Amidst a shitty holiday trip that caused and/or reinforced a whole bunch of negative thoughts that cloud my judgement, I wanna be kind to myself and look back at what I did this year.
Music
I didn't do much related music publicly, most of my projects were either NDA or I didn't have the confidence to publish, but I did work in a Game Jam and released its soundtrack in Xermatt Redux
It's a great game and I really recommend checking it out. I'm proud of the work I did on it, finally going full-on all the PC-98 soundtracks that inspired and shaped my style over the years.
Also it was my first work using Furnace, which became my main tracker going forward.
Documentation Projects
I finally pushed through with 2 documentation projects I've had in the back of my mind since years ago.
First it was the Ryu Umemoto Track Commentary Translation, translating to english the track-per-track commentary Umemoto had made about his early PC-98 soundtracks. There's sone really insightful information about this era of music making and a valuable new perspective of his work
(I only released it lowkey because just as I was deploying the website, AccelJoe's channel got taken down, so the youtube links don't work anymore and I had to wait for new uploads.)
Second was the MML Guide I tried to make so many times over the years and finally managed to these last few months. The guide cover the general basics of most formats, specific information about PMD for PC98 and has an updated page with many formats.
Next format I'll cover is GBMC, a really capable driver for the Game Boy (Color).
Brazilian Chiptune Discord Server
Another thing I wanted to make for a while. Chiptune quite inaccessible for people who don't speak english, so I wanted to at least gather a portuguese speaking community in discord for sharing songs, information and interests.
It's been slowly building up and there's a collab about to start. If you are brazilian or speak portuguese (any level of fluency) you're welcome to join!
Personal Things
Those were the things that I put out there. But I also made a lot of personal accomplishments
Drawing
With Clip Studio's numerous fuck ups this year I ended up cancelling my subscription and was only left with Aseprite to draw on. I've been making some character portraits like bellow and I feel I'm getting better and could try opening commissions for them this year.
Instrument Playing
Torwards the end of the year, with Milton Nascimento's last tour and talking to friends about it, I developed a new love for brazilian music and wanted to fully understanding it to its roots, I went back to playing the guitar.
It's been a fun ride not only learning many of these songs but understand how naturally these harmonies come out with the instrument. I still got ways to go, but I'm hoping I can make cool things from what I can learn from this.
Japanese Learning
While I tip toed into japanese immersion last year, this year was when I took a full dive. It's a challenging experience that once I overcame the initial barrier I've felt more and more used to the language and it's allowed me to experience many things I couldn't before.
Read a lot of manga, watched a lot of anime, played some games and just yesterday finished a book for the first time in a long while. All in their original language.
Not enough thanks to https://www.learnjapanese.moe , which compiles a lot of information, guides and resources for free, helping taking my first steps into this. I can't recommend it enough.
Made a blog! Kinda
You're already reading this so... yeah it's this. Cohost gave me a place to get comfortable and talk shit out like I wanted to for a while. You can read them in #sariatalks and #sariareviews.
Games!
Well just to finish this bragging post, some of the games I've beaten or played at length this year:
Beat:
- Rayman Legends (X360)
- Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice (XSS)
- Yakuza 5 (XBO)
- LEGO Builder's Journey (XSS)
- Yakuza 6 (XBO)
- Tokimeki Memorial (PSX) - JP
- Boku no Natsuyasumi (PSX) - JP
- Grand Theft Auto V (XSS)
- The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64) (replay) - JP
- Unpacking (XSS)
Games I couldn't bear but will probably finish by the end of January:
- Chrono Trigger (SNES) - JP
- Guardians of the Galaxy (XSS)
- Picross 3D (NDS)
Games I don't plan or can't beat but played for 30+ hours
- Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel (PC)
- Elden Ring (XSS)
- Fortnite (XSS)
- Minecraft (XSS)
- Skullgirls (PC)
- Project Diva Megamix (PC and Switch)
Anyways I hope everyone's had a great year in 2022 and that 2023 will be a great one! Cheers. Happy new year!
