Update July 2026

Jul 31, 2026

A surprisingly pleasant monthly update

Overview

My foot is still broken. Apparently being back in a shoe does not also mean you are fully healed. I'm changing ice packs, and keeping my foot elevated as I write this. It's frustrating.

Despite that, I still managed to get out and do some fun things!

A Short Hike, and Game Discussion Club

RVA Game Jams does a monthly Game Discussion Club. Basically a book club for games. The group votes to select a game at the start of the month. Everyone then plays it, and meets a few weeks later to discuss. This month's game was A Short Hike.

I LOVE this idea. Playing Links Awakening DX and A Short Hike have reminded me how much I love single player gaming. Exploring and interacting with worlds, and stories at your own pace can be restorative, regulating, and fun.

I was a big single player gamer growing up, but I haven't been doing much of that recently. In the past few years the majority of my gaming has been of the online, and tabletop variety.

Playing online multi-player games (PvPs and MMOs) tends to leave me with the hunger of addiction. No amount of hours is enough, there is always more to do, the end of every session left me wanting. You gotta log in and do those dailies. It never stops.

One more match? Queue it up, we can't stop on a loss! We won! One more match? Queue it up, we can't stop now WE ARE ON A VICTORY STREAK. Repeat ad infinitum.

Hunt Showdown was probably my most played game in 2025 at ~500 hours. Fuck, I loved that game, but eventually I lost the ability to say no whenever my friends asked me to play. Once I saw that happening, a sign of addiction, I quit.

I rarely feel that type of addiction with single player games. I can play at my own pace, and most games (or at least ones I am playing lately) have predictable start/stop points that allow me to plan for shorter gaming sessions that fit into my schedule.

Thinking back to the "glory days" of the FPS PvPs I played in high school and college, now I see it was never really about the game. The game was just the vessel for my friends and I to hang out together, be silly, and make our own fun. There was opportunity for the social element.

Game Discussion Club is AWESOME because it adds that social layer back to single player gaming. Sharing thoughts, hacks, joys and setbacks with other players makes for a more wholesome experience.

Plus I enjoy being social in circumstances around shared interests, so it's a good outlet for me.

A New Meetup - RVA Game Jams

I also went to the regular monthly meetup. I've been interested in trying this one out for some time, but it hasn't worked out for me until now.

Having the game developer watch you as you play was a new experience for me. If you get stuck the developer might say "What are you thinking?", "Giving up?", "Do you need a hint?". You can engage with the creation, and creator simultaneously.

What the fuck, that's awesome.

One of my favorite things about DMing is developing scenarios, placing them in front of players, and then watching them think and talk their way through it. My players never cease to surprise me in how they think about things, and I find that fascinating.

Create the thing. See humans interact with your thing. Evaluate the interaction, and repeat. Let's just refer to that process as The DM Lifecycle.

I never considered the player feedback aspect of game development before. Unlike DMing, once you make your game the onus is on the player to figure it out. Unless you are standing right next to them as they play, the only mechanism you have to facilitate their interactions is the game itself.

The DM Lifecycle is something I absolutely love, and a core part of who I am. Creating things, seeing others interact with my creation, learning from their interactions, using those learning to enhance future experiences for them.

I live for that shit.

I can't think of another medium where I got to interact with someone's creation so directly, and also talk to them about it. Game development seems distinct from other art mediums in that it depends so heavily on that interaction and feedback.

I've never considered that angle of it before, and I find that enticing. Not to mention it also combines programming and visual arts (two of my other favorite interests). Perhaps I'll explore this more in days to come.

Learning Experiment - Only one thing a month

Last month I mentioned committing to learning one thing a month, and applying the rule of making learnings real via publication.

It was a real challenge for me but I wrote a guide to consolidate what I learned (mostly from TJ's Advent of Neovim series) about creating a Neovim config.

The writeup details how to set up a starter config using lazy.nvim as a plugin manager. It also contains the example config: nvimexample.

Committing, and sharing was a valuable experience that I would like to continue. It helps me from taking on too much, and forces me to choose how I spend my time.

I'm still working on a retro that I plan to share here when done.

Creating and Being Creative

If you like making things, and it makes you happy, please continue to make time for that. It may not feel like it, but our world needs YOUR creations.

Creating things that bring joy is enough. You don't need to make the NEXT BIG THING. You just need to keep working on YOUR THING (whatever that may be), and enjoy the creative process.

A lot of things that make your creation great will happen by accident through iteration. You don't need to plan it all out ahead of time.

Watch this talk if you don't believe me.

Hell the game A Short Hike is purely a result of the developer making something just for fun, and it is without a doubt one of the best things I have experienced in my life. I can't remember the last time a game made me smile so wide.

I loved it so much I shared it with my girlfriend, who is not a gamer. She loved it so much she played the whole thing (maybe took an hour or so) without stopping. I watched her play and enjoyed every minute of it.

Just make things. Have fun. Sometimes that feels wrong when we feel there are larger things at stake, but Joy (which is one of my core values) makes life worth living.

Joy is worth the time.

wrap-up

Haha wow, I originally thought "What the hell am I going to write about this month, I didn't DO anything".

It was a bigger month than I thought, here comes another one!

Content

Movies

Remarkably Bright Creatures
Police Story (GREAT)
A Better Tomorrow
Wolf of Wall Street (rewatch)
A Walk to Remember
The Killer (rewatch)

Books

Midnight Tides
The Autistic Guide to Self Discovery
Night of Knives
Animorphs n35 - The Proposal
Reading ... Visser

TV

Music

Gaming

Links Awakening DX (Beat it! All Seashells, all Heart Containers ? I think?, Love this game)
A Short Hike (Completed the hike! INCREDIBLE game, can't recommend it enough)

Articles

Advice

You need to be bored to make art.

Andy Howell, RVA Mag - Before anyone was watching

Be sure you give yourself time to be bored, it's hard (and things are against you), that's when creativity can occur!

Progress is rarely linear, an oft forgotten fact.

Stats

We'll get there don't worry friend