Games I played in 2014

So as stated in a previous post, I’ve achieved a hell of a lot this year – shipped two top 10 AAA games with Ubisoft (Watch_Dogs and Far Cry 4) as well my own first indie game, Jack B. Nimble (yes, this is me giving myself a pat on the back).

Somehow I even managed to play through and finish a bunch of games too – less than I was planning from last year (and mostly different), but still a healthy chunk of gaming. One observation is the large increase in indie titles that I’ve gobbled up over the year – significantly more than last year anyway. Another thing that is clear is how I’ve shifted my focus from almost exclusively Xbox 360 to PC and PS4. I’ve barely touched the Xbox One this year, something I think is down to Killzone: Shadowfall being my multiplayer game of choice rather than Titanfall – it just meant my PS4 was switched ‘on’ more often.

Xbox One

• Super Time Force

Xbox 360

• Gears of War 3
• The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct
• Metal Gear Solid 2
• The Walking Dead: Season 2
• The Wolf Among Us (Episode 1)

Playstation 4

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare
• Call of Duty: Ghosts
• Wolfenstein: The New Order
• Watch_Dogs
• Watch_Dogs: Bad Blood
• P.T.
• Flower
• Games of Thrones (Episode 1)

Playstation 3

• Uncharted 3
• Journey

Playstation Vita

• Thomas Was Alone

PC

• Quake
• Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
• Half-Life 2
• Half-Life 2: Episode One
• Half-Life 2: Episode Two
• Home
• Gunpoint
• Gone Home
• Savant – Ascent
• Jazzpunk
• Dear Esther
• Organ Trail

While I didn’t finish FTL, Don’t Starve or Heavy Bullets, their rogue-like nature had me pouring hundreds of hours into them between them (especially FTL).

So yeah, I basically didn’t even touch my pile of shame or do even a tenth as many game jams as I wanted – as a result my plans for 2015 are a little more restrained than last year (but still probably too much).

• Start working on a new indie game (!!!)
• Finish the final content updates for Jack B. Nimble
• Port Jack B. Nimble to other platforms
  • Android
  • Windows 8 and Mobile
  • PC, Mac and Linux
• Submit something to Pixel Dailies at least once a week
• Participate in the following game jams
  • EVERY One Game A Month jam
  • Global Game Jam 2015
  • Ubisoft Game Jam (if there is another)
• Play through the following games
  • Quake Mission Pack 2
  • Portal 2
  • STALKER
  • FEAR
  • Battlefield 4
  • Far Cry 4
  • Metal Gear Solid 3
  • Assassin’s Creed Revelations

There are a few things that I totally dropped from last year; I decided to stop taking part in Ludum Dare/One Game A Month in favour of shifting my focus to Jack B. Nimble. Even taking part in a weekend jam had consequences on development, so around April I just stopped jamming. I also put One Day From Retirement on ice; I wasn’t very happy with the progress I was making and again, couldn’t give up time that I needed for other projects. It may come back in some form…

It’s rather unlikely that I will experience the same level as achievement in 2015 as I did in 2014, but I will be hitting the age of 30 – which is pretty good going, aye?

Games I played in 2013

Over the past year my time was mainly devoted to development of Watch_Dogs with any remaining time spent participating in game jams. So with time so limited, I didn’t get to play anywhere near as many games as last year. On top of that, this year I grabbed both of the new consoles; the Xbox One and the PS4, so they had my attention for the holidays – a time I would usually dedicate for finishing in-progress games. So what did I finish?

Xbox One

• Ryse

Xbox 360

• Bioshock Infinite
• Far Cry 3
• Far Cry 3 Blood Dragon
• 007 Blood Stone
• 007 Legends
• Spec Ops: The Line
• Max Payne 3
• Assassin’s Creed II
• The Walking Dead: 400 Days

Xbox Live Arcade

• Limbo
• Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
• Smash TV
• Castle Crashers

Playstation 3

• Grand Theft Auto V

PSN

• Metal Gear Solid
• Hotline Miami

That still leaves me with a killer pile of shame, and one that doesn’t seem achievable given my recent schedule which contains the following…

• Ship Watch_Dogs (pending ship date)
• Participate in a bunch of game jams
• EVERY One Game A Month jam
• EVERY Ludum Dare competition
• Global Game Jam 2014
• Ubisoft Game Jam (if there is another)
• Polish up my previous game jam games as standalone releases
• Get back to One Day From Retirement
• …and have at least the following from my pile of shame finished
  • Final Fantasy XIII
  • Dishonored
  • Sleeping Dogs
  • DMC
  • Devil May Cry 4
  • Skyrim
  • Mass Effect 2 (and 3)
  • Metal Gear Solid 3 (and 4)
  • Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood (and Revelations)

In the best (and unrealistic) case scenario, 2014 will have me completing development of up to 20 games… obviously this is extremely unlikely and the number will be somewhere closer to half of that (I do have a head start with some of those games). Even so, it’ll be double my output of approximately 5 this year.

Wish me luck!

Watch Dogs on Xbox One

That’s just us announcing that we will be releasing Watch_Dogs on Microsoft’s new console, Xbox One. Or Xbone. Or Xbo. Or whatever the kids are going to call it in the future.

Not long until E3!