My new year’s resolutions for 2013

Last year was amazing! It was my second year working as a professor, something really different from the life I used to have as a game developer at Decadium. I experimented much more and the overall was pretty good. I am happy with the results

I got so many ideas during last year that I end up surrounded by a vortex of them. Lots of those ideas came to reality, but a huge amount is still out there, waiting to be implemented. This year I will try to stick with the list below, my year’s resolutions for 2013:

• Improve my skills as an indie game developer. I already joined OneGameAMonth and will try to release 12 games in 2013. A pharaonic task, but the fun is proportional. It is not about working until faint, but learning how to avoid code bloat and feature creep (two of my most significant problems as a developer).
• Exercise! I stopped running with my friends (in 2011, I ran a 10km marathon, that felt great!). I want to start jogging at least. I also want to get back on track on my push-ups training. I will buy a dumbbell too.
• Regularly write tutorials about game development at As3GameGears. Since I started the blog, I just post about tools. It’s time to improve the content and write about game related stuff.
•  Write a book about game development. That one is the toughest. I wrote a couple of tutorials last year, but they were small compared to a whole book. This item was in my year’s resolutions for 2012 as well, but I didn’t touch it during the year. What a shame! Let’s hope this year things will be different.
• Contribute to an open source project. This one is already happening since I joined Flixel Community team. Flixel is a great game engine for Flash and I want to work hard to make it even better.
• Found a Jr tech company at UFFS. I’ve been working on that during the last months and it is almost done. It will improve the students perception about the world out there. My idea is to establish some sort of incubator-venture-capital-startup-booster company. I know, I know, but it works in my head 😀
• Research. It’s been two years since I stopped working on my master’s dissertation. I want to start working on it again, researching and publishing papers.
• Find inner patience. Sometimes I get really upset by small things and it is not helping. I will try to keep myself calm and constant during 2013. It will make me a better husband, professor and person.
• Release at least one side project. I have lots of ideas, but I never manage to work on it and release something.

All right! That’s quite a list. If I accomplish half of it, it will be a huge step per se. I’ve noticed I’m some sort of TODO list addicted. No matter if I accomplish the items, as long as I have a ton of them. Pretty creepy. I’ll work on improving that too.

It’s time to keep the focus and work hard. The problem with a big list like that is the first step: where should I start?