Hello! It's the first day of the new year, and 2020's going to be the best year yet.
In human history. Probably.

In the 2010s, our phones got slightly smarter, but nothing completely revolutionary happened. Electric cars became more viable, but they haven't replaced gas cars. AI became more accessible, but it's not ubiquitous. Music got more mopey, nostalgic, and less focused on repetitive clubroom beats. Our movies mostly became reboots of reboots, with the occasional gem. Fascism rose to power by capitalizing on an economic inequality crisis affecting many countries (as it usually does).

If I had to sum the last decade up in one word, it would be "depression". Anyway, here's my Top Three lists of 2019!!

My Top Three Movies
- Parasite
- Knives Out
- Cats (theater edit)

My Top Three Anime (warning: very basic)
- Dr Stone
- My Hero Academia S4
- Attack on Titan S3

My Top Three Games
- I
- Didn't Play
- Any 2019 Games

And now, some actually relevant LockedOn news! Here's what to expect from LockedOn (that's me!) in the coming year.

There are 35 chapters left to release of Methods, after which the story will finally be complete. I'm expecting this to happen sometime in April. There will be one to two follow-up weeks where I make revisions and add things that I couldn't get to, as well as additional special features. After that, I will release it on Steam and possibly other platforms.

After Methods is done, I will be taking a look at my other projects to see what could also be released in an incremental way like Methods was. There are many pros and cons that must be considered. For instance, it is no secret that a weekly deadline causes some sacrifices of quality along the way. However, it does mean that progress is made consistently, and a slow roll-out keeps the project relevant for much longer.

Not all of my projects fit neatly into this model. For instance, I'm thinking about releasing Broken Spirits chapter-by-chapter. However, unlike Methods, Broken Spirits has very long chapters with lots of gameplay and content. It would probably have to have a longer wait between chapter releases — three months, or so — however that also puts me at greater risk of procrastination. Without the pressure to get something done every week, the development would likely get scrunched up towards the end of the months instead of spread evenly. Not necessarily, with a really good work plan in place, but it's something I have to keep in mind.

I had an idea that I call "invisible roll-out". Basically, instead of publishing weekly releases publicly, I would keep them private and only use "publishing releases" as a way to motivate me to meet my deadlines. But I have yet to test it out, and it seems a little risky.

Other projects I'll probably work on in 2020:
- Pageturner 3 (didn't forget about this)
- Catalyst Wake (yes, it's still in development)
- Secret Project (Oooooohhh)

The decade may be over, but in July I will have been LockedOn for only nine years. I started in 2011, which means I was 14 at the time. My hope is that I will be able to ramp up the amount of content I create in a single year — that is what my focus will be in the new year and in the years to come.

Until next time!

— LockedOn.