Hello everyone and welcome to the new year! For your viewing pleasure I have for you, our Year in Review! I’m Gaian, and I’ll be updating you on everything going on! It’s been so much!
2023 has been a brief one for Genome Studios activities but a meaningful time ramping up into a full blown year of Genome Studios work in 2024!
Starting with the End, December
December was a pretty mild month for productivity, I was on an all inclusive vacation in Mexico for 10 days. Had one week on, then left for Winter Holidays. All throughout that time I was going on an insane rollercoaster of emotional strain. Starting to feel better after some adjustments to my medication, but it made this December so much more demanding despite being very lowkey.
That’s not to say it wasn’t a gainful month!
Vacation photography gave me so much inspiration to put my photography, old and new, together into a wallpaper pack! Other bizarre goodies too, once I can process them.
In a completely unexpected turn, we’ve recruited a surprise new team member, a Principal Engineer! It means we can assess all GS’ cumulative work and build a plan on how to move forward with stability and the features we’re aiming to have in the final vision. (And I’ll finally have an engineer to do their engineer systems knowledge on my artful, less than technical, programmatic work! ACTUAL systems, holy shit holy shit holy shit!)
And above all else, I got so much admin work in. Cheers to the Producers that make sure all this stuff gets done in a timely manner. Just trying to describe the plans with tracking/reporting software, keep accurate descriptions of plans and products, etc. to make the machine keep moving in an optimal manner is so much to handle, let alone trying to imagine how you’ll make sure your team will even interpret it correctly and use the scheduling and documentation at all. Like herding cats. And the most horrifying part of all is that I’m also one of the cats!
Del Lago Layover came out this year!
It was in January, and I’ve promoted Del Lago so much, but it’s still a massive pride for me! So hear about it again!
I pulled together a 40 minute project in a month using tools I’ve built and accumulated over time. It was a triumph for scoping small and being able to move on from fussy features in order to instead put together a very complete feeling game overall.
I am super inspired to keep making so much more, but perhaps Del Lago has been making me make it from the beginning… Player…
On top of that, the game contributes so much to the creation of the GS toolset. It’s a lo-fi game which allows for prototyping complex features in more simple terms, before moving on to heavier hitting versions in other Genome projects. I’ll be excited to return with the sequel!
Happy One Year Birthday Del Lago!
There’s a soundtrack too!
Genome Infinite was born!
This year was also the maiden voyage for our behind the scenes subscription service: Genome Infinite. We have a few subscribers, so much content, and good receptions on the youtube free content. While there’s still a lot of growing still to do, I’m ready to stay steady and continue to support GS_I efforts!
Thanks so much to everyone who supports GS inside and out of membership. It means absolutely everything to have you all around for the journey!
Genome Primed for Foundry in 2024
The very core part of what I was working towards in December was to mobilize myself, and the company, for actual Foundership efforts. Having a false start in November with a ‘just missed’ deadline for an application, we grew a huge window of opportunity in the gap it would take for next years intake.
Because of this change in plans, I’ve been able to work towards getting all my ducks in a row for stepping up into operation, and production.
So the first thing I have been glad to do is start to build out documentation. Take everything I know about Genome Studios and map it out and articulate it in sensible organized ways. All of which has been so much documentation… So Much… Documentation.
On top of that is: onboarding, getting services up and runnning, company e-mails, site updates, better funnels, branding documents, press packages. Did I mention so much documentation?
So much of this has been spurred by mentorships I have scheduled in January, as well as joining an acceleration cohort for mentorships through the year. I finally have the eyes of an engaged group that wants to see you have so much success, and I have so much work and property as Genome Studios to make something of these efforts. This year will be a strong one for taking meaningful strides into an autonomous, and sustainable, start up!
Looking Forward
Part of this path is pressing forward with our missed CMF application the moment the 2024 window opens up. I somehow have a crazy crew that wants to back up the plans even after new years resolutions and re-evaluations, so we’re ready to proceed! Did someone say so much documentation?
That, along with directly planning and prototyping next system steps for GS_Play Framework… and doing so much more documentation in order to inform our plans… are the major strides we’re taking into the new year to take our first step up!
As always I’ll continue to engage with the local dev ecosystem, and dev communities. I love them all so much! I already set up this months local dev get together!
And lastly I can’t wait for Alberta Games Series 3 whenever that gets announced. I am so excited for it, AGS 2 was so much fun! I’ll be proud to show how far along we’ve come since last!
In Conclusion
This is going to be a big year, with lots of work. But with some dedication and love, I think it will be a year of big realizations in Genome Studios.
I dream to have this be the first year, of many, that GS can sustain itself, support its team members, and drive forward to making exceptional and impactful work.
As always, you’re invited to come along for the adventure, company makes for so much better a journey.
Here’s to a whole new year of cool Months to Review!
PS. Did you know?
I said ‘so much’ 24 times in this year in review! That’s so much!
So much of you may have noticed those weird sentences. 😛
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