This year give me a lot of emotions, even though I’m not an emotional person. Who would even thought that fatigue can be not only physical, but also emotional? However, I still gained more positive than negative emotions.
Today I will look back at my year 2023 and tell you what I have been through and what I want to achieve.
Me, as 4-block stacking gamer
TETR.IO
I’ve been less active that year, than in previous one. I didn’t obtained a new rank, didn’t win any tournament, and didn’t even grown in skill. The only my achievement here — I was able to set a new personal record in 40 lines, which I cannot beat : 38.415 seconds.
Techmino
When I have my phone in my hands and I have nothing to do, I usually scroll social media or I play Techmino – the only decent mobile port of 4-block stacking game.
I always liked difficult game modes, so my favorite ones are Master GRADED and Master NORMAL, both are references to TGM 3 Master and Shirase respectively. My personal best in GRADED at that moment: rank m6 in 7:58.87. NORMAL: full completion in 7:40.05.
Nullpomino
A non-official clone of TGM, written on Java (not JavaScript, i will hit you) back in 2009. Why not Cambridge? Idk, I’m got used to Nullpomino, especially with installed SFX from TGM.
This game completely emulates gamemodes TGM 3 Master and Shirase in World game rules (as well, as other gamemodes from all TGM games). My PB in analogue of Master: M7 in 8:41.40. In analogue of Shirase: S8 (level 843) in 6:00.76 with failed requirement “level 500 in 3:03”.
Other games
I updated my PB’s in Jstris Cheese mode, tried out Spirit Drop (that game is pretty fun).
Me, as developer
In 2023 I learned Flutter — framework for building cross-platform applications. All Flutter apps are written on Dart programming language. The framework, as well, as programming language are Google developments.
The idea of using Flutter came to my mind, when I thought about making an app for collecting and analyzing various statistics from TETR.IO. As a result, the app is available right now on Android, Linux, Windows and Web (potentially possible to support MacOS and iOS, I just don’t have any device on them).
I also tried Rust — programming language, the main advantages of which are memory safety and execution speed. Right now I have my own 4-block stacking game in development, and it gonna use Bevy engine underhood.
In general, I didn’t spend much time on development, as i wanted to.
Me, as artist
In April, I bought myself a graphic tablet XP-Pen Deco 01 V2, however I rarely used it. I have a lot of unfinished works, that I dropped because of lack of skill. And only by November I pulled myself together and began to learn the topic of drawing in detail.
In early December I release my first ± serious work, which i wanted to use (and using) as my profile picture.
This art isn’t good. Originally, I planned to draw the character in the full height, but i slightly failed to get her height right, and i decided to cut her. The palm turned out meh, the collar feels themself bad, lineart look too thick, shading and lighting looks strange.
I working on the second art, and I will try to take into account the mistakes I made in the previous art, as well, as try to learn something new.
Me, as procrastinator
I love wasting my time. Especially when I need to do something important, but instead of it I just go to watch random YouTube video or to scroll social media.
While procrastinating, I also played various video games. I replayed GTA: Vice City and NFS Underground 2. I was constantly playing NFS: Pro Street and Battlefield 2. But, probably, the most important event was my first Rewrite playthrough (And to be more specifically — Rewrite+ with RU translation by AEBus from RuTracker, which is based on RU translation by Энтузиасты Team (which is based on EN translation by Amaterasu Translations, who translated that vn from Japanese to English)).
Uh-huh, Rewrite — that one visual novel, which made one indie developer obsessed with one character, and that became the main reason, why I decided to devote my time to this VN. I’ll say right away — I don’t regret it. I spent there around 80 hours, completing it on 100% for some reason. I didn’t expect myself to like it, I didn’t think, that I would suddenly become a fan of the small woolly mammoth и biggest hater of Othori Chihaya.
But that aside, the main problem with procrastination, is that I waste my time, instead of doing something useful. It even got to the point of absurdity: I was distracted from studying by YT video, and then from the video — distracted by social media. I literally procrastinated in a square root, and sometimes in a cube root.
All this affects me quite negatively, not only in terms of productivity, but also emotionally, I needs to change something. Thus, we smoothly approached the plans that I made for 2024.
What do I want from 2024
And honestly, I don’t even know what I want. I always wanted to do something that I would enjoy spending time on and at the same time it should be something useful.
I want to learn web development and design more. You see, my website look was quite… boring. With the release of this article I tried to fix this a little. Idk, if this looks better, than before, but i definitely gonna try to search my style and apply it on my projects.
Also I want to be more involved with 4-block stacking community. I would like to be involved in the development of something, to gain experience working in a team.
So, based on all this, I made myself a whole list of goals; it will be good if I can achieve at least something in the new year.
Goals
- Earn money by using my programming skills. I’ve always wanted to try to get some income from this activity. Most likely, I will try to get a job as a Flutter developer.
- Start to influence on block stacking communty. I’ve been watching it for awhile, it’s time to become more active.
- Defeat procrastination. Or at least have more perseverance and concentration.
- Learn how to art. I did bought graphics tablet for something after all. And not only that, I also bought myself a sketchbook and pencil, so I will try to devote part of my free time to it.
- Touch grass. Basically, become more social.
Afterword
I spent this year not only learning new things and wasting time, but also supporting people from the same block stacking communty (I talk about Takathedinosaur and osk, as well, as other cool people from here). And I hope my support comes back to me, because I believe everyone deserves to be loved. So I wish, that everything will be fine for them (and you too, after all, you took some time to read this note to this point, my respect) and that they continue to change for the better. I don’t know what to expect from 2024, but I must hope for the best… and hope they don’t draft me into the army lmao.
Happy New Year and Merry Christmas.