonal. Should I complete the grid I’ll treat myself to a Playstation 5. I’ve generated a bingo card using this Bingo Card Generator, clicked on the link to generate a random bingo card, and included it below.
There are a couple of tough corners, but I think it’s manageable. I think it could be fun to find out! So those are my goals for 2025, let’s see how many I achieve.
2024 in video games was…interesting. it felt like it was beginning to be a downturn. The AAA games are just not there and don’t interest me, and I feel like folks are waiting for Grand Theft Auto 6 and the Nintendo Switch 2, so much so this year hasn’t been quite as big as previous years.
With that said, there have been a lot of good games taking advantage of the gap that AAA developers have left. I’ve played a lot of games this year, I’ve also made a couple too. The majority of the games I’ve enjoyed this year have been smaller teams and indie games. I haven’t yet upgraded from the last generation of consoles, as outside of the Switch I haven’t played many modern games.
Here are my favourites for 2024 and these games are well worth your time. Same rules for last year: it must have been released in 2024.
Games I Enjoyed Playing in 2024
As always, this post highlights the games released in 2024. However there are a bunch more games that I first seriously played in 2024 Here are games from previous years I played this year.
Pac Man: Championship Edition (NES) is a fun little demake of the Championship Edition version of the classic pill munching game. A high score attack where you have to compete for 5 minutes to get the highest score you can. A great demake with a thumping 8 bit soundtrack and tense gameplay with slightly less assault of the senses than the arcade game, this is great fun.
I wish I enjoyedCastlevania: Symphony of the Night* (PSX) more. Oddly, despite the “Metroid” part of “Metroidvania” being one of my favourite games of all time, the “Vania” part I never explored and – I just struggled towards the end. I didn’t hate it, but I missed half the game because the amount of work to get it done was too long. If I played it a few years after Super Metroid it probably would have been one of my favourite games ever, but I just couldn’t get on board with it.
Spoiler alert, I have two games of the year this year. This is one of them. Lucy Dreaming(PC) – is a wonderful game. A point and click adventure where you have to find the cause of Lucy’s nightmares, this is a wonderfully British game with lovely nods to a lot of classic games, 80’s culture and Northern Britain. There is quite possibly the best subtle joke I’ve ever done experienced in a video game. I’ve contributed to the Kickstarter for the next game: Heir of the Dog. I played the demo at Play Expo and it’s more of the same. I cannot wait.
I finally got to playStreet Fighter 6 (PC) and I did enjoy it. Sadly my PC was slightly too weak to handle the game, so it ran pretty slow. Nevertheless I enjoyed what I played of it. When I finally get a PlayStation 5 I’m going to play this game more.
Another classic game that I finally managed to play and complete was the excellent Final Fantasy 6 (SNES*). Whilst 7 is one of my favourite games ever I never played the prequel. Wonder no more as I dedicated some time in the summer to play it. This was excellent. A wonderful story that had me crying at the end, this is well worth playing. You can see that the kinks in the game were ironed out in 7.
This was a joy. Aquaventure (Atari 2600) was a fun little game that wasn’t released in the lifetime of the Atari 2600, but it has since been found and put out into the wild. And it’s excellent. A game where you have to dive down and collect things from the seabed, this has great progression, a fun gameplay loop and pushes the limit of the 2600. Seriously, considering their issues in the early 1980s, the Atari of today knows their role and is an excellent publisher.
Although it contains a bunch of tropes I don’t like with 2D Zelda games, Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons (Game Boy Colour), was a good fun little game that I enjoyed playing through and completing. I think I prefer it to Link’s Awakening.
A Highland Song (PC) was an interesting story driven game, that kind of didn’t make much sense. Nevertheless it was a fun little game with a few teething problems that ticks along nicely with a great soundtrack and a beautiful look. Once you get the gameplay loop though it’s well worth checking out. You may have to complete this twice.
UFO – Swamp Odyssey (Pico-8) was a fun discovery! A fun micro Metroidvania that you can complete in an hour. Would highly recommend you play this game as it won’t take long. Far more atmospheric than it has any right to be.
Outer Wilds (Xbox) is the final game I played in 2024 and, it’s okay? I went from enjoying the gameplay loop to getting to the point where I resented it. It remains uncompleted. Will get around to finishing it soon.
Honorable Mentions
There are games that every year just miss out that I play. Here are some games that I enjoyed and played but aren’t in the top 3.
Probably the first game I completed in 2024 Mario vs Donkey Kong(Nintendo Switch*) was a remake of a sequel of a game I really enjoyed: Donkey Kong 94 for the Game Boy. This was more of the same, puzzles in a Donkey Kong style. It does have some extra levels where you have to rescue toys in a “a bit like Lemmings but not” gameplay loop. Fun enough. Pick it up for cheap if you can.
Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition (Nintendo Switch*) again another little game from Nintendo that feels like the Switch is at the end of the console’s life, Nintendo World Championship: NES Edition is a collection of mini games from the classic Nintendo games from the 80s. Fun short speedruns that can see you getting the sword in Zelda, through to completing the entire of Super Mario Bros. Appeals to crusty old fuddy duddies that watch speedruns on YouTube (AGDQ is in a few weeks!). Some baffling games missing though from this collection though: where is Punch-Out!?!
A surprising release was that Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection(Nintendo Switch*) came out. Some excellent fighting games from the mid 90’s to the early 00’s featuring characters from Marvel and Capcom franchises, it ended up in licensing hell with Marvel losing the X-Men. A series that formed the majority of the character roster. This meant weaker or less well known characters got featured, which affected the quality of the games. This is the classic games in one collection, and with rollback netcode, it became rather fun to play online for a bit. Furthermore, the etiquette surrounding online play was there. Not original, but a great way to own some fantastic games, as the original games cost a fortune now.
Finally, my most anticipated game of the year comes here. Thank Goodness You’re Here!(PC) was a fun romp through a Yorkshire town, and it is well worth playing as it has a Python-esque northern humour. Sadly, I played Lucy Dreaming before, whose humour landed more with me, and was a better game. This doesn’t really have much of a challenge, being a slightly more complex walking simulator. But it’s fun enough.
A dark and brooding Metroidvania. Animal Well is my third favourite game of the year. You play a character who has to get eventually home. How you do it is not immediately clear. Short-ish, but incredibly deep, this game is wonderful innovative, as in effect there are multiple levels of depths and you could end up missing loads. Playing it multiple times (and in one case with multiple players) could reveal so much. You get out as much as you put into it, but an average playthrough reveals a beautiful puzzle game. You won’t complete it 100% mind until haseverythinginanimalwellbeenfoundyet.com turns to “yes”, so not one for completionists.
Another wonderfully deep game (or games), UFO 50 was a late surge into my game of the year, and would be the one game I’d ask you to pick up to fill in the Crimbo Limbo, as it could be a great local multiplayer game with family. It takes the love and duty of care that “Atari 50 Anniversary” did a few years back and say “what if we did similar, but the company didn’t exist?”. Fifty games crafted with love by indie developers, UFO 50 has some of the most innovative games I’ve played in years. From “What if somebody crossed Bubble Bobble with football” Kick Club, to Mortal: an innovative platform puzzler game, some of these games alone could be game of the year. It’s part of a collection though, and whilst not all games land (just like Atari 50 Anniversary), UFO 50 will keep you busy for a very, very long time.
Balatro is a Rougelike deckbuilder that takes the hands of poker and throws them on their heads. Building a deck with jokers, tarot cards & planet cards, the goal is to beat 8 rounds of blinds. You do this by using your deck and building it to your advantage: soon you will be having two pairs scoring more than royal flushes, you need to use the jokers to your advantage to maximize the value of every hand. Over time, you’ll learn by sight on what each card does, but there’s a handy explainer and tutorial.
A super simple gameplay loop with the actual games taking about 20 minutes, it’s incredibly in depth: I’ve not unlocked everything yet and nowhere near. No other game has had me addicted for a while, and everybody I know is addicted. With a video poker machine graphics and a lounge style music, Balatro is a genuinely original game and has deserved all the plaudits it’s received. Well worth checking out.
